MR PATTEN'S PROFITS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 91, 26 July 1910, Page 3

MR PATTEN'S PROFITS.

£300,000 ON A RECORD COTTON SALE.

New York, May 23. A record order for 50.000 bales of cotton has been booked by Mr. James A. Patten, whose alleged "corner" on May contracts is the subject of a searching Governmental enquiry. The order, it is estimated, brings the Chicago speculator £300,000, seeing that he bought the stable, which was delivered to him at the beginning of the month, at 4y*d to 6d a pound and is selling it at 7y 2 d. Twenty-five thousand bales, he is shipping as soon as possible to Havre and the remainder to Bremen, where the spinners appear to have allowed their stocks to run down almost to the last bale.

"Must be shipped at once," the orders ran, and the friends of Mr. Patten are expatiating to-day on his magnanimity in not demanding a higher price, since he could practically have named his own. He said from the beginning, Howover, that all he wanted was a fair profit. He had no desire to squeeze anvone. The Bremen and Havre transaction, declare his friends, proves that nis good as his word. Mr. Patten is experiencing considerable difficulty in securing immediate shipping accommodation for 50,000 bales. He is believed to hold 150.000 more bales to be delivered on May contracts.