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 
Euts 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 better run for your money 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 
per 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 
