DEALING IN FUTURES. 645 



demand on them for cars during the early part of July." 

 Articles similar to the above are of frequent occurence 

 in our daily papers. Two or three men in Chicago control 

 the prices of beef, pork and lard; a half dozen fix the 

 price of wheat, corn and oats. Not one-tenth part of the 

 wheat that is bought and sold on ' change ever had exist- 

 ence. It is simply gambling in prices. The u bulls" are 

 those who, by buying all the available supply of any 

 product render it scarce and enhance the price. This is 

 done when they have contracted for large deliveries of 

 corn, wheat, oats, or any other product in which they are 

 dealing, at a stated price. It is then to the interest of the 

 buyer to put the price above the one set for delivery. If 

 he is successful, the seller must pay to the buyer the excess 

 above the price agreed upon. If the price is lower than 

 the one agreed upon, then the buyer must pay to the seller 

 the difference between the market price and the one he 

 agreed to pay. 



To illustrate: A sells B 50,000 bushels of January 

 wheat that is, wheat to be delivered in January at 80 

 cents per bushel. It is now r B's interest to force the Jan- 

 uary price of wheat above 80 cents. Others have also 

 bought wheat and their interest is identical with B's. 

 They therefore form a pool and buy up all the available 

 wheat in the market. This produces a stringency in the 

 market; the price goes up and the sellers (the bears) 

 instead of being able to fill their contracts at 80 cents are 

 compelled to pay 95. Or, in other words, they give 15 

 cents per bushel to be relieved from filling their contract, 

 and B makes a profit of 15 cents per bushel, or $7,500 on 

 an imaginary deal. In plain English, A bets that the 

 price of wheat in January will not exceed 80 cents, and B 

 bets that it will. A goes to work and attempts to keep 

 the price down by having all the wheat put on the market 

 for sale he can in oraer to keep the price down, while B, 



