THE GRIP OF THE PIT 201 



the Clearing House to accumulate a large Reserve 

 Fund which gives it financial stability to provide for 

 all responsibilities should occasion arise through failure 

 of any firm. All futures which have not been cancelled 

 before delivery date are negotiated through the Clear- 

 ing House and with its assistance the grain can be 

 placed just where it should go and tremendous 

 quantities of it are handled without a hitch and with 

 the utmost despatch. 



Excitement in the Pit is not always over wheat. It 

 may be oats. It was Canadian Western Oats which 

 became the storm centre in 1911 when the Grain 

 Growers got into difficulty with the " bears." Traders 

 who attempt to boost prices are known as " bulls " ; 

 those who are interested in depressing the market are 

 "bears." A trader may be a bear to-day and a bull 

 to-morrow; thus the opposing groups are constantly 

 changing in make-up and the firm which was a chief 

 opponent in yesterday's trading may be lined up along- 

 side the day following, fighting with instead of against. 

 It is all in the day's business and the strenuous com- 

 petition on the floor, into which the uninitiated visitor 

 reads all manner of animosity and open anger, is a 

 very misleading barometer to the actual good feeling 

 which prevails. 



In recording what now took place in the Pit in con- 

 nection with the farmers' commission agency it will 

 be well to remember that the rest of the traders would 

 have acted in the same way toward any firm which was 

 fool enough to leave the opening for attack. It may be 

 that as the thing developed some of those who were 

 specially interested in the downfall of the farmers' 

 organization seized the opportunity to ride the situa- 

 tion beyond the pale of business ethics and in their 



