268 COTTON 
and giving the profit to the intermediary alien—the 
cotton manipulator. 
THE COTTON CONTRACT IS TO BE BLAMED 
It is not our purpose here to discuss the ethical 
phase of the cotton contract; rather simply to ob- 
serve its practical workings. ‘The small margin 
required for operations on the floor of the Exchange 
oe into the hands of the speculator an unreason- 
le amount of wealth altogether out of proportion 
to his commitment. Said one of those in the game: 
“You get a betterrun for yourmoney than in poker, 
in any game of chance, in any gamble.” 
To particularize, here is an example: It is pos- 
sible for a man with but $100 margin to buy or sell 
in the office of a broker one hundred bales of cotton 
for some future delivery. At the price of ten cents 
er pound his tradings equal $5,000—and his cap- 
ital $100. From its very nature this is speculation 
of the rankest kind. Under this system it has been 
shown that “a member of the New York Exchange 
made contracts for the purchase of 300,000 bales 
of cotton, worth at current prices then about $24, 
000,000. This enormous commitment was made 
without the deposit of any cash guarantee or re- 
sponsibility, and when default in the contracts was 
announced it was liquidated at a loss of approxi- 
mately $3,000,000 to the parties who sold the 
cotton.” 
Do you doubt that so long as such a system pre- 
vails, extreme and unreasonable fluctuations in the 
market will occur, and to the great disadvantage 
of both producer and consumer? Such fluctua- 
tions occur after the cotton has left the hands of the 
