CHAPTER IX 



THE SPINNING OF THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE 



MOREOVER, the farmer knew well enough, 

 as we found in the sour story of the Clay 

 County revolt, that he suffered by reason of 

 the vast gambling operations in the markets 

 at Minneapolis and Duluth. He knew that 

 the greater part of the telegraphed market 

 quotations from Chicago was merely the 

 records of bets, and yet these bets profoundly 

 influenced the income he wrested from his 

 land. 



There was no good reason why the bets 

 of two gamblers in Chicago should cause him 

 to lose two hundred dollars on his harvest 

 in North Dakota, yet they had this effect, 

 nevertheless. He knew, too, that very often 

 the betting was not honest betting, but a show 

 of betting on a prearranged scheme to reap 

 illegitimate profits from the unwary lured into 

 a controlled market, and that in the end his 

 toil and care must be taxed for the making of 

 these profits. He knew, when the market at 



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