St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-07-02
FUTURES AND TRUSTS.
How They Operate to the Detri-
ment of the Farmers.

menu OIL the FARMERS.
In a recent address before the con-
gressional committee on agriculture,
Hon. B, A. Enloe, of Tennessee, de
livered an address which presented
phases of this subject in a strong and
impressive manner. He said, 1.-THE
buying and selling of futures" is a
species of speculation which Injuries
not only the unsuccessful trader, specu-
lator, or gambler, as you may choose to
soil are the subject matter of the
transaction, it Injuries both the pro-
Queer and consumer, and it seri-
ously interferes with the regular
and legitimate exchange of these COM
modities through the established chan
nels of commerce. Combinations repre-
senting millions of dollars of capital are
formed. Some product of the soil, some
times one and sometimes another, is
accumulated In the hands of the COM
bine, and soon after they begin opera
tons they virtually fix the price at
which the producer must sell by bring
ing their own purchases into competi-
ton with his product when he enters
the market. and depressing prices until
he is forced to sell. They come between
the producer and the consumer, and by
shrewd manipulation they fix the prices
for both. With the comb. n ID power of
combined capital they dictate to the
producers in detail the market prices of
their products, and then in turn they
dictate to the consumers the price which
they shall pay for the product by virtue
of the same power. They break the
market by flooding it when the pro-
ducers would sell, and they force it up
by withholding their accumulations from
the market after the producers have
parted with the great bulk of their
crops. These are the actual transac-
tions where delivery is actually made,
but the actual transactions constitute
only small part of the business of ore
of these combinations.
1.-THE fictitious trades afford the richest
part of the harvest, and they represent
every year many times the aggregate of
any and of all of the products that are
made the subject of speculation.
''TheSe fictitious trades frequently re-
suit in the locking up of the great bulk
of the crop of the particular kind en-
braced in the speculation, which is thus
withheld from the commerce of the
country at the will of combination of
spectators, interrupting for an indefi-
mite period the free and natural inter-
change of commodities among the states
and with foreign nations.
''If the congress should intervene and
prohibit the making of these gambling
contracts, and provide adequate punish
ment for every violation of the law, the
inducement to make these combinations
and corners would not exist, and COM
merce would not only be relieved of this
obstruction but the agricultural industry
would be protected against one of the
greatest evils that at present affiicts it,
''The agricultural industries of the
country are confronted by great
combinations of corporate and individ-
ual interests under the indefinite and
irresponsible name of trusts which
have for their objects the
limitation of all other production except
agricultural production. The effect of
this is to enhance the cost of everything
the farmer has to buy. On the other
hand, this industry is assailed by COM
binatiOns of capital organized to come
between the producer and the consumer
and fix the prices for both. so as to levy
tribute upon both the producer and the
consumer.
Il hope that the power to crush out
and destroy these robber trusts and
these robber combines will be found
under the clause of the constitution
have quoted, and if it does not exist III
would amend the constitution so as to
give congress the necessary power"