GAMBLING IN WHEAT 43 



farmer is always the closing price of the Chamber. 

 That is the price paid the farmer no matter how much 

 it may have been artificially fixed by speculation. 

 The farmers, no matter what demand or supply 

 may be, are at the mercy of the only market which 

 they have, which is controlled by the grain-pit, 

 which in turn is controlled by the milling companies 

 and elevator companies which are the buyers. The 

 largest commission houses thi-ough which the farmers 

 sell are owned by the milling and elevator interests. 

 The farmers' and other co-operative organizations 

 are financed by the banks connected with the Cham- 

 ber of Commerce, and they require the farmers, as a 

 condition of the loan, to ship their grain to the 

 houses which lend them money. The farmers are 

 thus coerced into selling to the grain monopoly. 

 Speakmg of this condition, Mr. Benjamin Drake, 

 representing the farmers, said: "It is a system of 

 financial slavery. This system of loaning has been 

 used all the time to compel shippers to give their 

 consent to the arrangement that the cormnission 

 house may sell to the subsidiaries." Mr. Drake 

 further testified that it required sales in futures 

 amounting to an aggregate of $4,800,000,000 a year 

 just to pay the expenses of the organization which 

 controlled the clearances. This was the trading of 

 but thirty-seven members of the Chamber of Com- 

 merce alone. The whole amount of future trans- 

 actions by the members of the Chamber, he said, 



