THE UNITED STATES COTTON FUTURES ACT.

Confronted with the alternative of a prohibitive tax, the New York Cotton Exchange, after years of defiance, has reformed its future contract. Effective February 18, the exchange adopted a system of dealing in futures largely dictated by the terms of the United States Cotton Futures Act. This act, passed at the last session of the U.S. Congress, is in turn based largely on recommendations in the report of the Bureau of Corporations, made some years ago after an extended investigation. There is, however, this important exception, the Bureau of Corporations favored a reform of discredited methods by the exchange itself, whereas the Cotton Futures act subjects the exchange to constant and intimate regulation by the federal government through the Secretary of Agriculture. For this the exchange is chiefly indebted to those recalcitrant members who for years not only ignored the structures of the Bureau of Corporations but resisted the wishes of a large element of its own membership as well.