Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1883-07-29
AnAKiSs BREAD DEAR


We say that the United States 10 not
q warlike nation, that 1t Is at peace
with all the world, and that 1t Is the
greatest desire Of all our people to keep
In this peaceful state. But Is there not
all the time an internal warfare going
on that Is as hot and as deadly as II 1t
were waged with ball and shot and
powder, or even dynamite, instead Of
brains and combinations and CONNER
eial operations? And Is 1t not all the
time getting hotter and deadlier? In
the telegraphers' strike portion of one
side made q magnificent defence, and
ifone wants q brilliant description Of
how . part Of the other side Is organic
ing and advancing he can read HENRY
d. LLoYD's article in the current North
American on Making Bread Dear"
The operations Of the produce ex-
changes and the boards Of trade, their
gambling, their corners ana their ficti-
lious prices, are common knowledge;
to deprecated all = common sentiment,
and to prOphesy still worse results
common view. But it is nevertheless
a good thing to have msssed together
some Of the operations of these vast
combinations and the results Of their
work upon general interests, and to see
in the same view their rapid growth
and their immense power.
These COMMERCIAL org Inizations have
had a monstrOus growth that has
doubled upon itself every year, and
many times year. The giant OF giants
among them is the Chicago Board OF
Trade, and yet it is but thirty years old.
From its beginning of thirty-eight MEM
bers, for whom free lunches were spread
in the board room to induce them TO
attend, il has grown to q vast power,
which last year, says Mr.. LLOYD, re-
eeived and paid for in cash SSS2, 100, 900
worth of farm produce, and the total of
whose transactions was not lessthan
three thousand million dOllarsAnot
only the chief of the food markets, but
the greatest speculative market in the
world. Hardly month passes on the
New York Produce Exchange without
corner or squeeze. On the
Chicago Board of Trade there are
corners almost all the time. 1t is not
long since the corner was the venture
Of some local TITAN, Mr.. LLOYD goes
on to say, felt only within the Jurisdic-
ton Of the Board; but now 1t is often
the combined work of capitalists in half
a dozen cities, and its effects are felt all
over the world. Ten years ago to cor
ner 100000 bushels of wheat was
thought mighty operation, "but Sd,
100000 bushels of corn and 100000
ushels nf wheat are now pOcketed
almost without exciting remark" Then
again, corners used generally TO fail,
now they often succeed. The radius
Of the combinations Of capital to cor
uer the crops is heightened year by
year. The great corner is still to COME"
The traders of the New York Produce
Exchange, for every bushel of wheat
that comes out Of the ground, buy and
sell two bushels. The cotton exchange
handles five times the real cotton crop.
And this fictitious corn and cotton,
these speculatiOns in pigs and petro-
leum, control the prices of the real ar
licles. THE markets, like political
parties, are run by the machine. The
people are losing the power OF making
prices Us we'll as nominations 1t is
those who understand the magic art of
manufacturing prices who survive in
the trade world, and into their hands
is shifting the vast and complicated ma
chincry OF commerce.
Mr.. LLOYD truly says that among
farmers the belief is prevalent that 20
them at least q successful corner is. ben
efclal. And then he shows how the
corner disarranges trade, causes tluctu-
atious in the prices of all produce, raises
Ihe cost Of living, and puts feverish'
ness into all industrial and commercial
life Transportation, banking, all COM
mcrcial operations go by fits and starts.
And the farmer eventually pays for it
all. The wheat corner of 1879 was
estimated 10y an expert to have caused
4 loss to the cOuutry of not less than
500, 100000. The cost Of living Is in
creased, and the industrial classes, with
THEN wages being lowered on one hand,
and their living made dear on the other,
are forced into strikes.
And so il goes, the battle growing
more desperate every year. Mr.. LLOYD
suggests but one remedy for it all, and
that is, 1.-The establishment Of tribunals
of competent and disinterested men to
settle the disputes that arise in the
course Of business and cannot wait for
the courts" Possibly, and yet, to an
outsider, that does not look like Wig
orous remedy. 1t might do some good
in restraining the operations of the
boards by making them feel the power
of wholesome authority. But could it
touch the unnumbered possibilities for
combination in which there would be
no necessity for dispute? Would it not
drive into defensive alliance those who
now prey upon one another?