Morning journal and courier., 1883-09-18
Tuesday, September IS, 1883.
BOARD OF TRADE MORALITY.


 In recent number of the North Amsri- can Review Mr. Henry D. Lloyd showed with great force and olearness what 8 curse speculation in provisions, as 1t is now carried on. Is in the number for October MT. Van Buren DensloW shows what blessing such speculation is. Mir. Denslow's article is in teresting and deserves attention
 Mir. Lloyd in his article called Boards of Trade vast establishments for the manufac- ture of prices, g ttconcentrations of news, ,cap- ital and middlemen in foous,'' and 'Iegis- Denslow denies that ''brute wealth" can make prices in the way Mir. Lloyd charges that they are, made and he does some ingen- ious figuring to show that supply and de- mand" regulate prices. Boards of Trade are valuable because they import into the pro- duction and transfer commodities certain ty, rapidity and economy which contrast strongly with the expense of finding out values, the confusion, imposition, chicane, overreaching and fraud incident to the trades in the various goods which can be sold only by sample or present view, without grading or any of the means of fixing a price which pertain to the trade in grain Futures and ''options" render a service to commence in steadying the market as be- tween different dates, but the ultimate cri- terion which determines the validity of prices is the ratio Of the supply to the demand.
 Those whs speculate in provisions and have some doubt about the morality of such work will be relieved by Mr. Denslow's con sideration of the matter, which is as plausi- ble as it could we'll be. Hear him: There is no more chance in the operation of the law of supply and demand than in gravitation He who buys or sells, therefore, with an adequate expert knowledge of the conditions which control prices, plays less 8 game of chance than he who builds his mill by a stream and expects it's waters to turn his wheels and grind his grist The minimum of losses occurs to those who combine the best knowledge of the sources of supply and avenues of demand with the shrewdest sense and judgment as to all the collateral causes which concur to modify, qualify and retard this main force. If this rise and fall of prices were determined by blind chance, or the throw in dice, then to invest with refer ence to them would be gambling If the money invested in margins on the purchase of optional grain contracts were of no utility in commerce, except to indicate the owners faith in certain course of the market, then the transaction might be classed with bets. But the aggregate funds invested on either side in grain options do, for the time, hold the market to it's price, and constitute the investor a part owner, vested or contingent, in the aggregate stock of grain on hand. If he has invested on the "bear" side, then his little $5 or $1OO lends it's feather weight to depress prices and increase the export. If he is on the ''bull'' side, then he is stimulating the farmers to sell, and is checking the export. Both are part owners, vested or contingent, of the grain on hand. It matters little whether one man goes into the market with $1O, 100000 or 100000 men go in with $100 each, or 1, 1000, 900 men with $1O each, if they invest on the same side of the market and with like sagacity, like conformity to the law of prices, and like pluck and re- serve of capital behind them. On what data can we base the assertion that the influence of the smallest sum on either side of the scale is lost in determining the quotation or influencing the movement of grain2 If on none, then, in an economic sense, this utility distinguishes the investment wholly from any sort of bet. q
 This is very neat way of putting it. In deed, MT. Denslow is very successful with his whole case After reading his article one is inclined to think that the s'cornerers'' of provisions may have been slandered, and that they are really moral, high-minded gentle men solely intent upon benefiting their fel- low men, and especially the farmers. But whether MT. Denslow or MT. Lloyd is right corners and ''cornerers'' will continue to swell up and burst for long time yet.