Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1893-01-06
The Anti-OptiOn Bill.

unanimous opposition from the city press,
and the farmers are mildly called ignora-
muses. for advocating its passage. 1t is
said they know nothing of finance, and
by advocating the anti-option bill are
working against their own interests. One
would think from the tone of the city press
that the "bulls and bears of the chamber
of commerce were public bcnefactors, and
that the buying and selling OF options was
largely designed to help the farmers. The
New York Times, in commenting on the
action of the Connecticut Agricultural so
ciety in calling upon the senators of that
state TO support the anti-option bill says:
"The prices established under the sales for
future delivery are legitimate prices and
are determined by the relations of supply
and demand" Is this true? When the
"bulls' combine to get corner on wheat
and crowd up the prices from day to day
until they get an advance Of % cents per
bushel, is it the supply and demand that
makes the price?
Again the Times says, "Speculators may
gamble upon inevitable fluctuations and
contend with one another in efforts to pro-
duce fluctuations, but their gains and losses
are mutual. What they make, they make
out Of one another, and what they lose,
they lose to one another. They do not de-
press prices for the producer 1t is very
evident that the producer must suffer if the
clears" reduce the price, unless the pro-
ducer has the means and sagacity to hold
his wheat
Suppose the "bulls" have the market
and are successful in advancing the price
of wheat; the price of flour will follow the
price of wheat, and the consumers will
have to pay the advance. 1t is true the
farmer, who may be 50 fortunate as to have
wheat on hand at such times, and is
shrewd enough to sell, will profit by the
rise. This whole gambling operation keeps
the market unsettled, and the only salts.
| faction which the outsider can get is in
| the occasional failure of some gamblers.
! Generally there are more option dealers
interested in depressing than in advanc-
! ing prices, consequently the multitude of
"bears' offer millions Of bushels of wheat,
corn or oats, more than are produced in
the country, without being the owners of
a bushels of either, and the farmer, who is
obliged to sell, is at the mercy of the gam
blers. But aside from the injury done the
producer and the consumer, the spirit of
gambling fostered and encouraged by the
selling of options has done more to demor-
alize the people than all the gambling sa-
looms in the country.
In the West every place of any import
ancc has its bucket-shop" where the
"lambs" are easily shorn. 1t is only a few
years since the cities of Grand Rapids and
Saginaw, Mich, were badly crippled from
the losses sustained through these bucket
shops, and the writer has personal know
ledge of men who were worth hundred
thousand dollars or more losing from thirty
to fifty thousand dollars in a single deal
and of young men, who by hard work had
saved few hundred dollars, losing the
whole.
Now don't know the full bearing of the
Hatch or Washburn bill now pending ir
Congress, but it does seem as though oul
legislators ought to have the wisdom to sc
frame a bill, as to stop, in measure a
least, this gambling in futures without in
terfering with legitimate trade
FARMER.