The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-10-22
MARK HANNA AND THE RISE in
WHEAT.

The special chicago CoAAC
of the Atlanta Constitution sent to
that paper about ten days ago story
well vouched for, he said, in which
Mark Hanna was said to have raised
the snm of S5,oo0,ooo for the purpose
Of bulling the wheat market.
! Marks manifest object. as clearly
explained by the Constitutions cor
respondent, was to try by this dodge
10 make the Western farmer think
that good times were coming back
even though Mr.. Bryan was not in the
White House.
Whether by a strange coincidence or
not the wheat market began very soon
to rise with abnormal rapidity. And
in the light of events we incline to
the opinfon that the coincidence
theory wont stand, but that the cor
respondents theory was correct. In
this view, we are confirmed by the
double-scare head which appeared
on the front page of Tuesdays New
York World.
Here is the head: DOLLAR WHEAT
MAYBE. A BOOM IN GRAIN MEANS
Sl35, 391,o15 PROFIT TO THE FARM
Frs. ALL IN THE PAST SIX
WEEKS, WITH EVERY CLICK OF
THE TICKER A WESTERN FARM
MORTGAGE is RAISED. AND Sill
YER GOES DOWN, DOWN" and so on.
This is a sub-head of the story that
follows: FARMERS PROFIT ON
WHEAT IN CLOSE POLITICAL
STATES"
Don't that subhead look as if Mark
Hanna had taken job of telegraph
editing at the World desk?
Then another sub-head: EFFECT
ON DOUBTFUL STATES" 1t is hard
to doubt that the Constitutions cor
respondent sized up the situation quite
nicely.
Yesterday comes slump in
wheat of over three cents-from two
stated causes, namely, the tightness OF
the money market, land from the FACT
THAT NUMBER 3 HARD WINTER
WHEAT is SELLING AT FROM 9
TO 10 CENTS BELOW THE DBCBM-
BIER MARK HANNA OPTION.
The trouble about the Worlds big
figures in it's double-scare is that the
farmers are holding the winter red
and the room-traders and spectators
are holding the December option.
Where does the farmer come in?
1t is the old story of certain OPP
ton being stimulated by artificial
means to a figure beyond the normal
value of grain, and so it has been in
this instance. And thus wheat comes
tumbling back, and the farmers may
know too that the money market is
still under stress, its tightness as
sorting itself under any unusual
strain.
And too, the great story went that
India was starving, and England must
have the wheat, and yet yesterday one
of the bear agencies at work was the
foreign offerings here of wheat. 1t is
strange that England should be sell
ing under such demand from India.
The inflow of gold has been played
too, but the Bank of England puts up
the rate promptly to check it. No
the same trouble lies at the root of the
whole matter, namely, gold is locked
up, and wheat is still as low as it ever
was, except speculatiyely for Decem-
Der, which option is ten cents higher
than the wheat held by the farmers.
They read the Worlds figures, per-
haps, but they wont be able to count
up any cash for wheat sold.
1t does look like only another one
of the fake enterprises being sprung
daily by Hanna. The flag fake, and
the wheat fake can be compared with
nothing more appropriately than the
Davenport cartoon in the Journal, in
which Mark Hanna stands corpulenly
laughing at starving labor.
But the consoling feature Of all this
disreputable business is that none but
men desperately conscious of the
weakness of their cause and of their
candidate would be straining at such
gnats while they swallow the camel Of
which the people complain.
As a mere corallary to all this, let
it be said that just as this Deem
Der wheat option has been marked up
by Hanna ten cents above the normal
value of wheat in the farmers hand,
SO has the value of the gold dollar
been marked up by men of his kidney
to 100 cents above the value of the
money in the hands of the people. As
the farmers have no December options
in wheat, nither do they participate
in the rise in gold. They stand off
and see both rise and are told in big
headlines of the good times, but when
they put their hands in the till, they
find only the shadow and not the sub
stance.
Gold has been put up just as that
wheat was put up, only the great
bulk of wheat prevents complete
corner, and so it drops to its normal
value. Gold is easily cornered, but
with the addition of silver, money
will share the final result of specu
lative wheat figures, namely return
to the basis that really obtains with
the people.
This wheat-movement will do to
watch.