New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-11-28
SpEcULATYON ~ PRODUCTS.

The committee that is cow engaged in the
inv estigation of corners" and contracts Tor
future delivery, though it has heard much IN
structive testimony, can learn far more from
study of events that are even now transriring.
Business is dsordered i'll almost every impor-
rant branch by reason of the liberation OF meth
DDS which tend TO convert Legitimate business
into gambling. Suffering has already fallen
mon thousands of innocent persons, who have
had nothing to do themselves with speculative
dealings, because of the disorder which those
dealings have brought upon honest industry
and trade.
Not long ago the price of petroleum was sud-
denly forced upward from about 80 cents per
barrel to 81 SO. The recorded sales here, at
Oil City and at Bradford, within six successive
business days, amounted to 100000 barrels
which is moro than the entire quantity produced
by all the wells within the past five years In
deed, during twenty years ending with 1878, all
the-oi ever produced from all the wells i'll this
country was less than the quantity sold III SIX
DAYS. Nobody can pretend that system which
tolerates, and in fact encourages, such outra-
geous overtradng is in any respect necessary Tor
the prompt marketing of products or the satls-
factory supply of consumers. The natural
result of this amazing speculation for an
advance was subsequent collapse, and prices
have now fallen again to 90 cents per barrel
Thousands of buyers and brokers have lost
heavily. the export trade has suffered prices for
consumers all over the country have been I'M
naturally enhanced, aud a sum OF money rang
ing from $50, 100000 upward has been locked
up in wild speculation, for what good end
al ntgn To-
weel, amounted to 75l, 900 bales. Of this vast
quantity only / ,162 bales were Tor export, ana
2,67l for consumption. No one can pretend
that it is necessary for the ready marketing OF
this product, or for the prompt supply OF con-
sumption, that this gigantic speculation should
be tolerated. But the mischief extends to all
producers and consumers, and to employers
in the manufacture, throughout this coun-
try and Europe. The gamblers can con-
troll the market without regard to the legitimate
influences of supply and demand because they
can and dc buy and sell hundred bales OF cot
ton for every one that is actually brought to or
sent from this market. Thus they make "cor-
ners," and artificially raise or depress prices, III
defiance of the laws of trade, and to the lasting
and incalculable injury of industry and leglll-
mate commerce. Since September |, the sales
of cotton for future delivery i'll this market
alone amount to 1850, 700 bales, perhaps a
| quarter more than the entire crop. Nobody
magnes that these contracts can he or will be
| carried out otherwise than by the payment Of
| differences lost they are simply bets upon the
| future price. But they affect the market far
more powerfully and perniciously than all the
| transactions IN actual and tangible cotton.
There is radical difference between these
| gambling operations and those which are car
ried on in stock exchanges. Nobody eats or
wears stocks. No vast industries are dependent
upon an adequate and regular supply of them
at a moderate price. All branches of industry
and the whole commerce CT the country have
been thrown into embarrassment during the
past twelve months by gambling purchases and
| sales of products. Though the performance
may be in n respect more or less moral than
the sales of stocks for speculation, the effect
! upon the public welfare is very different.
The root of this great evil, however, is just
the same, whether the dealings ale Ill the stock,
the cotton, the oil, the produce, or the metal
exchange The mischief all springs from
the fact hat persons are permitted to
sell what they do not own. This one fact
enables the gambler who has money enough to
override and defy the laws OF supply and