Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-08-22
THE WEIR VS.. THE
BUCKET SHOP.
To the Editor of the Eagle.

To the Editor of the Eagle.
When the laws of supply and demand
have naught to do with the value of an
article, the producer is as a sailor on an
unknown sea; he may find safe harbor,
be dashed on the rocks, or drift almlessly
until freed from his involuntary captlv-
ity by starvation.
This condition of affairs, in this age OF
aggregate corporate power, seems to be
rapidly approaching in every avenue OF
legitimate trade, and is more noticeable
in manufacturing interests by reason OF
the daily wire that announces trusts,
failures and insolvency that in other
channels of production. Yet there Is an
interest, a vital interest, in this country
whose buoyancy means prosperity to us
all and the waves of whose depression Is
felt throughout the land, just in the
same degree as a huge billow engulfs
that nearest to it and unsettles that at
the farther shore.
The stock raiser and the grain grower
are the foundation stones whereon we
rest all our greatness: all other produc-
ton is minor: all other production de-
ponds upon the man engaged In raising
grain and stock.
And in view of the fact that bountiful
harvests and countless herds do not
bring prosperity, it may be well to con-
slider whittier we are drifting.
To what are we tending: What the
ultimate end?
We are not pessimist, but the re-
verse, vet we cannot but note that there
is an uneasy feeling all over the west as
to the outcome on grain and stock.
We are informed that there is over
production, and that production
brings its own penalty; yet with series
of bad crop years we find the agrlcul-
tural interests of the west in a anguish
ing state and the debt on the farm in
creasing, the farms value depreciating,
and farms uncultivated and farmers gen
orally low-spirited and many of them
ready to abandon the farm and become
consumers, no longer producers.
WHAT Is THE DISEASE, WHAT THE REM
EDY!
Can federal legislation meet the de-
mand and give a remedy? We have
found that the varied resources and
country cannot be held in check by
state laws, and this not by reason OF the
interstate commerce act alone, and also
by reason of the fact that ingenuity,
cunning and necessity of trade as well
as capital and power override the puny
bars which at times we erect to benefit
our people and regulate the laws OF
trade and commerce; but of this at
another time.
The thing which we now want to di-
rect the public mind to is the option
dealer, the bucket shop thief. the
plunderer of the grain interests, and as
we now think the primary cause OF the
depressing effect over the western grain
grower-after long years OF weary tight
ing state interference, congressional
legislation, a degree of stability, and
feeling of safety is commencing
to pervade the country as re-
CARDS the question of transportation.
1t is alleged that there is growing
feeling that the producer and the shipper
are not enemies, but mutual allies, each
dependent upon the other. Be this as it
may the agricultural interests in the
railroad problem at least achieved a
victory. SO that the railroads transport
grain at a rate which is conceded to be
no longer extortion or robbery, only to
learn that there was another antagOnistic
faction in the grain problem that left no
margin at the final depot, and it has
been seriously questioned whether, if
the railroad carried the grain for a cent
bushel there would be any margin
after paying elevator charges and brok-
age.
The elevator capacity of Chicago is
about 90, 900, 900 bushels, but the bucket
shop capacity is S0,0OO,O0O.
There are numerous questions that the
American people must meet and settle
in the next decade, such as the foreign
emigration. alien I'm INTEREST," voting,
trust, corporate power and franchises,
alien land owners, etc. Yet 1t doth seem
that the first systematic hard work
should be the wiping from the face OF
the land
OPTION DEALING
in all its branches and ramifications. and
the enacting Of a law by congress max
ing option dealing in grain felony,
punishable by imprisonment, to the end
that the option dealer may JON the
troubadour and become phenomenon
III our ldnd.
The granger legislation was a prairie
fire. and it burned up the pests along
with some grain, and if the grangers
can bring such pressure to bear on con-
gress as that the option dealer will be an
extinct race and "a study for arch@ol-
Cgists,' we can stand the inconveni-
ence.
This question is national. The entire
land feels the influence of these gam
blers, and the grain grower is gradually
being ground to powder by this specula-
ton, and the only relief IS the crushing
of the option dealer, and the only source
of relief is in the united power of honest
men against thieves, and the grain
grower should mass and move immedl-
ately on congress, demanding the over
throw and extinction of option dealing.
We have temporized too long with this
question; in fact, treated it as folly in
stead of vice; looked on leniently, as
we have On many other things, and we
are now awakened to the truth that it Is
I