84 GAMBLING IN FOOD PRODUCTS. 



iands of millions of bushels of wheat and corn were contracted to be delivered at Chicago 

 by the short-siUers, the actual deliveries at the maturity of these contracts were less than 

 50,000 bushels of wheat and 35,000 bushels of corn, the other "deals" having been settled by 

 payment of the difference ivhich constituted the winnings of the fortunate gamblers. 



Does uot Mr. Hutchinson know that when by such operations the price of wheat 

 lias been reduced to the extent of one cent a bushel it means much to farmers other than 

 Mr. Dalrymple, and that upon an average wheat crop it amounts to no less than a loss of 

 154,500,000 to the producer? 



Mr. Hutchinson informs us that among the brightest of the great millers who have 

 placed Minneapolis at the head of the milling world is Mr. Charles A. Pillsburj', but he 

 is careful not to inform his readei's what are the opinions of this the greatest dealer in the 

 world in actual farm products as to the practice of short-selling, as set forth on pages 65 

 and 70 ante. 



The Cincinnati Price Current says: 



"Here is the evil — the sale of wind contracts, inflated by the margin system, hav- 

 ing the same power of influencing values that an equal offering of actual property would 

 have." 



Mr. Denison B. Smith, Secretary of the Toledo Board of Trade, says: 



"We most heartily deprecate the conditions prevailing in this country. First 

 is the apparent want of courage on the part of capitalists to invest in wheat, and the next 

 is the reckless disposition of the fraternity of short-sellers to pound down prices. Not an 

 advance in prices has occurred on this side that has not been reflected abroad, and not a 

 decline that has not been followed by a corresponding break over there." 



The first of Mr. Smith's conditions is the inevitable corollary of the second, and 

 the capitalist will recover his courage and invest in wheat the moment the short-seller is 

 taxed out of existence. 



This evil has now invaded the markets of Britain, and in the Liverpool correspond- 

 ence of Dornhusch of September 5th, 1891, it is stated that: 



"Our local market is dominated bj' a crowd of dealers in 'options' and 'futures,' 

 putting prices up and down every ten minutes, and with a similar state of things in 

 America it is diflticult to know where we are." 



About May 1st, Leopold Bloom retired from the Chicago wheat pit worth "a clean 

 million dollars" and was reported in the Chicago Tribune as giving his reasons for retir- 

 ing in the following language: 



"It's too much of a strain on a man to stand for any length of time without wearing 

 out. One is under pressure all the time. He is betting his money against the market. 

 If he buys and she goes up he is a winner. If she goes down he is a loser. It's a plain 

 case of gamble, but it's legal and faro isn't. If they would take the limit ofl' faro it 

 would be a better game than wheat, because you could get quicker action but with the 

 limit on there i.^n't money enough in it." 



Mr Bloom is much more frank in rightly characterising ihe game than are most of 

 its devotees who appear to be ashamed of its real character. 



Shall twenty thousand short-sellers be longer permitted to bring the product of 

 their lungs (which costs nothing) into destructive competition with the useful and costly 

 products of the world's many millions of farms in which is invested more than $100,000- 

 000,000? 



The conscience of the nation has decreed the suppression of the Louisiana lottery 

 that is far less immoral than short selling and inflicts harm only upon those voluntarily 

 becoming its victims. 



Must the great industrial hosts of the farm suflTer that a mere squad (comparatively) 

 of worthless, short-selling gamblers may continue to bet upon prices and secure "gain 

 without merit?" 



f-aHlVBESIT' 



