The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-07-31
a VITAL QUESTION.
e Portland. Ne. Trade Journal.

| IL Is question Wnetner material III
ture of this nation shall be ruled by hon
est industry and commercial honor or,
surrendered into the keeping CT a small
class of gambling option dealers who,
under the name of new and false sys-
| tenn OF commercial ethics, are fast de-
stroying not only the intrinsic value of
labor and production, but is undermin-
ing the morals of the people by the gilt
terlng temptations of making sudden
wealth by gambling in the property of
others, substituting semi-legalized theo-
rles for supply-and-dem fixed priuci-
pies.
To claim that the sale of farm prod
ucts at sellers option by non-owners is
as legitimate and proper as bona fide
sales by producers and owners, is to
prostitute the English language, and to
place such fraudulent transaction on
the same level is TO drive out capital
What capitalist that does not under
stand the exact workings of this new
method of option dealing will buy or in
vest one dollar in any of the articles
! that are kicked about in the trading
pits of the country?
The passage and enforcement by con-
| gresS of a bill that would lift off the
| pressure of the short sellers who sell at
| sellers options" one hundred times
more product than is produced, and by
so doing necessarily force down the
value below the cost of production Re-
| lieve the market of this enormous ficti-
! tlous supply, and to get rid of this kind
of trading would increase the value of
every pound of actual product. Certain
! ~, no calamity could result from this.
The quicker the government makes a
vital attack on the fraudulent methods
and usages of dealing in things which
have no actual existence and brings back
the commerce of the country to dealers
IN actual property on supply and demand
principles, the better off will the laboring
and producing classes be.
Legitimate commerce does not embrace
trades In that which does not exist.
Every pound or bushel of grain on the
boards of trade in excess of the actual
supply means trade in what does not
exist. 1t is trade in fictitious, unreal
stuff, created only for gambling pur
poses. If men must gamble in farm
products they should at least be made to
gamble in the actual products of the soil
and not be permitted to destroy the
value of the actual product by pounding
it with actual stuff the supply of which
is unlimited, because every gambler in
this land can offer any amount of it for
sale, knowing he will never be required
to deliver anything but money margin,
or difference. Surely no calamity can
come to legitimate commerce by requir-
ing gamblers in purely imaginary stuff
to pay liberal tax on such trade.
Boards of trade and exchanges should
be guardians of fair and honest dealing
and suppress fraudulent trading. If
they do not they are an injury to COM
MERGE and should be wiped out.
Transportation interests can suffer no
injury by the suppression of dealing in
options and futures. The carrier de-
ponds solely on the actual product; he
does not engage in or get paid for carry
ing 'wind" deals-whatever encourages
the producer is benefit to the carrier,
for it tends to give the producer courage
for increasing the amount of his product,
and thus increases the amount to be
hauled by the carrier. Traders in
''wind" are their own carriers. They
carry millions upon millions of bushels
every day simply in their mouths. If
they would only keep their mouths shut
no harm could come of it, But unload
ing it means simply crying down prices
of real products, which should not be
permitted.
The federal and state courts have I'M
willingly recognized deals in futures in
certain cases because there was no law
against it.
No one who is about building a house
or block goes into the option pit to make
his contract; he wants house or block,
not the difference, and he wants the
actual owners and laborers with whom
to make his contract. Merchants who
wish to contract for future supply of
an article go to the manufacturer and
engage with him TO supply the article
when needed in the future He does not
contract for it with people who do not
have it. Why should farm products be
on a different basis? If one wished to
contract for these to be delivered in the
future let him contract with those who
have them or have the appliances for
making them.
Whilst there must be buyer for every
dollars worth that is sold, yet if the
sellers are limited to actual owners or
producers, thereby creating more buyers
in proportion than sellers and, as a nee
eSsary consequence, enlarging the de-
mand and enhancing the price, how can
producers or owners be affected iniuri-
ously?
The turning of all the blame on the
bucket shops is unfair. The bucket
shops only adopted the option princi-
piles that were in vogue on regular
boards of trade, etc, making such
changes as would suit their conven-
fences and increase their profits The
writer agrees to the charges against the
bucket shops, provided their teachers,
the boards of trade, are included
Sorry to say it, but the bulk Of trading
that is done on both boards of trade and
bucket shops is only the froth formed bv
the rushing, mighty volume of option
dealing underneath. To say that the
principles OF legitimate supply and de
mand has any power except remotely
on this mighty stream of gambling IS
an astonishing assumption and closes all
Bucket shops make no pretensions to |
Boards of trade, etc, do. |
Still professions are cheap, and an out |
slider who watches the trading on both !
finds it difficult to keep from cOnfound- /
ing the two together This is unfortu- /
nate, but, corporations, like individuals, /
must be judged by the company they /
keep. and by the consequences which re- /
suit from their acts.
Boards of Trade, Chambers OF Com /
merce, and market places were in vogue |
many years before this peculiarly Amer
lean and modern system of option and F.!
future dealing was thought Of. They /
made such changes, from time to time,
as U-ouIi suc-ain commerce and hiring