Sacramento daily record-union., 1882-01-16
THE WHEAT eamBL1nG soHEME.

winch mas Deen procured TO support the
new gambling movement, makes a dame
attempt to justify it. but exposes the
real purposes Of the undertaking in saying
that it ''means larger business for
domestic and foreign commission mer-
chants and brokers resident IN San
francisco. That in fact gives the
90 true inwardness" of the business. II is
an attempt to get new hold on the
wheat interest, and it involves as much
fleeing of the farmers as can be accom-
plished. The pretehse that such a Pro-
duce Exchange as is proposed is necessary
for the proper disposition of the crops, is
sheer humbug. The farmers have every
thing to lose and nothing to gain by the
movement. What is sought is the estab
lishment of the machinery for bulling and
bearing the price OF grain. But the margin
for fuctuation is of necessity very narrow,
inasmuch as no local agency can fix the
market rate. That is and will be done in
Liverpool, and all that local Produce Ex-
change can effect is to create temporary
fluctuations, the whole tendency of which
must be to depreciate the selling value of
the wheat in the hands of the producers.
The truth is that the gamblers and the
middlemen who have lived on the Cali
fornia farmer SO many years, realize that
at last he may slip out of their hands. The
completion of the Southern Pacific will
instantly abolish the necessity fer the COM
mission business which has cut down the
producers profits SO largely. 1t will ren-
der corners in tonnage no longer possible.
1t will reduce the cost of transportation,
and at the same time bring the farmers very
much nearer the market. All this has
naturally alarmed the middlemen. and now
they are about to join hands with the brokers
who have been frozen out of the mining
Boards by the collapse of the Comstock,
and both classes together propose to fasten
upon the pf6ducer and make him supply
theresources which public gullibility in con-
nection with mining speculation no longer
furnishes. There is no more need for a
Produce Exchange on the Chicago method
than there is for brass band to stimulate
the sale and purchase of wheat. Left to
itself the grain market will find legitimate
| adjustment The introduction OF the
gambling spirit into it can only tend to re-
duce the normal profits of the farmer
These gamblers expect to make money by
factitiousf sfuctuationsin themarket -fuctu-
ations which they themselves will cause
and promote and manipulate, just as is
the practice in the mining Boards.
The assertion is made that the wheat
growersi have something to gain by the
adoption of these methods, but this is not
true. The "call system is merely an ar
rangement for betting upon the future
price of staple, and while in the present
case the bear or short side must always
be working to pull prices down, it is to be
observed that the other end of the problem,
namely the bull +" end, is altogether be-
yond local control It follows from this
1
that the gamblers may lower the price of
wheat, but cannot raise it beyond the Iiv.
erpool quotations, and that consequently
whatever profit there may be in the bust
ness for themselves, there can be none for
the wheat-grower. The call system in
Chicago has proved curse to that city,
and is roundly denounced by all the better
class of business men. If it is introduced
to San Francisco it will unquestionably
produce the same kind of results as the
mining Boards have in the past. The
brokers and commission men, and the gam.
blers who WELD large capital, will make all
that is made, and every dollar of their win
nings will represent SO much capital ilched
from its legitimate owners and diverted
from its proper and natural channels. The
Chronicle says that it would prevent cor
ners in ships" Corners in ships will be no
longer possible when the Southern Pacific
is running through to New Orleans, and
therefore this pretense is nonsensical. But
the "call system lends itself to corners in
wheat, and that is just what the projectors
of this scheme are doubtless contemplating
Such machinery is invented for the ex-
press purpose of intercepting the earnings
of the producer. 1t is in fact blackmail
business. A few sharp men who give all
their time to the work expect to be able to
4bo kaEE 1f IL g.,
hand, and the general public on the other,
in speculation. A few large capitalists
also calculate upon being able, by the use
of their millions, to obtain control of the
market, and make prices to suit themselves.
But we do not believe the scheme can be
made to work. One obstacle to it is the
facs that there are so many wheat-growers
ON large scale. 1t would, for example,
puzzle the gamblers to do anything with
the crops so long as they did not know
what course DR.. Glenn and couple of
score moie heavy producers were going to
take and unless enormous amounts were
put into their speculations they would be
very apt 10 encounter Jle usual IaLe Oh
those who go short too recklessly.
However, it is our duty to put the farmers
on their guard, and to point out to them
that this new project is neither more nor
less than trap set for their special injury.
They have no use for the call :" system in
their business. Speculation can only hurt,
and cannot advantage them. At present
they are in fair way to get from out of
the middlemen's hands, and if they under.
stand their own interests they will have
nothing to do with this forlorn hope of the
commission men and the played out mining
stock gamblers.
THE sPUYFEE DUYviL ACCIDENT.
The collision and telescoping of the
Chicago and Tarrytown express trains near
Spuyten Duyvil, presents many of the most
common features of railroad accidents, and
tends to show with what obstinacy corpor.