THE STORY OF THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 



about 98 cents. A wholly fictitious story was 

 prepared and printed concerning the forcing 

 of the Dardanelles, which was said to be im- 

 minent, and about the quantities of Russian 

 wheat that would thereupon be released. 

 This drove down the price of what is called 

 the December option, the technical term for 

 the bet on what wheat will be worth in 

 December, to 80, and finally to close upon 

 70 cents. The price of cash wheat at the 

 country elevators followed this decline, and 

 the farmers lost, in consequence, a huge sum, 

 estimated in some quarters at $50,000,000. 

 This is by no means impossible. The decline 

 in the market brought about through this false 

 story averaged 16 cents. The total wheat 

 crop that year was 1,025,801,000 bushels. If 

 the whole crop had been marketed at the 

 artificially reduced price the loss would have 

 been $160,000,000, and the chief question is 

 how much the farmers had parted with when 

 the decline was effected. 



The total losses of that year caused to the 

 wheat-growers by manipulation alone have 

 been estimated between $180,000,000 and 

 $300,000,000. 



It was the year of the sensational Armour 

 bear raid, the toll of which from the farmers 

 was enormous. This began on May 1st, 

 when the price of No. 2 Red wheat 1 on the 



1 This is an old Chicago grade. 



156 



