St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-10-22
DEALING IN FUTURES.
Its Operation at the Chamber---A
Clearing House Needed.

Trading in wheat futures at the Mime
apolis chamber has been in operation
for several days and has proved salts
factory. Few people really understand
the meaning of the new move. Col. G.
d. Rogers, in the Market Record. talks
of the new system. So far it has been
as satisfactory as hoped for, he says,
and sales against cash wheat here and
in the country have reached quite large
amounts. Considerable had been
"hedged" in other places and those
"hedges" are being changed gradually
to the home market. Some business
has also come here from other points
and reliable information leads to the
conclusion that much more is intended.
Three years ago an attempt was made,
by few men in the chamber of COM
merce in this city, to establish market
for future dealings in wheat and other
grain and their products. After short
effort it was found to be started ahead
of the necessity for it and it was
abandoned. The millers association
then existed and through it millers'
wheat was procured. Then but little
wheat was shipped from here, leaving
no other use for it than to supply the
mills, and they were supplied through
the agency of the millerS' association.
Millers as such then had no use for OPP
ton market, nor had any other branch
of the grain trade. The effort to eStdb-
lish one having no other foundation
than speculation, was a failure. A
market for forward trading has now be-
come a necessity. Wheat is bought in
the country by grain dealers for millers,
not by millerS for themselves, as FORM
erly. A transfer from the one set of
men to the other is necessity. For the
last year OF two that transfer has been
through samples on the floor of the
chamber of commerce and through pri-
vate sales of large lots by country ele-
vator men to millerS.
That method is found unsatisfactory
by both millers and the elevator people.
The elevator men buy wheat in the
country as a legitimate business and
not for speculation. Their machinery
for buying in the country runs every
day in the year, and they are liable to
want to sell such purchases as often.
To go on a still hunt from miller's office
to miller's Office making forward sales
every day in the year, or to try to ped
die each days purchase to be de-
livered at some future date, through cor
respondence with country millerS from
the Missouri river to the Atlantic ocean
has been found on trial to be an intol-
cradle bore. There has been tried a
plan of making ''hedge" sales in Chi
cago, Duluth and other places until the
country purchases could be forwarded
and sold and then the hedges removed.
That, too, has failed owing to manipu-
lation at such places to wiring money
out of the elevator people by means of
''squeezes" or actual corners"
The millers are also in need of a
clearing house" of that character,
right at home, quite as much as elevator
people and shippers. They are often
called upon to say at once at what price
they will fill some large order for flour.
With an active market for futures they
can do that without risk, whether they
had the wheat on hand or not. Such a
market as future trading gives has be-
come necessity. Legitimate business
demands it as much as legitimate bank
inc demands ifs clearing house