THE PRICE OF WHEAT 255 



wheat, an influence that was not merely that of a speculative 

 squeeze, but such as to be felt throughout the world, it is en- 

 tirely unjust to attribute to them the great rise in price and 

 consequent hardships, for "the high prices of wheat from 

 August to June were not mainly the work of Mr. Leiter. For 

 the first time in many years the bears in the wheat market were 

 destined to learn the lesson that the production of wheat might 

 run far short of the required needs, and, whatever direction 

 the efforts at manipulation had taken, the price of wheat was 

 bound to make remarkable advances in the season 1897-98. 

 Leiter was wise enough to recognize the way things were going 

 and to early put himself in a positon to profit from the in- 

 evitable outcome, and it was only when he tried to control the 

 market in the face of adverse conditions that he failed. ' ' 1 



It is claimed that an international corner of the surplus wheat 

 of the world was proposed to the United States by the Russian 

 government in 1896. The two governments were to buy wheat 

 at $1 a bushel, and were to sell none below the price which 

 would cover all expense of buying it. The theory was that all 

 of the wheat which could be produced at that price would be 

 needed for food, and that the consumers would pay the price 

 without either government having to buy any wheat. This vis- 

 ionary plan met with no support from the United States. 



Public Gambling and "Bucket Shops." The ordinary dealer 

 or producer can do nothing more foolhardy than to risk his 

 small capital in speculating and "playing the market," for he 

 has no means of adequately knowing the world-wide conditions 

 which determine price, he has not the judgment for properly in- 

 terpreting such conditions even if he could know them, and 

 those conditions often bring about results of such a magnitude 

 as to sink a fortune completely in a very short time, if the 

 speculator does not keep in touch and harmony with price- 

 determining events. The character of speculation has changed 

 somewhat with the increase in wheat supply, and fortunes are 

 now made by men who watch the drift, and shape their way 

 from day to day, "like prudent merchants, according to the 

 current. ' ' 



The "bucket shop" made its first appearance about a quarter 

 of a century ago. It is always ready to take the opposite side 

 1 Emery, Econ. Jour., 9:62. 



