70 OPINIONS OF MARKET WRECKING. 



n ) eflect. We point to the large clearances; tbey say bah ! that is mostly flour; we note 

 thi large sales of wheat at St. Louis for export, and they cry, O! th:it is only Oregon 

 wheat: we hear of the cleaiance of 700,000 bushels during tlie last two days fmni the prin- 

 cipal Atlantic ports aud t ley go into the pit and s-eil 20.000,000 liusliel.s of wii.d; mean- 

 while a great deal of money is made through these deals, and the quistiou aritos if it is 

 not the farmer who contributes it?" 



Under the date of May 13th, 1891, a great B^ard of Trade house writes: 



"There has been tremendous selling of wheat lately upon .luiie acenery. June is 

 still weeks off but the scenery is here all the same, and the almanac players ;ire discount- 

 ing their theory by taking an early start. The mob is now jumping on wheat and i v,'r 

 lastingly whooping it up on that side. It has again become a sure thing to sell wluat 

 short." 



When speaking of the efTorts of the Chicago Board of Trade to suppress the 

 bucket shops, Mr. C. A. Pillshury, the great Minneapolis miller, is reported as saying: 



'A step which would cure the whole trouble would be to stop the selling of gr.iin 

 for future delivery except by parties who absolutely own or control the product, and 

 would be able to deliver it if called upon. I believe this will be done within a few years, 

 even if the constitution of the United States has to be amended in order to do it. 



"It is a perfect mystery to me that the Farmers' Alliances are paying attention to 

 minor evils and overlooking this vampire which is susking their very life blood. 



"The legitimate situation has been such during the last three or four years that 

 wheat should have sold at one dollar per bushel at any railroad station in Minnesota. 

 This tremendous short-selling of hundreds of millions of bushels, which the jjurty selling 

 does not own nor ever expect to own, has knocked the bottom out of the market, as these 

 wind offerings and sales have just as much effect upon the market as genuine transac- 

 tions, and the big bears have been so successful and made such enormous profits from 

 their short sales that they now have an immense following, and the evil has assumed tre- 

 mendous proportions. 



'Production throughout the world, as a whole, has not increased during the last 

 five, and possibly ten years, yet if this short-selling is not stopped there will be no 

 advance in price, despite this fact, escept in case of grave disaster to the crops over wide 

 areas. 



"The Chicago Board of Trade is now moving in the right direction, but after closing 

 the bucket shops let them close the gambling on their own Board and confine their busi- 

 ness to legitimate transactions. When this is done the whole western country would see 

 such prosperity as has not been known for many years. The legitimate conditions are alj 

 right for it, but the illegitimate conditions could not be worse." 



Mr. Hugh McLennan, one of the earliest traders in grain in Chicago, writes: 



"The baker and miller in Europe who in former days had to consider supplies for 

 coming months, is now quieted with his daily cable from Chicago that May wheat is off 

 one cent. Wheat in Chicago is now selling five cents below the average price for last 

 October, while the price in Liverpool is about the same as then. The English markets 

 have held up in spite of the depressing influences exerted from this side of the Atlantic." 



"Commission Merchant," in a a communication to the Chicago TVihune, writes: 



"Every one engaged in the actual handling of grain is asking the cause of the low 

 prices, and many are beginning to recognize the fact that the practice of short-selling has 

 much to do with it, and especially the recent custom of selling immense lines of (short) 

 grain for delivery five or six months from the date of sale." 



In the Tribune market report for January 1.3tli, it is said that: 



"With every encouragement for an advance in prices and a bullish interpretation 

 of the government report to aid them, the local produce maikets, after a brief flurry at the 

 opening, declined materially and closed at the lowest point of the day. The depression 

 was due to the raiding of the heavy shorts, who knew their only salvation lay in a suc- 

 cessful raid." 



In characterizing the stock gamblers of Wall street, the Chicago Tribune used the 

 following language, only it is here paraphrased and applied to the Board of Trade market 

 wreckers, to whom it is even more clearly applicable than to those of the Stock Exchange: 



"The scum of the United States is gathered upon the Boards of Trade to speculate 

 in the necessaries of life. There is no honesty in the business. Part of it is the outwork- 

 ing of cool calculation to rob by hoodwinking the public, inducing men to sell when they 

 ought to buy if they did anything. The rest is blind chance, a simi)le betting on the 

 course of prices, and a great deal of it is nothing but the buying and sellinffof "privi- 

 leges" which entitles the one party to call for or deliver a quantity of the stuff pretended 

 to be dealt in at a named i)rice if he chooses to do so within some specified time. 



"But for the operation of the gamblers lluse alle^'ed products would not be dealt in. 

 What possible difference can it make to the welfare of the country whether the gamblers 



