The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1884-09-30
ROUGH ON THE SHORTS
Corn Likely To Be Dollar Bushel
Before Oct. /.
Some Comments on she Squeeze IA
ChieagO-Heavy Receipts Fail 10
Weaken the Grip-Rak-
ting "RigoIo.o

CHICAGO, Sept 3O-The Heralds board of
trade man has the following on the corner in
corn which Is attracting attention in this
market: The corn deal will eliminate
Wednesday, and it is not unlikely that the
price of September will touch 81. There are
some shorts left, that is certain--a good
many of 'em.
The present corner has revived the old
question of whether short sellers of produce
have higher rights than long buyers PEG
pie who are not in the market, but who are
interested in the argument only as they are
in any discussion where the disputants are
very much in earnest, should remember
that the interested parties are SPECTATORS
all of them. On the one side are specu-
lators who have sold, expecting to maRipu-
late the prices down; and on the other, spec
ulators who have bought, and who have
succeeded in manipulating the prices up. 1t
can also be shown that all of those who are
now trying to incite some sympathy for them
selves because they We're caught short and
are being squeezed, have, at one time or an
other heretofore, as "longs" and squeezers of
the market, ridiculed the very argument they
themselves are now using. If disinterested
people will think carefully they will sec that
it is hard to decide whether short sellers are
or are not entitled to any sympathy. Is not
q corner the legitimate and best cure for
reckless ovsrsslling, just as stimulated pro-
duction, great speed in marketing produce,
and an overwhelming marshaling of corn or
wheat or lard or hogs are the legitimate cure
for deliberate cornera
"Will the corner extend into 0ctoberm is
Al
what will be the selling price of Septem-
ber2" The writer predicts that it will not.
Corn is not an exact quantity like pork. Not
the most careful statistican in this country
today can tell whether there are left 10, 000,-
900 bushels or 200, 900, 900 bushels of corn of
last years crop. If pork were the product
they cornered, manipulation in it next
month would be easier after a squeeze in it
this Not so with corn. There is not a
farmer in any part of the country who is
not on the qui vive to learn whether there is
to be an October squeeze. The September
corner, it must be remembered, was not
genel ally admitted, although the writer has
proclaimed it for thirty days, until ten
days ago. There are millions of
bushels of corn which are cribbed at points
no more than ten days from this market
Even with this ten days notice, however,
nearly 500, 900 bushels of corn are now being
received here daily, with 15O, 200 bushels of
No. 2. There will DO no October corner. If
this clique proposed such q thing it would
be shipping out Of here with all its might
the corn being received. The receipts last
week exceeded the shipments by over /, 900
coo bushels
Aside from the corn deal there has not been
much Of interest about the grain pits. Wheat
is becoming more active, and is getting
higher. The philosophizing over revolu-
ton In the grain trade of the world; over
the discovery of new and permanent wheat
reservoirs outside of the United States, and
over a REIMBURSEMENT of views aud values
which will make 10 cents look good price
for No. 2 spring wheat, is all arrant
WORCESTERSHIRE of the clever clap
trap Of the fellow "Rigolo," who
knows enough to write clever sentences, but
who did not know enough to keep little
money he once made in Wall street 1t
looks as if wheat was ter ing upward.
The writer is informed on good authority
| that there is deal on in lard Geddes will
run 1t, and this time, for a wonder, his
| principals are not Englishmen. The Fowlers
are fighting it, but they do not cut the
figure In lard they once did.