The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1891-12-11
Option Gambling.

from a valuable little work entitled
"Our Food Products :"
CAT the close of the September
deals, 1891; during which month
thousands of millions of bushels of
wheat and corn were contracted to
be delivered at Chicago by the short
sellers, the actual deliveries at the
maturity of these contracts we're less
than $4,000 bushels OF wheat and
81, 900 bushels OF corn, the other
" deal" having been settled by pay
ment of the difference which cOnsti-
tuted the winnings of the fortunate
gamblers.
Does not Mr.. Hutchinson know
that when by such operations the
price of wheat has been reduced to
the extent of one cent bushel it
means much to farmers other than
Mr.. Dalrymple, and that upon an
average wheat crop it amounts to
no less than a loss of $4,5OO,OOO to
the producer?
Mr.. Hutchinson informs us that
among the brightest of the great
millers who have placed Minneapolis
at the head of the milling world is
Mr.. Charles A Pillsbury, but be is
careful not to inform his readers
what are the opinions of this the
greatest dealer in the world in actual
farm products as to the practice OF
short-selling, as set forth on pages
IS and 20 ante.
The Cincinnati Price Current says !:
''Here is the evil-the sale of wind
contracts, inflated by the margin
system, having the same power of
influencing values that an equal Of
fering of actual property would
have"
Mr.. Denison B. Smith, Secretary OF
the Toledo Board of Trade, says:
eve most heartily deprecate the
conditions prevailing in this country.
First is the apparent want of cour-
age on the part Of capitalists to in
vest in wheat, and the next is the
reckless disposition OF the fraternity
of short-sellers to pound down prices.
Not an advance in prices has oc-
Cured on this side that has not been
reflected abroad, and not a decline
that has not been followed by a cor
responding break over there"
The first of Mr.. Smiths conditions
is the inevitable corollary of the
second, and the capitalist will re-
cover his courage and invest in
wheat the moment the short-seller
is taxed out of existence.
This evil has now invaded the
markets of Britain, and in the Liver
pool correspondence of Dornbusch.
of September 5tb, 1891, it is stated
that:
"Our local market is dominated
by a crowd of dealers in options
and futures putting prices up and
down every ten minutes, and with
a similar state of things in America
it is difficult to know where we are. y
About May LIST, Leopold Bloom
retired from the Chicago wheat pit
worth ca clean million dollars" and
was reported in the Chicago Tribune
as giving his reasons for retiring in
the following language:
cts too much OF q strain on a
man to stand for any length of time
without wearing out. One is under
pressure all the time. He is betting
his money against the market. If he
buys and she goes up he is winner.
If she goes down he is a loser. It's
a plain case OF gamble, but it's legal
and faro isn't. II they would take
the limit off faro it would be a better
game than wheat, because you could
get quicker action but with the limit
on there isn't money enough in it."
Mr.. Bloom is much more frank in
rightly characterising the game than
are most Of it's devotees, who appear
to be ashamed OF it's real character.
Shall twenty thousand short-sellers
be longer permitted to bring the pro-
duct Of their lungs (which costs
nothing) INTO destructive COMPETE
ton with the useful and costly pro-