The San Francisco call., 1897-12-12
BATTLE Of
MOuARCHS
OF MONEY.
Struggle for Supremacy
in the Great Wheat
Market.
LETTERS HAVE THE
BEST HAND.
Phil Armour Making a Mighty
Effort to Cover His
Shorts.
HAS AGENTS EVERYWHERE
BUYING WHEAT.
But 1t Is Believed the King Of Pack
ers Will Not Get Enough to
Break the Price.
Phil Armour Making a Mighty
Effort to Cover His
Shorts.
HAS AGENTS EVERYWHERE
BUYING WHEAT.
But 1t Is Believed the King Of Pack
ers Will Not Get Enough to
Break the Price.
Special Dispatch to THE CALL

CHICAGO, Dec. 1.-THE floor of the
Board OF Trade in this city is now the
scene of one of the greatest, II not the
greatest, financial and commercial battles
of modern times, and the leaders of op-
posing factions are recognized as reigning
monarchs in the world of money.
Levi u. Letter, who has to all intents
and purposes cornered wheat, is fighting
for supremacy against Philip d. Armour,
the multimillionaire pork packer, who for
tie first time in his history has met foe
man worthy of his steel. To use a stereo-
typed phrase. 1t is veritably battle OF the
giants. Each is backed by unlimited
capital, and each is fighting for what to
him is dearer than life. Every resource
known to men of resources is being drawn
on by each to defeat the other, even to
overturning the laws of nature. 1t is
battle which IS putting all previous
cliques and corners" and deals to shame.
Lesser operators on the board can do
nothing but stand by and look on in
wonder.
Where is the victory going? No one
can tell. All the brokers know is the
facts which are indicated in what fol-
lows. Mr.. Armour is short" on a long
line in Dece m ber-that is, be has sold
many bushels which he agrees to deliver
this month, but which he has yet to pur-
chase. Tho Letters, Levi and Joseph,
have purchased still more wheat, all of
which is to be delivered to them this
month. The amount is estimated by out
| siders at from 1000 900 to 10, 600 bushels,
and the Letters stand ready TO pay for
every bushel of it. Mr.. Armour cannot
| purchase in Chicago all the wheat he has
already sold, and which he must tender
| to purchasers before Decemb Der 81. Most
of this wheat Mr.. Armour sold a IS cents
and less, and he is sorely grieved to know
that the market price of wheat is 81 04,
| and the Letters, Levi and Joseph, are
| overjoyed at that bit of news. All the
| wheat in Chicago put together would
make only 3.G00,000 bushels-Iess than
| half of what Mr.. Armour needs.
So the Grand Old Man of the wheat
market has set in motion all the vast
machinery of the trade which his long
! business career has built up. Like so many
tentacles, his fingers are reaching out
| every where, and always the demand is
''sell me wheat" Agents are working
| through the West, buying every pound of
foodstuff for sale. Mr.. Armour's eyes look
most enviously upon the CITY of Min
neapOis, where there are in store 8 900 900
| bushels of No. l Northern. He can get
1 most OF that wheat, but he will have to
! pay for it. Some of it he already has sue
| ceeded in purchasing. and this morning
| 100000 bushels of it slipped very quietly
| into Chicago harbor.
! Throug hout the Western country agents
| are buying wheat, and railroads are being
choked with business. The vast cereal
gathering power of the Chicago, Mlwau-
kee and St Paul Railroad is aiding the
| cause. Ohlo, Indiana and Illinois dealers
are selling all the grain they own at a big
profit, and it is rumDling toward Chicago
in living box cars.
| So great has Mr.. Armour's greed for
| wheat become that the eastward course of
| grain has been stopped aud now the tide
| has set back again toward the West. Five
hundred thousand bushels in transit for
Buffalo have been ordered shipped back
| to Chicago, from which port it was cleared
only few days ago. The fields OF the
vast Southwest are beginning TO get really
| TO unload their crops in Chicago.
The price of wheat Is so high IN Chicago
to-day that it would have been profitable
to ship 1t from New York TO the lower end
| OF Lake Michigan. But still The cry is,
| Sell me wheat" For, alter all has been
| said, the crushing information is given
out that the Letters are preparing to ship
5000 900 bushels OF wheat 10 Europe, thus
decreasing the supply to that extent.
To add to the woes of Armour the sys-
tenn of grain inspection in Chicago never
| was so rigid as 1t is now. And there is
reason for this, too. Joseph Letters son
! IS a colonel on the staff of the Governor
OF Illinois. The Office of grain inspector
Is one wholly within the gift of the Cover
nor. A word 10 brokers is sufficient on
that score. The Letters do not want De-
| Gem ber' wheat TO advance in price Just
yet. 1t is too early in the month. They
realize that wheat at 81 or more on the
Chicago Board of Trade will bring in
So when cereals scared to 81 09 two days
ago they unlcaded moro than any one
| man or set of men. ought to own, thus
checking the upward career.
But wnen it gets toward the end of the
month they are willing to see wheat sell
at any figure, 81 so preferred. 1t will then
| be too late 10 flood the Chicago m market
enough 10 break the price. and they will
have the job of squeezing enjoya bic
enough and at the same lime profitable
enough to cause an ordinary man to get
| heart disease.
Meanwhile, Mr.. Armour is taking no
| chances, even With the elements. He has
hired tugs to keep the harpor at Dulut h
and the Straits OF Sault Ste. Marie open.
| He has even sent boatloads of dynami te
to those ice-locked bays and straits to
keep open pas ssageways for his wheat
laden boats. The situation is one which
| would make men of less nerve sweat
blood and walk the floor of nl.hts. VIII
Armour be able TO get enough grain to
break the market2 Many say no, and
they hack their assertions by the fact that
the West and Northwest have marketed
almost three-fourths of the crop.
4 North Dako'a, they say. already has
parted with So per cent of its holdings
Minnesota with 20. South Dakota with 75
Iowa and Nebraska with Y, and the South.
west with 70 per cent OF It's crops. Some
go even so tar as 10 say those theorists and
extremists who some time ago predicted
that America would be importing wbea
for its own use before spring were not al
together insane.