36 THE HIGH COST OF LIVING 



stored the grain in it, they did not have any cus- 

 tomers. The big mills refused to buy from them." ^ 



A study of the daily cash quotations for contract 

 grades of wheat on the Chicago Board of Trade, 

 during the six months from July, 1915, to January, 

 1916, shows how these manipulations in price are 

 affected. The crop of the preceding year, 1914, 

 was sold out in the winter and spring. Then the 

 prices on stock quotations began to drop. They 

 fell 30 cents a bushel during the month of May. 

 There was a drop of 68 cents per bushel from the 

 last day of April to the lowest prices paid during 

 August and September. Only market manipulation 

 could have caused the slump, for the world demand, 

 which fixes real prices, did not fall off during these 

 months, and in December, 1915, prices rose again 

 until they reached $1.38 a bushel. The average 

 price paid the farmers of the Northwest during the 

 previous six months, when the price was depressed, 

 was not above 85 cents on a crop of 468,000,000 

 bushels. 



The Chicago Daily Trade Bulletin, the organ of 

 the association of grain buyers, or the grain mo- 

 nopoly, makes what is in effect a confession of how 

 the manipulation of prices is brought about — a 

 manipulation always to the disadvantage of the 



1 Hearing, Committee on Agriculture, U. S. Senate, 65th Con- 

 gress, Production and Conservation of Food Supplies, part 3, pp. 

 218, 241 (1917). 



