The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1884-01-03
How speculation Affects the n~rhe'.

How ppscmlaiion hiitcta the h@r'e''
Ny reason Of her geography, ber supefh
iaciltiee and the dashing spirit Of her peo'
pls Chicago Is the great American speeu'
tor and trader. She holds Respectable
position as manufacturer, and in this
will take higher rank, but 1t is "s u trader
that abe Is most notable. The 7r'Ianes
exhaustive review Of the years business
Claims s395, 100000 Of manufactures, and
over sSOO,OOO,OOO Of other salcs, half Of
which is from products. In this there ID
n, account taken OF the untold millions OF
paper commodities kicked about by bulls
aud bears and representing no other va!ue
!: than the margin Of the bet
81 Cool heads have long since recognized
that nero betting on tho rise and fall OF
, prices, besides being Of doubtful propriety
ns a matter Of morals, besides being pre-
judicial 10 the public welfare in SO far as
It deals with the necessities Of life, ia not
the kind Of trade which adds 10 the solid
growth Of d community. The TriJnne may
be supposed to know how this evil has
affected Chicago. It's comments arc point
oil and Of great interest,"
Though Chicago has done 80 we'll in the re-
ceiying and distribution Of farm products,
which are still the main item OF It's primary
business II IL impossible not to see that It's
prosperity In this direction has been disag.
irou,ly affected by the corners and rnauipuia-
tiops Of which the Board Of Trade has been
the theatre during the last two or three y ears.
These have made high prices, which have al.
tractei shipments to Us, and the activity oil
speculation bA drawn hero millions Of dol.
lars In commissions for our brokers. But
we have hurt ourselves by making narhet
bore for other people 10 Isll on, and by
carving prices to d height that has encoui.
aged the competition Of other countries with
the farmers tho United STATED. The accu-
mula,Io.. Of wheat here, and the stimulus
given to the raising OF hogs abroad, are
two very obvious results OF this over
speculation. India and Russia and other
parts Of Europe, to say nothing OF Australia,
which Is beginning 10 loom up % u producer
OF moro wheat than Is needed for home use,
have been making shrewd use of our
blooms" to supply the Liverpool market at
Just enough les, than our figures TO insure
them getting the money and our keeping our
wheat. There has not been any foreign de-
mand for our spring wheat for eighteen
=onths. Some Of that which was brought
here by tho corner OF July, 1852, has lately
been sold In Liverpool at a price which did
not equal 81 pc, bushel here rs ngainst the
81 40 10 which It was forced at the cuimiua-
ton Of that corner. Some OF the wheat now
here has storage charges against 1t for more
than 20 cents per bushel. These abuses OF
speculation are doing mach 10 destroy Il
market which speculation did so much to de-
Telop.
But the evil results are not confined to
Chicago traders. They go back to the pro-
ducer aud forward to the conaumer. To-
day the bulls on Change make the con-
sumer pay more for his flour than it is
worth, and tomorrow the farmer finds that
his wheat, go far from bringing him the
price he has seen in the market reports Of
his newspaper, has been knocked OUT
by foreign competition sliding its grain in
under cover Of fancy prices. This
il the work Of the middle
men, some OF whom never see a bushel OF
grain and wouldn't know what to do with
it II they had it. 1t is some encouragement
10 read in Chicago newspaper that 1.-THE
abuses Of speculation are doing much to
destroy a market which speculation did so
much to develop" After the day Of final
destruction the breadstufs and provisions
market may be established on an honest
and sale basis.