CASH AND FUTURE TRADING 263 



warehouse for the winter by a farmers' cooperative potato growers' 

 association or farmers' cooperative elevator company, is, in popular 

 speech, not hoarding; potatoes stored in an adjoining warehouse 

 owned by a dealer is, in popular speech, hoarding. Evidently the 

 term is used to connote a practice tainted with evil. Such a word, 

 used in such a manner, may shed much heat and but little light 

 on the subject under discussion. The term does not correctly 

 define or describe. On the contrary, it is a subtle appeal to the 

 feelings, to prejudice. The " hoarder" of potatoes in the fall of 

 1918 paid the growers one dollar a bushel, and sold these same pota- 

 toes (if they had not decayed in the winter) for seventy-five cents 

 a bushel in March following. Such a decline in price in the spring 

 happens with unpredictable regularity with all farm crops. 

 " Hoarding," therefore, is a word which should be no longer used 

 in the present heedless and unthinking manner. 



(2) Cornering the Markets. Under primitive market condi- 

 tions, particularly where means of transportation were lacking, 

 shrewd and bold dealers were wont to corner the market for short 

 periods. Many the laws, ancient and modern, against this anti- 

 social practice! Under twentieth century conditions this con- 

 demned practice is of sporadic occurrence, particularly in the 

 unorganized markets. On the organized grain exchanges, in con- 

 trast, where strict rules exist against this practice, it is now prac- 

 tically extinct. The last cornering of the wheat market occurred 

 during the World , War, and was done quite unintentionally by the 

 Allies in buying certain grades of wheat in excess of the supply 

 of these grades. In other words, contracts for the best grades of 

 wheat were made, not to corner the market and affect price, but 

 to secure actual wheat in large and certain quantities. Cornering, 

 long under the social and legal ban, is still confused by many 

 writers and speakers with speculation. Speculation is going on 

 every day, and much of it unavoidably so, while cornering exists 

 in but rare and isolated cases. The two terms should not be used 

 as synonyms, although this slovenly habit of thinking and speaking 

 is all too common. 



(3) Cash and Future Trading. Again, the popular vocabulary 

 betrays an irresponsible looseness of thinking concerning that 

 phase of the grain trade having to do with cash as against future 

 trading in grain. The phrase "speculation in grain" is quite 

 generally applied to future trading. And, conversely, trading in 

 cash grain is quite generally regarded by the public as free from 

 " speculation." Many bills introduced in State legislatures indi- 



