The age-herald., 1898-05-06
THE WAR MAKES
 JOE LETTER RICH Wheat Advances and Pulls Him
 Out of Disaster. APLUNGE ALL BUT BROKE HIM When the Clouts of Conflict Saved tie Day and Melted Him Millions of Dollars.
 Letter Began His famous
 Deal in April 1897.
APLUNGE ALL BUT BROKE HIM

Chicago May 2.-The war has made Jos
 eph Letter millions of dollars. In one month
 wheat has advanced thirty cents bushel
 in Liverpool and pulled young Letter out of the jaws of disaster. Men in the trade are talking of nothing but Letters luck. A
 plunge in December and May wheat that threatened to swallow the profits of his
 early. campaign and drag him down to ruin
 has been turned into a colossal triumph. Letters estimated profits are In 1897:
 July deal, s50O,OOO September deal, $129,0JO; and December deal, s3s0.O0o, and in 1S9S-
 May deal, S1 zoo, 900, or a total of s2,I500oO.
 This is a tidy sum for man of thirty to make in a year. Letter is preparing now
 to leave the scene of his triumph. He will quit it is said, after July.
 The latest gossip is that he is interested with the elevator and flour mill kings of the northwest, Peavey and Pillsbury, m corner in July wheat in the northwest, and that the July campaign up there will end his work. He is not in July in this market, except as a scalper. The northwestern deai
 does not figure in the above analysis of his campaigns. Tomorrow is delivery day on the board or trade The men who have sold Letter mil lions of bushels of wheat for May delivery must either settle at the market or deliver the wheat lnSlue Ol tliillS dpS
 No one knows where the price Will go. It closed today at $120
 Letter began his famous deal in April, 1897. There had not been bull campaign worthy of the name since the Russian famine of 1891 Jack Cudahy tried the long
 side in the spring of 1893 and lost money
 He began buying May wheat around 70 and accumulated line of 20,O0o00O bushels. This buying put the price to I cents.
 Then he began to get out Pardridge was short 15000,o00 and got frightened. The Pardridge covering saved Cudahy's fortune but Cudahy lost heavily. He supplemented d this disaster with the famous bull pork deal which the panic wlthered in July. 1895 This cost Cudahy, Fairbanks and others $l0.00O,- COl, and wiped out three of the heayi st commission firms.
 Cudahy had been recuperating since and has taken up notes representing milkons Of indebtedness. For six years the ca sy, sure way to make money on the board Of trade was to "sell wheat" The elevator combine sold,. the plungers sold, everybody sold, only the lambs bought.
 For six months prior to Letters debut the cables told of a great shortage of wheat in Europe, India and South America Chicago bears laughed at the news con
 frmation of the famine made prices lower
 Then came the Greek war. This had mer- curial effect on quotations but it was only temporary. ,
 Early in April of last year winch war
 and ssfamine' were the topics and July wheat was around 65 cents, George E.
 French began distributing heavy buying or ders. He selected a comparatively new frm-Allen, Grier & Zeller-to executive the orders. MT French had gathered some experience e in Wall street which cost him his moaest fortune and later entered the railroad bnsi- ness. When he appeared in the board or trade as a bull the trade began looking TOT his principal. It was sad French r. pre-
 santed A Wall street syndicate. of when Leene was a leading member. In four weeks the trade learned the truth, put even thon if helieyed some powerful interest was behind Letter.
 On April 10, 1897, July wheat was low at s4s,. Letters buying and the war scare mi it at 66h in two days. Between Apri m and Julv Letter bought S000,000 bushels of wheat for July delivery. There was very little wheat delivered to him on these con- tracts The men who sold it to him under 70 cents bought 1t back in July at s5 cents and IT cents a bushel.
 This 5000 00q bushels Is said to have been bought at an average of 6S. It was sold at an average of 75, giving profit of cents a bushel.,s The profit on the July deal was s5G0 ,000 Of this, brokers commissions, carving charges and other expenses amounted to $600 900; so that on July s1. 1897. Letter had clean s5c0,000 to his credit One weeklater after that he purchased a piece of real estate on Adams street, near Lasalle street. paying $40o,000 for it.
 Early in July the foreign demand began to be felt Although July wheat was up in the seventies, September wheat was up in a condition of collapse around G. The prefnilIm was enticing and Letter began to