The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-08-03
THEuFAMous LARD CORNER.
An object Lesion That Should Interest
the Silverites.
rChicago Herald.1

few years ago Milwaukee gentle
man who had acquired $3.50, 900 in sue
cessful speculation on the Board of Trade
in that city put his money in Chicago
hanks and camped down here with the
purpose of increasing his $3.50, 900 to
full 81, 900, 900. He proposed to corner
the lard market by purchasing all the
lard in sight and to sell it for four
times as much as he had paid for it.
The campaign of the Milwaukee in
yader had been planned with great care
and sagacity. He had ascertained the
amount of the lard for sale in all the ac-
cessible markets and the amount that
could be added to the visible supply pre-
yious to hog killing time The demand
for lard he could calculate with great ac-
curacy, as the amount sold for consump-
tion varied but little, generally increas-
ING. from year to year. Lard was minor
production in the provision industry. 1t
was one of the necesSaries of life, an ar
ticIe of food, prepared and sold only for
domestic use The little lots of few
tierces bought and sold from time to
time in the provision pit were real tran
sactions for actual delivery to the trade.
All the successful, elements for cornern
appeared to be present-a commodity of
which the supply was limited, or which
the demand was Imperative and the
market value of which would increase,
as a scarcity should be produced by buy
ing all in sight and holding it up for
higher prices.
This scheme worked well for short
time. 1t was managed with impervious
secrecy as long as possible. All the lard
offered for sale in ordinary commercial
lots was bought at once, but none was
sold. A slight scarcity followed, with
higher prices. Then buyers appeared,
asking for lard with singular monotony
of tone. The price further advanced.
Those needing lard to sell for domestic
use were charged much higher and rapid
Embarrassing rates. The sharp spectators
could not be deluded longer. The evil
dences of cornern were everywhere
present The lard options had been
bought to an extent covering the entire
Milwaukee mans million dollars APP
peared almost in sight.
Then the scramble for lard began. The
men who had sold lard options at 6 cents
could not buy lard for 10 cents. 1t went
up and up in price until it was worth IA
or Is cents a pound. This price brought
out the lard.
The price of lard had so increased that
half-grown and half-fatted pig was
worth more for it's lard on the spot than
if kept and fatted until killing time, to
be then butchered and dissected for
hams, shoulders, short ribs, sides, and
jowls, with the ordinary proportion OF
lard Every body owning hogs sold them,
not for meat, but to be thrown whole into
the rendering tanks for their fat. The
later pork market might take care of it.
self but the present inflated lard market
must yield all the returns possible.
Other devices were adopted. Beef tallow
and cottonseed oil were put into the lard
to as great an extent as possible to swell
the bulk and weight of the product.
The speculator who tried to establish a
lard corner found all his options filled
and more offered than he could buy. He
borrowed all the money that he and his
friends could raise in Milwaukee and
Chicago, and still the oleaginous supply
came pouring in upon him. He was
compelled to 8lie down." owing millions
of dollars, and the lard that he had
bought shrank in price from 10 cents to
cents pound.
The history of the lard corner and it's
collapse illustrates exactly the process
through which free silver coinage would
carry the country if it should be adopted.
It would bring out the product of the
least as we'll as of the most productive
mines. All the old silver sugar bowls
and snoons, the worn-out silver orna-
ments, the silver relics and heirlooms,
would be sent to the melting pot in the
mint for coinage into dollars. Montana's
deformed statue of justice and silver
idols from Japan would goswith worn-out
plate and smooth halves and quarters to
swell the output Of coin. Instead of $780,
600, 900 or $780, 900, 900 in silver coin, as we
now have, we should have $4,000, 900,
and it would be as cheap as it was
plenty We would have dollars worth
but 80 cents each or less. The price of
commodities would advance as the value
of money decreased, and those who would
suffer most would be the class to whom
the free coinage theorists say that it