Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1896-05-12
Official Paper of County.
The Teaching Of Obituaries.

The Teaching OF Obituaries.
The recent death of Mr.. Ed. Pard-
ridge, the noted speculator on the
board of trade at Chicago, is calling
forth a large number of obituary
notices, most of which incidentally
give brief opinions as to the effect of
his influence upon those products in
which he operated. These estimates
are all of the same general tenor, and
all tend to prove that he and the busl-
ness in which he was engaged have
been potent factors in the depression
of prices that has been growing
greater and greater for a number of
years past. The Breeders Gazette
says:
For ten years past he has been
one of the heaviest traders in this
market, and his influence was invari-
ably exerted in the direction of de-
pressing values. Prices never got so
still further decline"
The Times-Herald says:
"He has been able for months at O
time when the conditions have been
indistinct to control within certain
limits and to depress prices. A COM
mission man last night said that
Partridge and Rosencrans together
had been equal to an addition of 49,
100000 bushels to the visible supply"
The context of the last extract
shows that the wheat market is
spoken of, and that the two men
named exerted a depressing influence
equivalent to the addition of IS, OOO,-
600 bushels of wheat to the visible
supply of the market.
We refer to this aspect of the life
that has gone out not for the purpose
of condemning the man and his in1u-
ence, for he has passed beyond the
jurisdiction of human judgment. The
farmers and farm papers can not be
expected to wear Grape for him, but
they can and do abstain from saying
what they said of him and those of
similar pursuits during his life. We
do not refer, as has been said, to
these obituary estimates for the
purpose of c%ondemning the man, but
rather in order to call the attention
of congress to a monster evil which
these notices confess and which that
body still permit to exist. 1t profess
es to represent the people of the
United States; and especially does it
profess to have under it's watchful
care the producing interests of the
country-those who by the sweat of
their brow earn a livelihood and
furnish a foundation for the wealth,
progress and prosperity of the land.
Notwithstanding this profession,
congress has at the present session
defeated the bill to repress and re.
strain a species of produce gambling
which the press of Chicago in their
obituary notices of q great trade
operator are obliged to admit, has
been a large element in producing
depression IN products below the
point of remunerative production.
Two of these operators have been
equal to an addition of $4,000, 900 OF
bushels of wheat added to the
visible supply. They have habitually
depressed the market to this large
extent. Multiply these two by al
the others that are similarly engaged
and what must be the result? AND
yet congress, which refused to abol.
ish this depressing influence, profess
es to be the guardian of the interests
of the hard working, wealth creating
people of the country. The two quo
tations above given from Chicago
papers do not stand alone. They
fairly represent the well-nigh univer
sal comment upon the occasion o
Mr.. .Pardridge's death. They are {
fairly accurate estimate of the in1u
ence which the business he was en-.
gagged in exerts upon production
and yet congress permits that infu
ence to continue.-Homestead.