The Fulmer Act, which will come into operation on August
1st, and which makes compulsory the use of American standard gradings of raw cotton, is causing much anxiety in Manchester and Liverpool. According to the Act foreign buyers of American cotton must abide by American decisions in cases of dispute as to the quality. The Manchester and Liverpool correspondents of the Morning Post described in Tuesday's paper some of the ill-effects which are expected to follow from the Act. The President of the Manchester Cotton Association pointed out that even when an American sold cotton on a sample subject to arbitration at Manchester or any other place outside the United States he would be entitled to have the fibre arbitrated upon at Washington. " The sample at Washington will settle the matter," and an arbitration in Liverpool or Manchester would be useless, for very few buyers who had reason to com- plain of their bargains could afford to take proceedings in America. The Act certainly looks likely to be an obstacle in the way of freedom of exchange, but we fancy that the cotton growers of America do not, after all, want their trade to be impeded and the Act, like other Acts, is capable of modification.
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