The Montgomery Advertiser
- Accurate Canvass of Cotton Industry Is Relief Proposal
- Magnetic Storm Hampers Service
- Dramatic Decline in Stock Markets Shake Rail Shares
The Advertiser's front page led with an AP report from Memphis: the executive committee of the South-wide cotton relief movement planned the first systematic canvass of every cotton grower, organized down to county, beat and precinct, to collect growers' pledges on their honor to cut acreage. It enlisted pulpit, press, bankers and supply merchants, and was sending Oscar Johnston and B. W. Kilgore to Washington to confer with President Coolidge's commission under Eugene Meyer Jr. on financing the surplus crop. A New York dispatch described one of the sharpest stock-market breaks in months, with leading rail and industrial shares down 4 to 11 points and turnover above two million shares; it named the South's reduced cotton purchasing power among the bearish forces. A further headline reported that an aurora-driven magnetic storm had crippled telegraph and cable service.
Translation
ACCURATE CANVASS OF COTTON INDUSTRY IS RELIEF PROPOSAL
Constructive Fearless Independent VOLUME XCVIII-NO. 289 TIGER
ACCURATE CANVASS OF COTTON INDUSTRY IS RELIEF PROPOSAL
First Systematic Survey in History is Proposed at Memphis Meeting; Work Will Be Done in Detail
PULPIT AND PRESS ASKED TO COOPERATE IN PLANS
Reduction Week and Sign Up Day is Designated to Stabilize Markets
MEMPHIS, TENN., Oct. 15. - (AP) - A systematic, accurate canvass of the cotton industry of America is to be made for the first time in history, in furtherance of the program for stabilizing the cotton market, the executive committee in charge of the southwide movement for relief, announced tonight.
The executive committee "proposes early in November to be in a position to report to the world that every cotton grower in the belt has been visited and that the growers have solemnly pledged themselves upon their honor to effect the requested reduction of cotton acreage," the announcement said.
MAGNETIC STORM HAMPERS SERVICE
the cotton market, the executive committee in charge of the southwide movement for relief, announced tonight.
The executive committee "proposes early in November to be in a position to report to the world that every cotton grower in the belt has been visited and that the growers have solemnly pledged themselves upon their honor to effect the requested reduction of cotton acreage," the announcement said.
The canvass will be carried out by organization of the cotton growing area down to the county, beat and precinct, in which sub-committees will be appointed to procure the data on which the acreage reduction movement will be based, a statement for the executive committee by Oscar Johnston, of Memphis and Mississippi delta, declared.
The pulpit and the press are to be enlisted to carry out the plan which a conference of southern planters, bankers and merchants adopted on Wednesday night after long deliberation. Bankers, supply merchants and al [?] persons and agents are also invited to cooperate in the ambitious relief movement.
A sub-committee of the executive body, composed of Mr. Johnston and B. W. Kilgore, Raleigh, N. C., expects to proceed to Washington for a conference next Monday with the commission named by President Coolidge. This conference is by invitation of Eugene Meyer, Jr., chairman of the president's commission.
In Washington, conferences will be held also with George R. James, member of the federal reserve board, and with other authorities to determine ways and means for financing the marketing of the surplus crop.
(Continued on Page Three)
MAGNETIC STORM HAMPERS SERVICE
Telegraph and Cable Communication Crippled by Aurora Borealis Activity
DRAMATIC DECLINE IN STOCK MARKETS SHAKE RAIL SHARES
, Oct. 15. - (AP) - B. Wheeler, General nti-Saloon League, enatorial candidacy of republican, of Illinois e policy of the league "candidate for public t dirty but dry," SenDemocrat, New Jersey. he sentiments of the ti-Saloon League," he ias gone on record as inescapable corruption achine politics in the and in the name of countenanced and enrchase of a seat in the tive body in the world. zation or a candidate he, cannot effectively office can be openly iness to the dry cause ed."
S SEARCH VO SLAYERS med With Machine ke Systematic. For Assailants, OHIO, Oct. 15. - (AP) at the triggers of posse of 40 men dern field near here tohours beat the brush ful effort to find the s of Policeman Dan by bandits here last t, started as soon as organized, tonight exhills and bottom lands in a great fan. Solsses are members of th Infantry, Ohio Naorn in as special deprose Hickman, Columo sought. Garrett was here he attempted to n, sitting in an autoe suspected of knowbout a tire store rob
SHAKE RAIL SHAR
Extreme Losses in High Pri Securities Reach 13 Point
Day's Turnover Exceeds Two Million Shares
NEW YORK, Oct. 15. - (AP) - Ur a deluge of selling orders which sw over the market from all sides, st prices plunged downward today in of the most dramatic declines in m months. Many leading railroads industrial shares were hammered d 4 to 11 points at the close after treme losses in some of the high pr specialties had reached as much as points. The day's turn-over excee 2,000,000 shares.
