The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-11-13

The Western HCOruer'' to Raise the
Price Of Bread.
THERE has never been time in the history Of
our coantry when money was so abundant
in regard to its amount. We have inflated
and inflated and inflated until it would really
seem that every citizen must become rich;
and If everything else was not inflated along
with the currency, this Arcadian result would
have been reached. If dollar to-day could
60 as far as dollar in 1858, then
every man would be comparatively CreSus
Butwith the increase in the amount of currency
has come rise in the price of everything
needed, and the result is that we question
whether the bulk of the people are not poorer
than they were ten years ago. But we
quote this selfevident truth only to call
attention to an error which is pre-
valent, of supposing that the undue
expansion of our circulation is the
cause of the rise in certain necessary
articles. and more especially of such an essen
tial article as bread. 1t is not the currency
but the rascality of spectators which is the
cause of prices which the poor are compelled
to pay for such an everyday needed article as
flour. At the present time its price is ex-
brilliantly high, out of all proportion, and
we have good reasons for saying that, high as
it is, there is every probability that it will be
yet higher before the winter is very far
advanced. Our people have all read rumors
of 'corner" in the grain market of the
West, and of how the farmers are holding
back the crops and the dealers are buying
short and speculating generally, in order
that there may be stringency in the East
ern market, and they thus be able
to secure the usurious prices which they hope
to attain. Now, these rumors are more than
idle tales. They are all of them true. The
Western papers confess the fact that there
exists tendency" they would term it,
on the part of the farmers to delay sending
their crops to the eastward. This, in other
and palmer words, means corrupt and crimi-
nal ''ring' to raise the price of bread and
cause riches to flow to their Golfers by unduly
robbipg the poor of their hard earnings. For
this the farmers are to a certain extent respon-
sible, but the great blame of it rests on the
Chicago Corn Exchange-on the heavy dealers
who buy up hundred thousand bushels and
hold it to suit their pleasure. An indignant
contemporary, who understands how the mat
ter is done, thus describes it,
"Many people do not understand what cor
DefiDg the grain market means, although
there are few who have not suffered from the
only necessary for a body of men to conspire
together 10 buy five hundred thousand bushels
lvered ON a certain day, in a certain mark ct,
which is capable of supplying four hundred
thousand bushels only in that time II Is prin.
no VI h ri hF ~ fhafu itnn
to deliver the one hundred Thousand bushels
that cannot be obtained, on which the conspi-
rators make their profit"
Now this is true so far as the dealers are
concerned, but the farmers are also greatly to
blame. They produce a general striDgency
throughout all the East, in order to secure
their ends, and at the very time they are keep
ing back their corn in order to secure ioti-
tious price. A number of our contemporaries,
among them the Economist, are in favor of
some law to restrain these evildoers and talk
about an act of Congress. An act of Congress
would not accomplish sufficient good to justify
the use of the paper on which it is written.
1t would be the Stevens Gold bill re.enacted.
The only way that it can be prevented is that
prevention which nature affords, and which,
we are glad to say, is on the eve of breaking
the "corner" all to pieces. 1t is caused by
two things. First, the closing of the naviga-
tion of the great lakes. As soon as winter
sets in, the rivers and lakes are frozen, the
canals closed up, and the usual cheap means
of transportation cut off. II it were not for
this, grain could be kept back with enormous
profit until January. But If it is kept too
long West, it can only be sent East
by rail- and the cost of the freight is
such as to make the actual expense of the grain
80 great that no margin is left for great profits
tits found to be more advantageous to send the
produce on now than to wait until then
Hence nature compels the 'corner" to break
at a certain time. The time is now arrived,
and If grain would be got East, it must COM
mence at once. So this supplies law more
effectual than an act of Congress. The
second reason is, that while grain is strongest
here, money is strongest there. We can get
along without grain for certain time, but
long before we give out in bread they give
out in money. The West tries to then get
money advanced from the East, and the East
in return oompels the forwarding of the grain.
At the present time, the Illinois papers are
lamenting the need of money. They clearly see
that If they had only enough to hold out and
keep their grain on hand they could extort to
an alarming extent more. But, alas for them
they can't Az the present writing the entire