The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-07
Armour Keeping the Bull Guessing
and Great Losses May Follow.
New York Pres:


New York Press
There is the curious situation in Chicago
OF man trying to deliver to another man
the goods the first man bought, and thereby
break him, although the market price OF
the aforesaid goods is greater now than
that at which they were bought. This is
about the situation of the Armour-Leiter
duel which is now going on. Another in
teresting thing about it is that the attempt
or Armour 10 deliver wheat to Letter which
that young man had bought is the biggest
individual attempt at wheat delivery which
the world ever saw or probably ever viii
see. For several months Joseph Letter has
been sending up the price of wheat on the
Chicago Board of Trade by his large buy
ings. Finally his dealings came down to
this: that Phil Armour was to deliver to
him in December several million bushels of
wheat. How much nobody knows except
those interested and they won't tell.
RumDr has it that 100000 bushels is the
amount. Now, when Mr.. Armour found
himself with this big contract on hand nav
igation on the great lakes was closng-had,
in fact, partly closed-and the seasons
traffic was supposed to be over 1t is said
cost him on an average IS cents bushel.
1t is much higher now, and if Armour could
not deliver the actual wheat he would have
to pay Mr.. Letter the difference between
the price Letter bought for and the market
price.
Mr. Armour determined to deliver the
wheat, and incidentally, to have some
sport with the finances of young Mr.. Letter.
He telegraphed his agents in the Northwest
passage of the 500" canal free from ice
and he hired tugs to force a passage
through the ice which had formed in the
harbor of Duluth.
A big fleet of steamers was hurried to
Duluth and Fort William and long trains
of cars were chartered. The people of Chi
cago were surprised to see ship after ship
come steaming into port loaded down with
wheat after the ordinary time of lake
traffic had gone by for the season, and they
said with surprise, why, Chicago has here
tofOre exported wheat, not imported it,
Then they learned that a battle of the
giants was on, a battle between an old and
tried giant and a new and untried one, and
they shook their heads and said this time
Goliath would get the drop on David:
held a consultation with his son, and is
said to have told him to fight out the fight
if It took every cent in the family locker:
Then young Mr.. Letter said 20 old Mr.
Armour, Before / accept the grain you
have been at so much trouble and expense
to bring me- as per contract. must be as
tract calls for" Then Mr. Letter had some
of the wheat inspected. declared that it was
not up to the contract and refused to accept
it. One case has been decided in his favor
and others are pending before The proper
officials of the Board of Trade. Now. that
wheat was hastily collected, and If Mr..
Letter can prove that q large part of 1t is
not up to the contract, then that part is
thrown back ON Mr.. Armour and that
tute general is hanked
1t may be asked IF Mr.. Letter bought the
wheat for less than the market price to-
him for less than the market price, why
does he not take it? If a. man offers to sell
me an overcoat for IS and l accept, and be-
fore get the overcoat from the shop the
price goes up to &c. 1 would be foolish not
to. carry out my part of the contract and
take the coat for SIS.
Very true; but what holds good in buying
an overcoat does not hold true in buying
ten million bushels of wheat. If Mr.. Letter
accepted the wheat offered him and stored
it his books would show that he was ''ahead
of the game" for he would be possessed Of
so many bushels of wheat worth, say, 81
cents bushel, for which he had paid only
So cents a bushel.
But In reality he would be away behind
at the end of "a year. Nothing except a
would pull him out even for he would be
possessed of an elephant which would be
better still, his wheat would be ike the
farmers mortgage. The farmer can work
all day, but the mortgage works all day
The storage charges on that wheat and
the interest on the money locked up in ii
and the interest on the money spent for
storage charges would mount up so fast
that there would be an area of retrench-
ment and economy in the Letter family. II
he attempted to get rid of 1t at once, the
throwing of such large amount of wheat
on the market would send the price down
like shot. He could only get rid of it with
safety by selling in small lots from time to
time.
If he can refuse to take considerable
portion of the wheat offered because of its
IOl DelIlS up 10 TIE Contract, lie lldy De dplS
to take care of the part which he has to
accept and the part thrown back on Mr..
Armour that gentleman will have to take
care of and pay Mr.. Letter something to
boot for not delivering all grain up to con-
tract.
1t is pretty sharp generalship on both
sides. and it may be that it will yet be a
drawn battle. in which the losses will not
be slight on either side.
1t is an interesting fact that the amount
of wheat delivered to Mr. Letter by Mr..
Armour. or offered by him, is greater than
that delivered at New York in any one
month the past year-a year when the de-
liverieS have been unusually heavy. In the
month of October there was delivered at the
port of New York something less than 5000,
600 bushels of wheat and that was the
heaviest month for deliveries in the year.
Mr.. Armour is supposed to have brought
to Chicago for delivery to MIR. Letter no
less than 10000 900 bushels.