The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1889-11-22

in the laudable attempt to des-
troy the price of grain.
We are taught that the federal
constitution is too narrow to
relieve the known distresses OF
those engaged in agricultural
pursuits and that state constitu-
tions are not broad enough to
reach the disease.
If this be true, we must either
prepare for q worse condition OF
the grain and stock market or
we must amend the fundamental
laws.
If the states cannot regulate
this by uniformity of legislation,
then the power should be, by
amendment, conferred on the
federal government. We are sui
fering from a cause that only
criminal laws can wipe out.
The option dealer and his
friends cry overproduction, but
statistics prove that the amount
OF grain produced has no effect
on the market.
The bull and bear raise and low
er prices according as they COM
mand capital. Whether wheat
is SO cents or $1.OO per bushel
cuts no figure. Supply and de-
mand have no perceptible effect
on prices. II the bull is successful
markets are good; if the bear
triumphs there is a crash.
Option dealing or selling what
one does not have and has no in
tention OF possessing, or putting
it in it's true light. betting on the
price of grain and stock at a fu-
ture date, is vicious, because there
is an incentive on the part Of one
party to the bet to destroy the
worth of an article.
If a man bets 100000 that
lots on Main street will depre-
ciate SO per cent in threemonth,
he must to gain his wager,s
create a panic on Main street lots,
and his endeavor, if known,
would result in a hanging bee;;'
and yet so-called respectable men
bet on the price of grain, and the
result on the real owner of grain
is disasterous.
We may be wrong in our con-
illusions 1--WE often are) but the
depression, or ruination of farm
products, has led us to conclude
that the tendency OF grain gam
bling ISTO DRIVE THE AMER
ICAN FARMER FROM THE
FARM, and the result will be that
foreign peasantry will do our
farming, ie., a class of people
will be brought here by alien cap
italists to farm the large tracts
of land they will acquire.
There is a growing tendency
on the part OF English capitalists
to secure large land holdings
and bring the methods practiced
in England to America. The re-
suit will be a peasant class as ten
ants, and ere we know it the Am
erican will abandon the farm. If
farming becomes Improbable no
one can blame him for so doing.
Idonot think we shall ever have
afamine in breadstuffs, but stran-
ger things have happened than
a universal riot on account of
the price of wheat. We do not
counsel any raid on the bucket
shop management but we are in
different as to it's result, should
one ever be made, as shops will
suffer.
There is an evil, a vice, dam
aging the crop and stock interest
of the west and south, and this
vice should be made a crime.
The grain gambler should be
on a level with the poker chip
man, the keno caller, the faro
dealer. The grain man is quasi
respectable everywhere, the CON-
mon gambler ostracized every
where; and yet SO far as the DON
sequences to people Of this coun-
try are concerned the common
gambler is harmless, as compared
to this output of respectable
grain monte population which
has swarmed on us in the last