The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-08-24
WHO is DOING IT?
MARVELLOUS MYSTERY IN THE PRES
EMIT MANIPULATION OF WHEAT.

Some Great Concern ID Back Of 1t, Bu
Unlike All Preceding 3Isuipulators, NJ
Ono Will Tell Who il Builips Wheat-A
Young and Obscure Gentleman Nance
French 10 Doing All tho Active Work
| But Refuses to Say Where He Gets Hi
Orders-Another Young Man Has Al
ready Mad. q Great Fortune.
Chicago, Aug. 23.-The Times-Hetal:
says: There was never such a gra.r
campaign as is now being carried on ir
Chicago by some mysterious principal:
through brokerage house which did moi
exist two years ago.
Armour ran a famous wheat deal In
1sS2-one he had inherited from Johr
| Piankington and Kershaw. He put the
squeezed his shorts SO that they never
forgot it and handled probably 5000 DOC
! bushels spot grain and futures. That
| deal made no great money for anybody.
excited the bitterest sort of feelings and
led to years Of litigation. 1t was a
| dangerous, difficult effort on the part OF
Armour to pull his friend Plankington
out OF an enormous loss. That was a
great deal only in the wonderful nerve
| shown in overcoming obstacles.
There was Hutchinson wheat deal
in 1883. when the September price was
! put to s. But that was a deal merely
OF losses. Hutchinson made no money
| out Of it, for in a few years after that
he was broke.
There was : wheat fiasco In 1887, when
Harper of The Fidelity Bank OF Cincin-
natl had about 10000, 900 bushels bought
for July. That deal merely resulted in
the collapse Of the Fidelity Bank, the
Imprisonment Of Harper and the fail
ure OF about twenty commission con-
Germs on the Board of Trade.
In 1893 John Cudahy owned 20, 900 900
bushels OF wheat, but the panic made
it impossible to finance it, and the whole
line was liQuidated. The only memora-
BILE feature was the losses pocketed by
the grain people OF the northwest.
There is now afoot a grain campaign
which possibly involves 0,000, 900 bushels
Of wheat, 10000 bushels OF corn and
5000, 900 bushels of oats. II is more re-
nfarkabie than any other anybody can
recall, and there are a few people still
left whose memories can go back to the
time when the Chicago market started.
No one knows whose wheat campaign
IT is. Heretofore the crowd has always
been able to decide as to the principals
Of any deal within a few weeks after
the operation has plainly developed. AL
though this present line Of wheat was
accumulated as long ago as April, al
though 1t was turned over from July to
September at a profit Of $500, 900, and al
though an even greater profit has been
made in il since, no one knows any more
than that Joe Letter has some moderate
interest in It,, and that the principals
have apparently enough money to pay
for all they buy. The assumption has
been that it was started in New York
by Wall Street people with a view of
helping to get Wall street out of its
Slough. A profit of around $1,500, 600
has been made, enough to start any or
binary SPECTATORS tongue to wagging,
but the people running this campaign
have not been induced by their wonder
full profits to admit their identity There
never before vas such case of taciturn-
ity. The speculative winner usually
wants 10 tell of it.
Nobody knows how it happened that
Allen, Grier & Zeller, a new grain firm,
made up about two years ago with a cap
ital of 100000. came to get this huge
business.
Nobody knows how 1t happened that
all the orders came to a young broker,
George B. French, who a year ago was
clerk in the Atchison Railroad Office,
and VINO year before that was clerk
in the st. Paul Railroad Office.
1t is mere surmised, because this
young man is exceptionally well con-
is a rich Wall street man and because
the young man himself had commenda-
tory letters to people in the West from
J. P. Morgan, the great banker, that ne
now gets his extraordinary grain orders
from New York. 1t is all a guess. It is
known that Philip D. Armour handled
the cash grain for Broker French when
his customers had some millions of II
in July. and it also known that Armour
said then he knew who the principals
were and that they had enough money
for all their wants without going TO the
bank for il.
This has been a wonderful grain deal |
in that there has been no fighting to do. |
The people who bought wheat for July |
were right in it. The facts have been |
with them from the start They have |
had 10 do no bulldozing. squeeze no |
shorts. The outside markets have been |
As strong as the Chicago, and the cash |
wheat has been az premium over the |
futures from the very outset. It has |
been an equal deal. II has had the sit |
uation with il, it has the required money. |
1t is wonderful deal in its extent 1t |
has been considered a venturesome thing |
anybody for any body TO load |
Up With 10000. 900 bushels of wheat The
inc of whea, that the present bull cam
paigners have is not as large as their
inc OF corn. They turned" S .000. 900 bush
is Of corn from September % December
n one dsy. They never send an order
.or less than 1000 1000 bushels onto .he
floor. II is assumed that that their line
II corn is not less than 10000. 900 bushels.
They sold 3.eOo.oo bushels OF corn yester-
lay and then took il all back on calls
II night. Nobody before played like that
ma kept mis- identity a secret. This bull
,1oxi has a line OF oa.s not less than
900. 1000 bushels. II bought :. 500 COO
bushels on Friday alone. Its oat line
nay be as large as It's line OF corn. The
raie is amazed at the scale os this cam
,a.gn- There is apparently holding Of
Q. oeo,0e0 bushels % grain. all with pro-
i. in l.. and all handled as il i. were an