Lesser - Goldman Cotton Company, Little Rock, Arkansas

Lesser - Goldman Cotton Company

Little Rock, Pulaski County, Arkansas

Julius Lesser

J.D. Goldman

Lesser-Goldman Cotton Company

The story of the activities of the Lesser-Goldman Cotton Company during the twenty-seven years of its existence is practically a history of the modern growth and development of the cotton business in Arkansas. It is a story of how system was introduced into the business of buying and selling cotton; how lost motion was done away with; how waste in the process of marketing was eliminated.

It was in 1892 that the Lesser - Goldman Cotton Company, then the Lesser Company, reversed the old order of things and carried the market to the producer by sending buyers out to bid for cotton in the cotton centers of the State. Prior to that time there was no system and no organization in marketing cotton. The planter was forced to ship his product to commission houses in St. Louis, Memphis, or New Orleans, accept such prices as the buyers were will to pay, and wait weeks and often months for returns. The small farmers sold to the country merchants who he to sell in turn through foreign commission men under the same conditions.

In those days there were few banks and little ready money on hand to pay for cotton. This money usually was carried from place to place by messenger. The country merchants often were deeply in debt to the commission houses, and many of them did not get their balance sheets cleared until long after the old system changed.

In 1892 a young merchant and banker of Marianna - Julius Lesser - saw the possibilities of an organized, business-like system of handling cotton. Those who knew Mr. Lesser remember him as a man of prophetic vision, broad knowledge of commercial affairs, an uncanny insight into the future, and wide technical knowledge of cotton. Moreover, he had the gift of understanding men and of surrounding himself with loyal and capable assistants, who could and would help him build up his business.

With the romance of cotton in his mind and a clear vision of its possiblities, Mr. Lesser went to St. Louis in 1892 and organized the Lesser Cotton Company. Associated with him in this vast enterprise was J.D. Goldman, a former resident of Arkansas, who possessed the financial strength and backing necessary for the corporation, and who had a wide knowledge of Arkansas and the state's affairs.

The story of the life of Jacob D. Goldman, president of this firm, is no less interesting. Born in 1845 on the Rhine, he left home at the age of 15 to seek his fortunes in the new world. He settled at Griffin, Ga., but within a year the Civil War broke out and he joined the Confederate army and served with it throughout the war.

After the war he settled at Jacksonport at the junction of the White and Blackrivers, and entered the employ of Adler Bros., who later moved to Newport. In 1875, Mr. Goldman left Newport and went to St. Louis to enter the cotton commission business with a generour plan in mind to aid the country merchants and make money himself by helping others to make money.

The Adler - Goldman & Company flourished from the start and in 1889 was incorporated as the Adler - Goldman Commission Company, at which time Mr. Goldman bought out his associates and became the sole owner. Then in 1892 he became associated with Julius Lesser in the Lesser Cotton Company as its president, and still holds that position. The Lesser Cotton Company established buying offices in the various cotton centers and sent buyers into every town and hamlet in the State. These buyers carried accurate information about the value of cotton and conditions of the market, which information was at the disposal of the producers day after day. Instead of the producer being forced to seek a market, he found a market at his door, together with valuable and accurate information about prices and fluctuations of supply and demand.

Long distance telephones came into use and aided in conveying information about the market to the producers. Banks were encouraged and aided in order that cotton bought by agens of the Lesser Cotton Company could be paid for on the spot. Prior to 1892 there were only a few compresses in the State, since then compresses have been located in numerour towns and cities to facilitate the movement of cotton. Railroads were induced to divide the State into concentration zones, by which plan every town in the State soon had practically the same freight rates to cotton spinning centers.

The Lesser Cotton Company's business spread rapidly over the State, and other cotton buyers began to realize what Julius Lesser's prophtic vision had foreseen back in 1892. In 1900 Alvin D. Goldman, only son of J.D. Goldman and Harry Lesser, only son of Julius Lesser, young men fresh from college, were taken into the company and the corporation name changed to the Lesser - Goldman Cotton Company. It happened that these two young men inherited in a large degree the special talents of their respective fathers, and they were able to understand and help carry out the program their fathers had outlined years before.

When Julius Lesser died in 1908, Harry Lesser was prepared to take up his work as vice president, and when J.D. Goldman relinquished many of his duties because of his ill health, his son Alvin D. Goldman, treasurer, was ready and able to carry out his policies. Recently Milton A. Hellman, a capable young man who has been with the company some time, was elected secretary.

The Lesser - Goldman Cotton Company today has branch offices for buying and selling cotton in the leading cotton markets of the world, but the company has always specialized in Arkansas cotton. The founders of the house, believed it to be the best cotton grown, and their buyers have been active in every Arkansas market.

Much of the success of the Lesser - Goldman Cotton Company has been due, according to its patrons, to the broad and liberal policy pursued by it in its relations with the cotton producers and to the fact that its representatives were carefully selected for their ability, their straightforward manner of dealing with the public and their information about cotton and the cotton market.

In 1914, when the world war, coming on suddenly, dealth a serious blow to the cotton market; when cotton exchanges were closed and the staple was selling for 6 cents a pound, or less, the company offered many loans in excess of the prevailing price and tided many producers over until there was a better market, thus saving many Arkansas firms and Arkansas people from heavy financial losses. In doing this the company was serving no selfish ends.

During the twenty-seven years of its existence, while building up its own business and working for the betterment of the cotton marketing system, the Lesser-Goldman Cotton Company has waged many battles in defense of producers and secured many concessions to facilitate marketing and to protect the growers from unnecessary hardships. The few branches established in 1892 have spread until now its agencies are in nearly every Arkansas town and towns in other states, and representatives of the company are in every port where cotton is handled in this country and abroad.

And yet this rapid growth in organization and system is no more than a fulfillment of the dreamof the young Marianna banker, whose ear was attuned to the romance of cotton and who had a prophetic vision of the improvement that system and organization in marketing the South's great staple could bring about.

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