GAMBLING IN WHEAT 33 



the raise in the price of flour above S9 per barrel, 

 and before the new crop, we may assume rightly 

 that over $250,000,000 will have been extracted 

 from the consumer in excess of normal profits of the 

 trade and distribution. The manufacturers and 

 normal traders have not had this difference; it lies 

 in speculation and outside the genuine trades, and 

 the higher trading margins forced by the speculative 

 incidence of war." ^ 



Speculation in wheat and the robbery of the farmer 

 is accomplished in three ways. The worst offenders 

 are the so-called grain exchanges, which operate 

 in Minneapolis and Chicago and which fix the price 

 of wheat. The exchanges masquerade as chambers 

 of commerce or boards of trade. In reality they 

 are speculative exchanges like the Stock Exchange 

 in Wall Street. They deal in futures. Controlling 

 the quotations of wheat all the year round by fic- 

 titious sales, they fix the price which the farmer 

 receives. They depress prices during the months 

 when the farmer sells, and then, after having bought 

 in the supply on their own terms, they either put 

 up the price or permit it to assume its normal price 

 in the markets of the world. They bear the market 

 when the farmer is selling and bull it after they 

 have acquired the available stock. The practice is 

 the same as that which prevails in the cattle markets 

 at Chicago, Omaha, Kansas City, and elsewhere; 



1 Address before United States Senate committee on agriculture 

 and foroatry, June 19, 1917. 



