Omaha daily bee., 1890-01-18
GAMBLING IN FARM PRODUCTS.

GAMBLING IN FARM PRODUCTS.
Congressman Cornell a few days ago
presented In the house the petition OF a
large number OF Nebraska farmers ask
ing for a law TO prohibit boards OF trade
and spectators from fixing the price Of
values by sales Of future deliveries.
These petitioners suggest that bucket
shop speculation on future products
should be prohibited and sales for future
deliveries be confined to products in
existence, and then on warehouse re-
coipts. A similar petition from the
farmers OF South Dakota has been pre-
scented in the senate by Senator Petit
grew, and there have been expressions
by farmers elsewhere in favor Of legis-
lation prohibiting gambling in pro-
ducts.
This Is q matter of interest not only
to the farmers OF the country, but TO all
who are engaged as merchants in hand
ling the agricultural products Of the
country and TO the whole people. The
system of speculative gambling in these
products. which is allowed, we believe,
in 10 other country, is an evil whose
effects are widespread, renching, in
decd, all interests. The new presi-
dent Of the Chicago board Of trade, in
his address to the board n few days ago,
dwelt upon this system of gambling as
one Of the most serious detrimcnts to
the interests of agriculture and to legit-
innate business in the products of agri-
culture. He ascribed the inactivity
and poor compensation of those en-
gagged in this line of trade to two causes,
the extreme low prices for all farm
products and the continued existence OF
the so-called ''bucket shop" He de-
clared the bucket shop to be most per-
nicious in its effect. "These results"
he said, "are now established in nearly
every village in the land, and their
high-sounding names, in imitation of
legitimate halls of commerce, with such
attractive surroundings as their enor-
nous ill-gotten gains enable them to
maintain, is making gambling respec-
table in communities where cards are
an abomination." He recommended
action by the board against the bucket
shops, by withholding from them quo
t%ations, and the board almost unani-
mouslv adopted a resolution au-
thorizing the directors. at their dis
erection, to discontinue the Office
OF market reports. There could be no
more emphatic declaration than is con-
tanned in this action of the evil of
buckot-shop gambling. Whether it
will have any effect upon these institu-
tions is questionable.
But while the evil is admitted, the
difficult one. Several states, among
them Illinois, have enacted laws against
the bucket shops, but they have not
been enforced. Indeed, so far as Illinois
is concerned, the decisions of the courts
have been in favor of the bucket shops,
the board Of trade of Chicago having
been compelled by judicial order to fur
nish these places quotations. Is it likely
that national legislation would be any
more effective in suppressing these
''dens of vice." as they are character
lied by the president of the Chicago
board of trade? During the rebellion,
when gold speculation was at its heigh'
and threatened the most serious conse.
quences to the country, congress at,
tempted to put a check upon it
and utterly failed, although the
difficulties to be overcome were
not so great as would be encountered in
an attempt to enforce a general law
against gambling in the products of the
farm. But if it be assumed that such q
law could be made effective, is the mat.
ter one which congress has the author
ity to legislate upon? There is cer-
tainly reason to doubt that it has, and
there Is very little probability hat the
farmers will ever get from that source
any legislation against the evils of spec
ulation Of which they justly complain.
What may be accomplished by state
legislation is also somewhat uncertain
in view of the failure Of the Illinois
law to suppress bncket shop specula'
ton. All agree as to the pernicious
character ofthis sort of speculation, bu'
how TO prevent it is a very hard prob
lem.