The Republican journal., 1883-08-30
Concerning ",Corners p"


astrous effects SO far the public is concern
ed-are unknown. An article in the August
number of the MATHEMATICIAN Review on
"Making Bread Dear" fully explains the meth
DDS of the gamblers in food and sets forth in
plain terms the evil that they do. AS to the re-
suit of the corners in wheat and pork in 1879,
it is stated: 1.-The price of pork was more than
doubled, flour was put up an average Of two
dollars barrel, and beefsteak at least one cent
pound, as the result of these manipulation
This increase in the cost of living has not sub
sided. Pork and meat continued to advance.
They were higher the next year and higher still
last year, when pork sold for S;24 - barrel.
Wheat too, though it has fluctuated violently,
has remained in the hands of the manipulators,
and every year since the corner of 1879, the ay
erage price the miller has had to pay has been
higher than that of the year before. The univer-
sal strikes into which the laborng people have
been forced in the last two years are traceabe
directly to an increase in the cost of living.
which these corners have done so much to pro-
duce. The loss from these strikes has been in
calculable. That at Pittsburg alone is estimated
to have cost at least ten million dollars But
the evil does not stop here, and is not to be
reckoned up in dollars and cents. Disease.
death and crime, follow when the prices of
bread and meat are forced to starvation figures.
The Review says:
DR.. Drosdae, of London. at the last session
of the Social Science Congress, pointed out how
the death rate rose with scarcity of food. The
mean age of the rich i'll England at the time of
death, Is nfty-hVe; among the poor 1t is not
thirty. The death rate among the children of
the comfortable classes is eighty in thousand;
among the working people of Manchester and
Liverpool it is three hundred in thousand.
DR.. Farr shows that the death rate of England
decreases three per cent. when wheat declines
two shllllngs quarter. AS food grows dear,
typhus grows plenty. Scarcer bread means
more crime. An increase of one larceny to
every hundred thousand inhabitants comes
with every rise of two farthngs i'll the price of
wheat in Bavaria. The. enemies of the men
who corner wheat and pork could wish for no
heavier harden on their souls than that they
should be successful. As wheat rises flour
rises; and when flour becomes dear. through
manipulation, it is the blood of the poor that
flows into the treasury of the syndicate. Such
money costs too much. The following from
the records of the Chicago market shows how
the wheat corners of the last four years have
enhanced the price of bread The coincidence
Is dOubv significant. because flour is not one of
the speculative commodities of the Board. 1t
is bought and sold only for use. BIT its prices
are glued to the speculative quotations of wheat.
TIE CORNER OF 1879.
Wheat lowest, Jan, 81 !, highest Dec, Sl.33.
Flour lowest, Jan, $500; highest, Dec, $500
TIE CORNER OF 1881.
Wheat lowest, Feb, 96 T. highest Oct $l.43
Flour lowest FEB, $40; highest, Sept, 800
TIE April. CORNER OF 1852.
Wheat highest. Apr, SLIP; falling to OF! in Nov.
Flour highest, May, 1928; falling to s4.1j in Dec.
The return of the price after the corner does
not I'LL the stOmachs that have been pinched for
months. Every moment the corner lasts there
is a mouthful of food the less for the laboring
man. Every hour of its continuance some
child in Pttsteld or Manchester grows more
faint, and every day hundreds of little hands
let go another finger from the slippery edge of
existence
The writer in the Review says that great
many perhaps a majority, of the farmers be-
leve that to them, at least, corners are benc-
fetal. This is Il mistake. They see only the
high prices though these are usually made after
the grain has left their hands, or when they
cannot get it to market because the wheat of
the clique stops the way. During the Chicago
wheat corner of 1872. the elevators combined
to rent out their bins and keep them empty in
order to prevent any more of the farmers crops
ers. High prices We're paid during shor-lived
excitement, but they We're more than offset by
the break that followed.
The most important feature of this very in
terestng paper is, however. that in which aten-
ton is called to the fact that these gamblers in
food have been sustained by the Supreme Court
of Illinois, which by an unbroken line of de-
cisions has declared that the Chicago Board of
Trade is not answerable to the courts. The
latest decision, Just handed down, is a complete
abdication Of all the rights of the State to ex-
ercIse any Judicial supervision over this cor
poration. though created by it,. Its effects will
be felt to the farthest point when bu>hel of
American wheat or barrel of Chicago pork
reaches a consumer. "Ciyllization, continues
the writer, forms an acquieScent ring around
these thugs the Board and Produce Exchange,
when it knows that every movement of their
struggle within intensitie. the universal struggle
for existence without. 1t is uncomfortable that
the courts of the Board and the courts of the
State should permit one set of gamblers-cven
to punish another set of gamblers-to force the
prices of bread and meat to starvation figures"
And in conclusion he says: 'Carlyle has hand
ed down Louis XIV. to us as the great regrater
of bread. The sweetest epitaph on any tomb
Is on the stone to the memory of Robert Peel
He gave the poor cheap bread. The Carlyle
who hunts through the newspapers of this gem
Grafton for the history of its people will dig the
regraters of our Boards of Trade and Produce
Exchanges out of their obscuritv, to write
against their names: They made bread dear"
Mention has been made of the gift by his
daughter of the residence of the late Admiral
Smith for charitable purposes. The Washing
ton Star of the 18th says:
The house of the Good Shepherd, which has
been recently started at 10l1 9th street, was
yesterday formally dedicated with mass. at
which Archbishop Gibbons officated, assisted
by DR.. Foley of Baltimore. the spiritual direct
or of the order There were number of the
city clergy present, including Fathers Chapelle,
Walter, Ryan and Birch. The archbishop
blessed the chapel and gave short address to
the sisters and others present, referring, in APP
propriate terms, to the benefactresS of the in
stitution, Miss Anna Smith, whose generosity
had given them home, and he left his blessing
on her gifts. The institution is under the
charge of Mother Thomas, who is assisted BY
six sisters. 1t has already begun its good work
of receiving the fallen and aiding young girls to
avoid lives of shame.
The State muster, held last week at Augusta,
was the most successful muster held in the
State since the war.
FISH AND FISHING. The Eastport Sentinel
says: An immense school of herring struck in
on these shores last Friday and large quantities
We're taken in the weirs at Lubec, Campobello,
and other places near here. Several boat loads
that were brought here for sale had to be taken
home again as the factories had more than they
could handle. Herring were sold as low as s.
per hogshead...The Free Press says General
Ifllson has put up about 100000 cans of mack
erel at Hurricane this season thus far He is
also canning Goldfish and haddock The refuse
of the fish is converted into fertiZng materi-
al.....West Quoddy bay is yielding herring
quite copiousy this season. There have been
but fe " of the little fish taken there before for
a number of years.....The American says the
new schooner b. u. Nickerson, @. p. Dorr,
master, after an absence of three months and