Coincident with the sharp reac in stocks, serious attention was gi in financial circles to the sugges to one of the best known busi prophets that the present era of tained industrial prosperity might s give way to a long, slow decline trade. At the same time the wee business reviews sounded a dist note of caution, pointing out that "S face irregularities" were becom more prominent and that wholes and retail buy was being retarded.
The deduction in the purchasing p er of the south, due to the low pr prevailing for cotton, also was phasized as a bearish influence. spite prompt measures to meet emergency created by the reco breaking crop, the trade reviews ported that effects of the cotton slu were being felt, particularly in reduced buying of goods.
Although the wave of liquidat which struck the market apparen had its origin in a professional r it was soon given additional force a general scramble to unload sto and by distress selling. Signs of competitive price [?] in the motor industry opened the tomobile shares to attack and t abrupt breaks weakened the resista of other shares. U. S. Steel and Gene Motors were driven down nearly points each and Du Pont and Cast I Pipe closed more than 11 points low
Context
The Memphis acreage pledge and Coolidge's cotton commission
The Memphis plan grew out of a price collapse that had already reached the White House. TIME reported that cotton had dropped 40 to 50 points after the Department of Agriculture published its estimate of a superabundant crop, and that Coolidge then appointed Secretaries Mellon, Hoover and Jardine together with Eugene Meyer Jr., managing director of the War Finance Corporation, as a commission to devise orderly methods of selling the large stock of cotton on hand. The Advertiser calls Meyer the commission's chairman and says the Memphis subcommittee was travelling to Washington at his invitation. Its report shows a clear division of labor: the president's commission and officials such as Federal Reserve Board member George R. James were to work out how to finance the marketing of the surplus, while the South-wide committee took on the job of cutting acreage. That split fitted Coolidge's own approach. The Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation's chronology says he opposed crop supports and urged farmers to organize, as labor had done, and voluntarily cut back acreage to lower production and lift prices. A canvass that rested on growers' pledges 'upon their honor', backed by pulpit, press, bankers and supply merchants, was a voluntary restriction of exactly that kind.
Why the cotton slump appeared in a Wall Street report
The New York dispatch treated cotton as one bearish influence among several, alongside a forecaster's warning, cautious weekly trade reviews, professional selling and price competition among automakers. The cotton element had a solid basis. TIME linked the autumn fall in cotton prices to the government's estimate of a very large crop, and the record-breaking crop the AP mentioned was still pressing on values months later: the Commercial and Financial Chronicle of February 19, 1927 reported that January 1927 cotton exports were worth only $77,746,964 against $82,511,054 a year earlier, a decline it attributed to the very large drop in cotton prices. The October break also came from a high level; the same Chronicle article records that the Dow-Jones industrial average had reached 166.60 on August 14, 1926. The long, slow decline in trade that one prophet foresaw did not show up in rail shares, the group named in the Advertiser's headline. By February 1927 the Chronicle observed that the railroad average stood higher than at any time since 1910.
The magnetic storm of October 14–15, 1926
The storm behind the Advertiser's headline was a recorded geophysical event. Nature published a note titled 'The Magnetic Storm and Aurora of October 14–15, and Associated Solar Activity', reporting that the storm was accompanied by an aurora that cloudy skies largely hid over Great Britain. The Solar Storms compilation of space-weather events lists October 15, 1926 as an aurora and magnetic storm that affected Canada and the northeastern United States. It records that President Coolidge's scheduled address to the International Oratorical Contest at the Washington Auditorium that evening could not be broadcast to radio listeners, until conditions greatly improved after 20 minutes. The same compilation gives a yardstick from five years earlier: during the May 1921 storm, Washington was cut off telegraphically from the rest of the United States. In this record the 1926 storm appears as a radio interruption of about twenty minutes, with no comparable telegraphic isolation of the capital.
