THE FARMER AND THE SPECULATOR. 17!' 



The above describes the methods of transacting speculative 

 business in farm products. Tiie question now to be considered 

 is the economic effects of the practice ui)on farmers. As to 

 this it is chiimed that farmers are benefited by the daily pub- 

 lication of values, all transactions of the exchanges being 

 published and widely circulated by the daily j)ress. These 

 include not only transactions in "spot" goods, which, of course, 

 are not speculative, and show actual current values, but the 

 extremes of opinion as to probable values in the future. There 

 is no doubt that this is an advantage to tiie farmer. When 

 speculative trading in "futures" of farm products was taxed 

 out of existence in Germany, there was immediate complaint 

 from the farmers at whose instance it was done, that they 

 could no longer find out the price of grain, but were at the 

 mercy of dealers better informed than they. It would seem 

 that the ordinary commercial reports would suffice, but it is 

 not possible to obtain accurate knowledge regarding transac- 

 tions privately made, and at best the press reports give only 

 the prices of the day, affording no means of judging of what 

 the best-informed men consider will be the probable course 

 of the market. 



When this has been said, it is difficult to find anything 

 further of advantage to the farmer arising from speculation in 

 farm products. If it be said that it is to the advantage of 

 farmers to have a large body of men systematically engaged 

 in spreading rumors tending to raise the price of a commodity, 

 this is neutralized by the fact that another body equally large 

 is actively at work in the opposite direction. There is the 

 further fact that no reliance is to be made U|)on the statements 

 of either party. The farmer is as likely to be deceived to his 

 disadvantage by the one as the other. What the farmer needs 

 above all things is to know the real facts affecting the market 

 price of what he has to sell. 



Let us now examine more closely as to how a farmer in the 

 Mississippi Valley, for example, would be affected by a success- 

 ful or unsuccessful "corner" on wheat in Chicago. In the 

 first place, any speculative movement of this kind is always 

 preceded by a long period of quiet buying at the lowest possi- 



