People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1892-08-19
THE ANTl-OPTlON BILL.
The Farmers VIII show at the Polls Whit
They Think of Its Disgraeeful Defeat in
Congress
Special Correspondence

Aheg link Vi It's OissTdSciui Dcicat h
Congress.
Special Correspondence
The leading article in the Chicago
Herald of July IS, headedin heavy type
Millions in the Scale" has two col
umns of defense of produce. and meat
gambling as conducted by boards of
trade. This paper seems much alarmed
and shows wildly the distress given to
speculative gamblers of Chicago over
the prospective passage of the Hatch
Washburn anti-option bill 1t says
various schemes have been proposed
to best the law" in the event of the
passage of the bill" After mentioning
various phases that are proposed it
says: Finally Henry Clews came to
the rescue with a brilliant and mer-
chant like suggestion that operatives
go right along as usual, but that they
call grain ''hay." If this Mr.. Henry
Clews is the New York banker and eX-
pert gold manipulation, so much quoted
as authority on finance, it is no wonder
that silver dollars are worth but 81 in
gold standard and it is only question
of time when they will sell to OWNERS
of gold for cents. In some manner
gambling house can be run openly as a
tennis court, or a saloon be called a
church festival If our western peo-
pie were as ''swartly cute" and
had as little honor as some of these
money changers and boards of trade"
operators of New York and Chicago we
would ship them hay and draw on them
for wheat But we don't do that we
ship wheat and after deducting one
bushel out of every four for freight they
pay MS on basis Of sixty-seven cent
dollar and then speculate" value of
one dollar sixty-seven cents in TO the
grain before it gets on to the table of
the protected" mechanic and con-
sumner. Oh! how wicked these granger
law makers are becoming, when they
actually pass laws that will compel
these food gamblers to withdraw their
capital from such honorable @ bust
ness! There are 81 of these firms
operating" on Chicago's board of trade.
There are wholesale men who have
travelling men on the road that occa.
sionally sit down to a little game Of
draw poker for dollar ante and the
ceiling fora limit, which wholesale men
have been known to complain at the re-
suit, for they sometimes have to stand
the ''skrinkage" between such gaming
table and the ceiling.
How much more should the people OF
this country feel interested in a game
having ten millions in the pot at stake
each play on food products in the hands
of these board of trade" gamesters.
Of course this game of chance on food
is so respectable (?), has such a fine
club house, employs about five thou,
sand clerks and hangers on" all Of
which makes it quite brutal for the
''grangers" to pass law that is likely
to hamper its run of business.
Mr.. Hankins, the gentleman who
lately retired with a million of dollars
from running a notorious gambling
house on Clark street in Chicago
gathered his gains, few cents or dol
lars at time, from the laboring mer
and poor clerks. The Herald attacked
him in its columns time and again, but
public opinion in the city, backed by it,
corrupt enforcers of law. was so low
and debased that despite the public
press Mr.. Hankins continued his bust.
ness (?) and he is now an elegant gen
tleman of leisure. The Herald can see
that Hankins den was wrong and the
board of trade" can see that the so
called bucket shops are wrong, but
nobody but granger" can discover
dishonesty and burning wrongs enact
ed in options" on food of the masses by
gentlemen on boards of trade"
I We have seen the "grangers" termed
"hogs" by the State Journal, have
heard them called fools and cattle and
chromoes and other manner of abusive
terms, but that does not make then
so, any more than would Mr.. Henry
Clews calling wheat ''hay" make ar
evasion of law possible, by these
pirates on the high seas of trade, thesC
despoilers of honest business and labor
The Herald writer gives summary o.
the principal financial interests repre-
sented on the Chicago board of trade
which he says will be seriously dis
turbed by an anti-option law-and he
figures it thus:
Capital invested in commercial business:
speculative tlU,OJOUO
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