St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-05-27
a GREAT UNDERTAKING.

The S. II. Wood Produce Company,
OF minneapolis. successfully.
Carry Out heir Plan OF insur.
ing Investors Against Loss, Whos
Buy wheat at Present Prices.
Several months ago the S. ii. Wood
! Produce Company, grain brokers of:
Minneapolis and New York. offered to
buy May wheat for their customers, and
! guarantee the customers against loss or
May Isl, providing the markets did not
go up so that customers could sell out at
profit before that time.
10 outsiders the undertaking seemed
Il risky one, but while The markets have
been BADLY demoralized the S. Ii. Wood
Produce Company nave carried zIheipl
contracts through successfully, and
deserve full credit for their part i'll fine.
transaction, for they have saved good
many investors who would have lost had
II not been for their guarantees.
A reporter for the GLOBE called at,
the Office of the S. II. Wood Produce
Company Yesterday and had long talk
with Mr.. Wood, the manager, during
which time he was shown large pile
OF guarantee statements, stamped, re-,
/ deemed and cancelled, and also the
| checks and drafts which have come
back through the banks, showing how
and when the guarantees were paid.
Speaking of the transactions. Mr..
Wood said: "Our original offer to
guarantee against loss was for only
100000 bushels, but the plan became So
popular with our Customers that we had
at one time nearly 100000 bushels guar
anteed. The advance of nearly nine
cents bushel in April enabled good
many of our customers to sell out at
profit, and which of course brought
them profit, and relieved us of Il part
OF our burden. We began settling these
contracts about the 18th of April, and
| nave paid them up right along as
| promptly as 1t was possible to do in SO
! large transaction. There are a few
contracts which have not come in vet.
but the great bulk of our guarantees
have been paid, and the others will he,
| as fast as presented"
| Speaking OF the risk. Mr.. Wood said:
Our plan is a simple one. and the risk
IS not us large as is generally supposed.
| we do not guarantee all Speculations.
! and we limit the amount of our guaran-
tees to 100000 bushels. We do not guar
| antee more than 10000 bushels for any
single customer, SO that we can give
every customer an opportunity to have
part OF his holdings guaranteed. Our
charges for guaranteeing are Sl.50 per
each LOCO bushels. when a i've cent
margin is used; $3.50 for four cent
margin. and 1925 for three cent mar
gin. In addition to this we get 10 per
cent OF the profits made on purchase.
| This gives us double commission,
especially when customer makes
| profit. and at the present low prices
| with i've cent margin the risk is not
great"
The reason spectators lose so much
money in buying wheat is usually be-
| cause the, use too light margin. They
want to buy 1000 bushels of wheat with
! only $40 or $50. By our guarantee plan
they use good margin in the first place,
and ii any more is needed, we put it up
for them. During the great run of
| liquidation in March we protected our
own and our customers interests by
hedging and buying privileges, so that
| we have saved our customers from loss
by our guarantees and have made money
ourselves.
We are the only brokers in the city
who dare to thus share in the riskswitll
our customers, and almost the sonly
brokers who have real estate back of
us. in addition to our working capital,
and our success under the guarantee
plan is highly gratifying both to us and
our customers. We are now Offering to
guarantee customers against loss who
buy December wheat at the present low
price. and believe they will make 20
cents bushel on it.
The company have suite of SiX.pleaS-
ant offices on the niuth floor of the
Guaranty Loan building, but their
business has grown so large that they
are considering the question of remov-
ing to larger rooms on the ground floor,
or to the Bank of Minneapolis building.