38 THE HIGH COST OF LIVING 



manipulated the market, bearing it down 68 cents 

 in order to get the 1915 crop cheap. Having gath- 

 ered in the first 4,000,000 bushels of the 1915 crop, 

 they again started an active export business, but 

 so manipulated the market that the farmer for a 

 time got no benefit whatever out of it. Then 

 came the rise in prices in the fall, because at last 

 the farmer had seen into the game and held back 

 his wheat — a most disappointing circumstance to the 

 monopoly. 



The lowest fair price to the farmer would have 

 been the average between the spring level of $1.66 

 and the January level of $1.38, which is $1.52. 

 Taking this as a basis, we can calculate the amount 

 taken by the grain speculators for each month dur- 

 ing the period under consideration. In September 

 84,000,000 bushels were sold, the mean average 

 market price being $1.07, or 45 cents below the fair 

 level. This would give $37,800,000 as the amount 

 unjustly taken by the monopoly during one par- 

 ticular month. 



The second method of exploitation by the grain 

 interests is the loss from the manipulation of export 

 prices. This is calculated by the difference between 

 the price at a given American port and the average 

 Liverpool price of the following month (allowing one 

 month for passage), less legitimate handHng costs. 

 Wheat contracted for in Duluth in July was de- 

 livered a month later in England at an advance of 



