CORNERING THE CORN AND THE CATTLE. 



A CRISIS IN THE CENTRAL WEST. 



PRIVATE letters and dispatches from 

 I various points in the central Western 

 States confirm THE IRRIGATION AGE'S an- 

 nouncement that a powerful company or a 

 very wealthy individual was quietly buy- 

 ing up the great corn crop at ruinously 

 low figures to hold it for a rise. It turns 

 out that P. D. Armour, of Chicago, is the 

 great buyer. Singularly enough the daily 

 press know nothing of this as yet. Agents 

 of Mr. Armour are working very quietly, 

 but they are gathering in great quantities 

 of corn. Elevators are leased in some 

 localities, in others crib room is rented, 

 and where this cannot be done cribs are 

 built, and all the time corn is being 

 shipped to Chicago, where Mr. Armour 

 has elevators with storage capacity for 

 30,000,000 bushels. Never before in the 

 whole history of the West was a solid cor- 

 ner on corn so nearly possible as at pres- 

 ent. This corn is bought at a price really 

 below the cost of production, and far 

 below what it will bear inside of eight 

 months. The agents purchase at 15 cents 

 per bushel, the farmers, who are in sore 

 need of cash, readily selling at that figure. 

 If Mr. Armour sells finally at 25 cents, it 

 is seen that his profits will be immense, 

 but it is more likely that he will hold for 

 50 cents. In case of a short crop in 1896 

 he may get 75 cents or more. Thus does 

 the farming community fall victim to the 

 money king. Instead of a fair profit, the 

 farmers sell, per force, at a loss, while the 

 great capitalist rakes in millions of dollars. 

 It was known that Mr. Armour was at 

 the head of a syndicate to loan money to 

 stock- raisers on their grazing herds, but 

 this outright buying of the corn crop has 

 been engineered on the quiet. The stock- 

 raisers, like the general farmers, need 

 cash just now and they are borrowing it 

 freely, so that Armour will not only own 

 the corn but he will also have a first mort- 

 gage on the cattle market. Of course 

 there is nothing illegal in these operations, 

 but it does seem outrageous that nothing 

 can be done to defeat or check them. 

 Such power in the hands of an individual 



or a syndicate is most dangerous. It is 

 often boasted that the farming and live 

 stock interests, if no others, could steer 

 clear and be independent of trusts, but the 

 situation at present indicates the weakness 

 of those boasts. Cattle, hog and even 

 sheep raisers are all falling into the 

 clutches of the combination, the free- wool 

 Wilson bill being responsible for the hard 

 times among the sheep owners. 



A crisis has been reached in the affairs 

 of the agricultural and live stock interests 

 of the entire central West and the farmers 

 of the whole country should unite in meet- 

 ing it. It is idle to deny it longer. 

 Times were never more desperate for cen- 

 tral Western farmers than at present. 

 Various crops, except corn, have suffered 

 through drought, and the hog cholera alone 

 has made ruinous inroads. All this being 

 true, holders of corn and cattle are easy 

 victims for the money kings. Cash must 

 be had, and with offers of ready money, 

 the corn is given up and the live stock is 

 signed away. If ever there was a time 

 for united action by the granges of the 

 whole country, it is the living present. 



As in Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, 

 Iowa and Michigan, the operations of the 

 cheap corn buyers have already been ex- 

 tensive in Nebraska, but there is yet time 

 to succor many of the farmers. The Neb- 

 raska Farmer sounds the alarm and makes 

 an excellent suggestion. It asks: " Is not 

 a State, or a county, or a corporation larger 

 than one man? In other words, cannot 

 some system be devised for furnishing 

 farmers with needed money, their bins of 

 corn serving as collateral ? By this means 

 whatever of value is in the corn remains 

 with the farmer and the community of 

 which he is a part, and does not go to 

 swell the millions of a man whose fortune 

 represents and is measured by the losses 

 of others. Such men would not be in the 

 field buying up our corn if any adequate 

 protection were provided producers. If 

 the people of the corn belt do not have 

 opportunity to learn a useful lesson this 

 year, we shall miss our guess." 



