St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-03-25
WILL RUIN EVERYBODY.
Charles A. Pillsbury More EN-
phatic Than Ever on Wheat
Gambling.

pndClC IMAM EV6E On w ucat
Gambling.
c. A Pillsbury does not seem to have
changed his mind relative to the ''short'
selling of wheat since his recent trip
East. In fact the we'll known miller
seems to have grown even stronger IN
his former opinions. This is what he
says:
II found the Eastern -four markets
dull. Stocks, however, are light. There
are not more than two or three millers
in the Northwest who are not selling
flour in Eastern markets at below cost
based OH present price OF wheat. This
continued short selling of wheat by the
bears has taken the life out of the market
Legitimately wheat should be worth 25
cents bushel more than it now is, and
flour at least SIPS more. Farmers have
had their attention turned to minor evils
of the trade and have been overlooking
the one great thing which has depressed
prices of all kinds of grain for years.
and until this is stopped we shall never
see higher prices unless we get an abso-
lutte famine. By short selling |, OF
course, refer to sales by parties who do
not own the stuff they sell for future
delivery, and not to parties who actually
own and control the grain. 1t is legiti-
mate for parties to sell what they act
ually own OF control.
"There is no Intelligent man who can
stand up to-day and say that leglti-
mately wheat ana -four are not worth
great deal more money than they have
been selling at. The wheat crop grown
in the United States or in the world is
practically no larger than it was ten
years ago, and the consumption has IN
creased enormously. But the trouble is
that these bears have so pounded the
markets for the last few years and sold
hundreds of millions of bushels of
wheat which they did not own or con-
troll that everybody had been buying
from hand to mouth, and there are not
one-fourth the stocks of wheat and -four
scattered around among the mlllers and
dealers the world over that there used
to be, and the consumption OF
this invisible wheat is what has kept US
from seeing extreme prices. This thing,
of course, cannot last forever, and the
legitimate situation is bound to assert
itself some time, but the farmer may go
to the wall in the meantime. There are
no men more interested in having this
short selling stopped than the real es-
tate men and merchants OF Minneapolis
and st. Paul.
"There is more wheat sold on the Chi
cago board of trade every year than is
raised in the whole world; and, say
what you may, these fictitious sales tend
to diminish the price OF wheat, because
the bears know that ordinarily they
have only got to sell enough OF 1t to
break the market. 1t is enough for the
market to stand the sales Of
wheat that is already raised. see
it stated that some people say low prices
of wheat are owing to overproduction.
This is not so. The last two crops of
the world, taken as whole, have been
light, and have not been equal to the
consumption, and stocks all over the
world have been reduced to points that
a few years ago would have been sup
posed impossible without bringing
out extreme prices. Bears are al
ready selling the next crop, and
selling it several cents below price of
cash wheat now. If this is not stopped
the whole farming interest will be
ruined. The long and short of it is that
the farmer is now the under dog. The
laboring man is way up in the air as
compared with the position OF the
farmer. The labOring man is generally
getting good wages and buying his food
at very low prices.
'.If this present depression in the
farming interests is not stopped neither
the laboring man, business man nor
any one else can prosper, and some of
these palaces in Minneapolis about
which people are fond of speaking will
be for sale cheap. know this talk is
not acceptable to people who make their
living by trading in wind, but If neces-
sary to stop it it would be better that
all the boards of trade should be wiped
off the face of the earth. No one can
make money when wheat is low, and
but very few -four millers have made
money for the last few years. | think |
am safe in stating that the millers as a
whole have paid the farmers more
money for wheat than they have gotten
out of it.
1.-The transportation question cuts
but a small figure compared to this
short selling. Our farmers do not want
to forget the fact that Minnesota and
Dakota have the lowest frelghts known
on the earth. If the farmers look for
any relief in the direction of lower rail-
road freights, or by making war on the
millers. they will get very little, if
anV1