CHAPTER II 



There's the wily speculator, 



Who forms his rings of steel. 

 While the honest man is toiling 



In the hot and scorching field. 

 He is lying awake and planning, 



You may rightfully suppose, 

 To cheat the honest farmer 



Out of everything he grows. 



In Frank Norris's great novel, "The Pit," is this : 

 "They call it buying and selling, down there in 

 La Salle Street. But it is simply betting. Betting 

 on the condition of the market weeks, even months 

 in advance. You bet wheat goes up. I bet it goes 

 down. Those fellows in the pit don't own the 

 wheat ; never even see it. Wouldn't know what to 

 do with it if they had it. They don't care in the 

 least about the grain. But there are thousands upon 

 thousands of farmers out here in Iowa and Kansas 

 or Dakota who do, and hundreds of thousands of 

 poor devils in Europe who care even more than the 

 farmer. I mean the fellows who raise the grain, 

 and the other fellows who eat it. It's life or death 

 for either of them, and right between these two 

 comes the Chicago speculator, who raises or lowers 

 the price out of all reason, for the benefit of his 



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