Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1892-02-19
WESTERN GRAIN MEN
ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE ANTl-oP-
TON MEASURES PROPOSED.
How About the Minister who Consracts
- Deliver Sermons !--Or the Contract
ing House Builder?
[By teIeernnh % the pIspatch. ]

lBy telegraph 10 the Dtspatcnl
WASHINGTON, February 1s.-The last days
hearing by the House Committee on Agri-
culture on tho anti-option bills was given
to western eraln-men who were against
the enactment of the proposed legisla-
ton.
W. G. Brown. Q miller of Fostoria. o.,
told the committee that any snti-option
bill should be made uniformly operative
on all and should not discriminate. If the
bill under consideration were passed and
applied to all contracts, he said, it would
be illegal for the pastor of church to
contract to deliver two sermons each sun
day for specified time, none OF the ser
mons being written at the time the con-
tract was made. The householder, also,
would be liable to punishment II he con-
tracted to erect house when he did not
have the necessary stock OF timber on
hand.
E. 7. Bacon. president of the Milwaukee
Chainoer Of Commerce. on behalf OF that
body, asked that legislation be delayed,
and that q congressional investigation OF
the subject of futures" be made during
the recess. He maintained that the sys-
tenn enabled producers to dispose of their
crops more readily than would otherwise
Oc tIt case.
Dennison d. Smith, of the Toledo Board
OF Trade. and Mr.. Raymond. of Detroit,
declared that if the Hatch bill became Q
law the farmers would soon curse its pro-
moters. for it would injure aud not bene-
fit them.
Wilbur f. Boyle, lawyer Of st. Louis.
Inaue legal argument IN support OF the
contention that dealing in futures" is
gambling and should be suppressed.
MIR; Clifford, of Kankakee. Ill, then ia
vored an amendment of the bill so as to
make the seller only liable for violation of
the law, and not the broker. who, he said,
could not necessarily know that his GUS
toner had no right under the provisions
OF the law to make the sale.
ihis closed the hearings, and the CON-
mittee adjourned until next Wednesday.
THE SENATE HEARING.
The subcommittee of the Senate Com
mittee on the Judiciary listened this morn.
ing to an argument made in opposition To
the Washburne bill by Mr.. Samuel w. Al
lerton, OF Illinois, who stated that he had
been practical farmer for the past forty
years. The prompter of this bill seemed
to hm to be the mill combine" con-
trolled by English capital. 1t was designed
to destroy the Chicago market-the great
est interior market IN the world. Legis-
lation OF this character had been enacted
and was further proposed. and if it were
continued, before Congress got through q
citizen would not be able to breathe the
fresh air of heaven without being sur
rounded by government spies and detec-
tives. Individual rights were on the verge
of destruction. He ventured the predlc-
tlon that every congressman who voted for
the pending DILL would in two years be as
dead politically as a dried Egyptian num-
my.
j. II. Norton, shipper of Chicago; d.
b. Smith, OF Toledo, and Mr.. Bacon, of
the Milwaukee Chamber of Commerce,
objected to the bill on the ground that it
would cause serious restriction of the
trade in farm products, which would harm
those engaged In handling them and entail
risks by fluctuations in the markets.
which are now avoided by selling on fu-
ture delivery. The speculative instinct
was common to all men, and as nations
advanced new methods were devised to
promote speculation. Remove the pres
ent method and some other, worse in
form, would take its place.