3 TO PREVENT SALE OF COTTON AND GRAIN IN FUTURE MARKETS 
whatever for or on account of any transaction, matter, or thing con- 
cerning which he may testify or produce evidence of any character 
whatever. 
A copy of the bill has been sent to the Agricultural Department 
for their comment, but no reply has yet been received. However, 
the same bill was introduced in the Sixty-eighth Congress and was 
sent to the Agricultural Department, and on January 5, 1924, the 
department sent the following letter to the committee: 
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 
Washington, January 25, 1924. 
Hon. G. W. NORRIS, 
Chairman Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, 
: United States Senate. 
DEAR SENATOR NORRIS: In compliance with the request of the 
clerk of your committee, I submit herewith the department’s com- 
ment on S. 626, entitled “A bill to prevent the sale of cotton and grain 
in future markets.” 
The general purpose of the bill is to prevent the offering to make, 
or the making, of any contract for the purchase or sale of cotton or 
grain for future delivery, without intending that such cotton or grain 
shall be actually delivered or received, and to impose upon the pur- 
chaser of such a contract the obligation to accept delivery. To ac- 
complish this purpose the seller is required, before transmitting any 
message offering to make or enter into such a contract, to furnish 
an affidavit stating among other things his intention to deliver such 
cotton or grain, and the buyer is required to furnish an affidavit that 
he has the intention to receive and to pay for such cotton or grain. 
It penalizes with fine or imprisonment any person sending or causing 
to be sent any message offering to make or enter into a prohibited 
contract and any person owning or operating any telephone or tele- 
graph line, wireless telegraph, cable or other means of communica- 
tion, or any agent of such person, who knowingly uses or allows such 
property to be used for the transmission of a prohibited message. It 
also prohibits the use of the mails for carrying any written or printed 
matter tending to induce or promote the making of a prohibited con- 
tract and penalizes any person who knowingly uses the mails for the 
transmission of such matter, or any person who knowingly takes or 
causes such matter to be taken from the mails for the purpose of 
circulating or disposing of it. 
The bill is based upon the power of Congress to regulate inter- 
state commerce. 
During the past 50 years, many bills have been introduced in 
Congress which would prohibit the sale or purchase of contracts for 
the future delivery of grain or cotton not providing for the actual 
delivery thereof. None of these drastic bills passed, because evi- 
dently Congress reached the conclusion that such legislation would 
substantially impair, if it' would not actually destroy, the valuable 
hedging facility which is furnished by the making of the vast num- 
ber of contracts on and through the exchanges in which deliveries