The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-11-01

is OU per cent cheaper ana altOgebner Supe-
rior for the manufacture of light goods
Such would be the character of the specula-
lions INDUCED in were not the cause of this
stroke of paralysis known. 1t appears that
instead of disastrous fire or flood, the fail
ure of the cotton crop, or any other natural
cause, the panic in cotton arose from the
failure of one of the largest brokers doing
business in that city The secret
of his failure, which was disastrous
in the extreme, carrying down to financial
ruin several other firms, lay in the fact that
caught on the wrong side. Here, then, is
commercial disaster that brushes dozen
houses. and for time completely prostrates
one of the largest branches Of the business of
great city, all the immediate result of one
man dealing in margius-or rather. betting
on the price of a product some time in the
future
There is no excuse in reason for such ''busi-
ness" there should be none in law. Morris
Rangor-such is the name of the broker
who has faiied-was 'short" on cotton
for October to the amount of from 100,O 900 to
1000 bales. That is, he had not sold that
amount, in reality, but had entered into
agreement to sell that number of bales in
October at a particular price. Had the ac-
figures be offered he would have been the
winner by the difference. But it went below
it, and he was loser to that amount. The
man who deals in futures does not mean
to buy or sell the product in question.
He does not look after it and
does not care where it is If
the half of it were delivered to him he could
not provide for its storage, nor could he pos
sibly dispose of it in any legitimate way.
This is proved by the fact that, were the pur-
chase bona fide he could not pay for it by
80 per cent
1t is veriest nonsense to make serious
claim that such transactions are legitimate.
As we'll might some capitalist bargain to
sell half a dozen Indiana State-houses
in 1890 at $2OOO,O 900 each. According
to the Chicago plan, he would put up
$500, 900 as margins" against possible ad-
vance. Six years pass away, and it is found
that house like the Indiana State-house.
now building, can be constructed for less
than $4,000 600, say $1,85OOOO. He, there
fore (by this specious reasoning) is just
5000, 600 ahead on the transaction. Not that
he could, by any possibility, have con-
structed and delivered a half dozen such
houses nor that the "buyer" had need of
that many, but that the market price
of them is greater or less than
the figures named when the
trade" was made. 1t is just so with wheat,
corn and cotton. Each of these commodi-
ties is overtraded ten and even twentyfold
brokers could not be raised in the United
States were every acre of the territory de.
voted to its culture. The business of deal
ing in margins is a huge fraud from begin
ming to end, and is employed as gambling
scheme only because the law has not yet
been able to put it where gambling in faro
has been put. and because the margin
blackleg IS not under the social ban
yet, as is the faro blackleg As
a principle, it is no worse to
bet on the turning of card than on what
will be the price of corn, real or fictitious,
a month or two hence. In its effects, the
latter is much more immoral for while the
gambler at cards generally looses in the end,
and is left penniless, that is the extent of
the evil, except that it may be he has
family to suffer with him The dealer in
futures" not only stakes his own fortune,
but takes hold on the throat of commerce to
bend it to his favor, unmIndful of
the rights and interests of others,
and when he goes down drags others with
him. Worse than this; if he is "buyer,"
he uses every means to "bull' the market,
that is to put an unreal value on the pro-
duct Between these spurious brokers and
the Fictitious values resulting from the fever
induced by their agitation the real buyers,
the people, suffer, and legitimate business,
as in this instance, is paralyzed by their fail
ures to beat down or abnormally increase
prices The failure of this cot
ton broker involves loss of
between 50 500, 900 and s., 500. 900, not count
ing the depreciation of values to others not
Immediately involved. The effect extends
across the Atlantic, and the loss in New
York city will be half million.
The press agent who transmits the intelli
gence says: "Ran-or's failure is generally at
trbuted TO the American system Of dealing