Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1883-08-03
"N1AK1NG BREAb DEAR"

"NIAKING BREAD DEAR"
Toledo Blade.
Under this head most remarkable nr'i-
Gle appears in the North Americam Rericm
for August, by Henry d. Lloyd, n gentle
man whose writings on economical subjects
have heretofore attracted much attention.
In his premises lie states with succinct'
ness the well known fact that while only
one bushel in seven of the wheat crop OF
the United States is received by the Pro-
duce Exchange of New York, its traders
buy and sell two for every one that comes
out of the ground. While but 100000
bales of cotton are raised in the South the
New York Cotton Exchange buys and sells
the Pennsylvania oil.wells is "a million
barrels year, but this does not prevent
the Oil Exchanges from transferring more
than that amount every week, or over
transactions OF the New York Stock Ex-
change alone represent thrice the taxable
valuation os all the personal property in
the United States. He says:
These exchanges are the creamery of the
| world of labor. The prices Of the speculative
| wheat and the spectral hog of the Board fx
those of the real wheat and actual hog OF the
| field. The negro planter of Georgia, who
raises his bale aud half, must sell it for what
| the Cotton Exchange says 1t is worth. The
man who works in the ground must take the
price fixed for him by the man who works in
the air.
The manufacture of prices, like other modern
| Industries, is being concentrated into vast es-
ru lie OF bosses and syndcates. The markets,
| like political parties, are run by the Machine.
The people are losing the power of making
prices as well as nominations. The Free
Breakfast Table" pays tribute to some clique.
whether railroad pool, trades union, match
monopoly coal combination, pottery tariff infant,
or Board of Trade corner, on pretty much
everything upon it. The coffee market of the
country has lately gone ont Of the region of
unorganized supply and demand into the hands
of a Coffee Exchange, with all the modern i'm
provements for speculation. A price factory
to the quotations Of butter and cheese, has just
been established in New York. 1t deals in
brokers' eggs as well as hens eggs, and has
all the approved facilities to enable it to count
and sell tue chickens that are not yet hatched
out Of Eggs that are not yet laid.
These exchanges are cosmopolitan Legisla.
lures. Their enactments are prices, and their
i, jurisdiction extends beyond that Of Congress,
Parliament, the Assembly and the Reichstag.
They are more than negative registers of prices
determined by a confiux of iorces external to
them. Under the manipulation Of cliques they
have become positive agencies of mighty infu.
! ence, and are the scenes of operations that
menace the lives and happiness OF nations. The
"strsng man" now builds oIners instead OF
castles, and collects tribute at the end Of a tel
anItxt lsola nE aha nl,aA
tue Rhine. Money, knowledge and energy are
nearing the boundaries oil exploration, and are
turning back TO mOnopoize the provinces. The
n whole world is plated. Such appliances Ms
ours for exchange never CO existed before in the
: history of business. The criminal rich-those
who appropriate the labor of others in one age
n by brute strength, aud in another by brute
wealth-Awho are to-day degrading competition
into rivalry Of adultera,ion, are sei.ing upoE
them for speculative purposes. The control OF
4 the machinery of the Ex changes is the con:ro
, Of prices, and the control of prices is the con
troll of property.
Mr.. Lloyd gives a rapid sketch Of the
marvellous growth of the greatest of thes,
price -factories-the Chicago Board o
? Trade, from the time when, 80 years ago
it's 38 members secured the country to ge
(, producers to send them something to sell
|
ers and ale were spread out in the Boar,
i' room to induce members to attend, in spit,
It of which strong inducenent there wer
many days in succession when there wa
not man present beyond the Secretar
= who entered upon the minutes that no on
r being present nothing was done. But "las
/. year the Board received and paid for, il
!, cash, 1882, 600, 900 worth OF farm produce
and the total of its transactions was not les
'r than $3,0O0,000,000 !" II has become th
r greatest speculative market in the world
j, and the only market to whicl, the worl
~ comes to trade.
!" These great institutions--so lavish i
10 benefits TO the whole world of our agrl
lr cultural producers, are threatened with be
ing turned into an engine of great opprei
rs sion, because OF their seizure by the wealth
y criminal classes as a machine for depre
le dating upon the community. AT presen
y there seems no bounds to the injury tina
n unscrupulous men can inllict by its Ineani
'e A year ago the Liverpool Cotton Exchang
A. stopped Is million spindles, and took III
Y! bread away from the mouths of tens
II thousands OF men, women, and cbildreI
he 1t is estimated by those in position I
j. gain n knowledge Of what they speak tha
o the loss OF the country by reason OF tn
I'd great wheat corner of 1879 was over $500,
lie 100000 Every species of business is d,
o. moralized by them, men dong legilimat
OF trade are ruined, the cost OF living is en-
,w HANGED without resson, strikes anon
workingmen are preciptatej, the reward
ed OF labor are taken away from those
10 whom they belong, and given to mel
he gamblers, and the foreign customers 4
es our produce are driven away to seek
: sure source OF supply from the hands {
H. the Hinduryol and the Russian peasan
ly There is simply no measuring the immel
'rs s,ty OF the harm done.
es What Is quite ms alarming as any 9th,
r. feature Is the way these price-mn Ike
$. place themselves above all law. The
e. have code of their own, which owe
or rides the law Of the land. Every Bosi
in Of Trade orders That its members slia
nj settle their difficulties within the organ
-. extraordinarily by reference to cOnnli
liS tee, which naturally is composed OF IN,
ey deeply interested in the success Of the
he nelarionS operations. A member who dar
ey appeal TO the Courts to reclify The wron
X done him by these Interested tribunals
lie ruined, because his business is taken aw;
III from nobody will do business with BIZ
+. The attempt OF the courts 10 give mi
ed the seat in an exchange which he h
nj bought and paid-somelimes as high
ho $50 900 lor--have been nDavailing, as /
nd exchanges steadiastly refuse to recognl
sh the power OF the law to control them.
es- These are few OF the points which n
ill Lloyd makes. They are certainly pre-
Ole nant with present and future danger. WI
the remedy ID to be no one has as yet su
gesled,