122 ESSAYS ON WHEAT 



clamor was very largely directed against what is popiTlarly 

 called speculating or gambling in the bread of the people. 

 The Winnipeg Grain Exchange, on April 28, 1917, there- 

 fore appointed a Censoring Committee whose duty it was 

 to ascertain accurately the extent and character, if any, 

 of illegitimate speculating in wheat. Very little of such 

 business was found by the Committee. The appointment 

 of the Committee created considerable surprise and re- 

 sulted in a fall of prices; but this fall was only temporary 

 and soon prices began to mount skyward again. 



Shortly after hearing the Eeport of the Censoring Com- 

 mittee on May 3, 1917, the Winnipeg Grain Exchange 

 decided upon the fateful step that took away the facilities 

 for future trading in wheat in the Winnipeg Grain Ex- 

 change, and proceeded to take all the other steps rendered 

 necessary thereby.^'^ The last closing price was taken as 

 a basis of closing trades in the Clearing House ; and, after 

 a great deal of trouble, the May and July accounts were 

 all cleared as satisfactorily as it was possible to clear them 

 to the various interests involved. Negotiations took place 

 with the longs and the shorts, with the scalpers and the 

 spreaders, and with the agencies that were gathering the 

 grain throughout the country. The Wheat Export Com- 

 pany met the Exchange in a generous way ; and the agencies 

 which were collecting the grain in the country, guaranteed 

 to sell 90 per cent, of all the wheat they controlled for the 

 balance of the crop year to the Export Company. Many 

 members of the Exchange were financially injured, yet all 

 the members were dominated by one spirit, the spirit of 

 give and take, and of doing the best in the interests of the 

 country during the period of the war.^^ 



57 The Ninth Annual Report of the Winnipeg Grain Exchange, 

 Sept. 12, 1917, The Council's Report, pp. 64-73. 



58 Cf. J. C. Gage, loc. cit., pp. 38-39. 



