GAMBLING IN FOOD PRODUCTS. 88 



zatiou, aud it is both unjust to tile farmer, aud misleading, to put forward such a state- 

 ment, as the cost of production, which it is quite safe to assume, averages mucli nearer a 

 (lolliir aud still leaves little as a return for the capital invested. 



Were it otherwise, would not western farmers be more prosperous, and would ho 

 many of the farms be subject to foreclosure were the sliort-seller to be prevented from 

 making a market for wheat ? 



If wheat could be profitably grown at twice thirty cents it is safe to say that but 

 few farms would be in danger of being sold under foreclosure. The low price of wheat — 

 wheat being the key to the aggricultural situation — no matter how brought about, has 

 l>een the primary cause of the continued existence of American farm mortgages, as it has 

 lieeu of the bankruptcy of so many of the tenant farmers of Britain, and it is the effect of 

 short-selling to continue tliese low prices, when the conditions of supply warrant high 

 ones, that constitute the burthen of the farmer's objection to that form of speculation for 

 which Mr. Hutchinson appears as the advocate, aud which, in practice, assumes the 

 worst possible form of gambling, as the losses ultimately all fall upon the farmer who 

 takes no voluntary part in the game, is its most unwilling victim, and is never permitted 

 to share in the winnings. 



We are told by Mr. Hutchinson that: "South America will have from the Argen- 

 tine Republic a surplus of perhaps 30,000,000 busliels." 



Is it not strange that after such "long and close study" of this subject Mr. Hutuh 

 insou should so presume upon the credulity or ignorance of the public as to put fortli 

 such a statement when reference to the Consular report for April, 1890, page 610. 

 shows the exports of wheat from Argentina to have been 8,730,000 bushels in 1S87, 

 (1,560,000 bushels in 1888 and but 840,000 bushels in 1889, the aggregate for the three 

 years being Init little more than half that thirty million bushels that the public is now 

 fold we may expect from a crop that has yet to pass the critical period of its growth and 

 which covers but about 3,000,000 acres? Was this statement, that is a third greater than 

 the entire exports of the last four years, put forward in ignorance or for the purpose of 

 misleading the public? 



The whole short-selling fraternity constantly exagerate the extent of the crops and 

 the exjiortable surplus of the wheat growing countries and then base upon such exagger- 

 ations an argument for low prices, aud they are now engaged in sending abroad state- 

 ments that although we have exported 60,000,000 bushels from this crop we still have an 

 exportable surplus remaining of from 200,000,00(1 to 1^50,000,000 bushels and can supply all 

 the needs of Europe without difficulty aud shall have an unmarketable surplus left upon 

 our hands if we do not hurry our grain to market at a low price. 



A favorite argument of the short-seller is that there is a harvest somewhere in the 

 world every month in the year, hence there can be no enduring scarcity. This is not 

 true so far as relates to commercial crops of the bread-making grains, and these instruct- 

 ors of the public neglect to tell us that the entire exportable surplus of wheat of the 

 southern hemisphere would barely furnish Europe with bread for three days, and that 

 the cultivated area of that hemisphere, outside the tropics, is less than that of the one 

 State of Illinois. 



The short-seller makes the claim that his sales do not and cannot afTect the price 

 for farm products, as the seller implies the buyer. While this may be nominally true 

 where actual sales of even options are made there are an immense number of "wash- 

 sales" constantly being made for the purpose of breaking down prices that the short" 

 seller may buy in his outstanding contracts at a profit, and when the great short-sellers 

 enter into a combination, as they often do, to "bear" prices they usually eflTect their ob- 

 ject and the lower prices are hammered, and the less buying the greater are their offerim/s- 

 and it is these offeringt; that determines the price which the farmer is forced to accept for 

 his products, and thus is he most directly afiected by all these operations. 



That these operations, while making the price for the products of the farm, are fic- 

 titious aud but gambling devices is made most clear by the fact that delivery of property 

 but in rare instances follows the making of these hundreds of thousands of contracts to 

 deliver. For instance, at the close of the September, 1801, deals, during which month thou- 



