THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE 



("phantom grain," he called it) was three 

 hundred times the dealings in actual grain, 

 and this estimate was presently seen to be 

 most conservative. He said he had seen in 

 a single day twenty-five fiirms buy and sell 

 5,000,000 bushels each for future delivery. 

 He described himself as only '' an insignificant 

 trader," but on many a day he had bought or 

 sold 1,000,000 bushels and thought nothing 

 of it. But from other sources it appeared 

 that the total annual receipts of real wheat 

 at Chicago were about 25,000,000 bushels, 

 whereas a fair estimate from the day's trading 

 showed annual dealings in about 17,000,000,- 

 000 bushels of "phantom wheat." The bulk 

 and the profits of the business in "phantom" 

 might be gaged from the fact that Chicago 

 brokerage firms leased private wires to the 

 Pacific coast at an annual rental of $100,000 

 each to carry their operations, and sometimes 

 worked large forces of clerks and bookkeepers 

 day and night to enter the bets they were 

 making. 



Willett M. Hayes, formerly Assistant Sec- 

 retary of Agriculture, went far beyond Mr. 

 Greely's figures. In an article in the Jour- 

 nal of the American Academy of Political and 

 Social Science, entitled "Functions and Needs 

 of Our Great Markets," he says: ^ "There is 

 evidence that the really large speculative deal- 



iP. 253. 



159 