Original
ACCURATE CANVASS OF COTTON INDUSTRY IS RELIEF PROPOSAL
Constructive Fearless Independent VOLUME XCVIII-NO. 289 TIGER ACCURATE CANVASS OF COTTON INDUSTRY IS RELIEF PROPOSAL First Systematic Survey in History is Proposed at Memphis Meeting; Work Will Be Done in Detail PULPIT AND PRESS ASKED TO COOPERATE IN PLANS Reduction Week and Sign Up Day is Designated to Stabilize Markets MEMPHIS, TENN., Oct. 15. - (AP) - A systematic, accurate canvass of the cotton industry of America is to be made for the first time in history, in furtherance of the program for stabilizing the cotton market, the executive committee in charge of the southwide movement for relief, announced tonight. The executive committee " proposes early in November to be in a position to report to the world that every cotton grower in the belt has been visited and that the growers have solemnly pledged themselves upon their honor to effect the requested reduction of cotton acreage, " the announcement said.
MAGNETIC STORM HAMPERS SERVICE
the cotton market, the executive committee in charge of the southwide movement for relief, announced tonight. The executive committee " proposes early in November to be in a position to report to the world that every cotton grower in the belt has been visited and that the growers have solemnly pledged themselves upon their honor to effect the requested reduction of cotton acreage, " the announcement said. The canvass will be carried out by organization of the cotton growing area down to the county, beat and precinct, in which sub-committees will be appointed to procure the data on which the acreage reduction movement will be based, a statement for the executive committee by Oscar Johnston, of Memphis and Mississippi delta, declared. The pulpit and the press are to be enlisted to carry out the plan which a conference of southern planters, bankers and merchants adopted on Wednesday night after long deliberation. Bankers, supply merchants and al [?] persons and agents are also invited to cooperate in the ambitious relief movement. A sub-committee of the executive body, composed of Mr. Johnston and B. W. Kilgore, Raleigh, N. C., expects to proceed to Washington for a conference next Monday with the commission named by President Coolidge. This conference is by invitation of Eugene Meyer, Jr., chairman of the president's commission. In Washington, conferences will be held also with George R. James, member of the federal reserve board, and with other authorities to determine ways and means for financing the marketing of the surplus crop. (Continued on Page Three) MAGNETIC STORM HAMPERS SERVICE Telegraph and Cable Communication Crippled by Aurora Borealis Activity
DRAMATIC DECLINE IN STOCK MARKETS SHAKE RAIL SHARES
, Oct. 15. - (AP) - B. Wheeler, General nti-Saloon League, enatorial candidacy of republican, of Illinois e policy of the league " candidate for public t dirty but dry, " SenDemocrat, New Jersey. he sentiments of the ti-Saloon League, " he ias gone on record as inescapable corruption achine politics in the and in the name of countenanced and enrchase of a seat in the tive body in the world. zation or a candidate he, cannot effectively office can be openly iness to the dry cause ed. " S SEARCH VO SLAYERS med With Machine ke Systematic. For Assailants, OHIO, Oct. 15. - (AP) at the triggers of posse of 40 men dern field near here tohours beat the brush ful effort to find the s of Policeman Dan by bandits here last t, started as soon as organized, tonight exhills and bottom lands in a great fan. Solsses are members of th Infantry, Ohio Naorn in as special deprose Hickman, Columo sought. Garrett was here he attempted to n, sitting in an autoe suspected of knowbout a tire store robSHAKE RAIL SHAR Extreme Losses in High Pri Securities Reach 13 Point Day's Turnover Exceeds Two Million Shares NEW YORK, Oct. 15. - (AP) - Ur a deluge of selling orders which sw over the market from all sides, st prices plunged downward today in of the most dramatic declines in m months. Many leading railroads industrial shares were hammered d 4 to 11 points at the close after treme losses in some of the high pr specialties had reached as much as points. The day's turn-over excee 2, 000, 000 shares. Coincident with the sharp reac in stocks, serious attention was gi in financial circles to the sugges to one of the best known busi prophets that the present era of tained industrial prosperity might s give way to a long, slow decline trade. At the same time the wee business reviews sounded a dist note of caution, pointing out that " S face irregularities " were becom more prominent and that wholes and retail buy was being retarded. The deduction in the purchasing p er of the south, due to the low pr prevailing for cotton, also was phasized as a bearish influence. spite prompt measures to meet emergency created by the reco breaking crop, the trade reviews ported that effects of the cotton slu were being felt, particularly in reduced buying of goods. Although the wave of liquidat which struck the market apparen had its origin in a professional r it was soon given additional force a general scramble to unload sto and by distress selling. Signs of competitive price [?] in the motor industry opened the tomobile shares to attack and t abrupt breaks weakened the resista of other shares. U. S. Steel and Gene Motors were driven down nearly points each and Du Pont and Cast I Pipe closed more than 11 points low
Source: Holding institution