The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1898-01-06
b. p. HUTCHINSON.

u. Il. HUICblNSON.
ing the sale of 5000, 600 bushels of
wheat in one lot. Baker had negotiated
it up to the point of closing Somebody
influenced Keene to halt in it. The OPP
portunity disappeared from that mo-
ment. Nobody knew it at the time, but
all chances of success of Keene disap-
peared with the loss Of that sale.
To find successful wheat corner one
:. mustgo back to 1888. 1t vas in Sep
.tember OF that year Hutchinson pat tbs
price to So bushel. There were less
than 3, 600, 900 bushels of contract grain
in Chicago on the last day of that
month. Hutchinson began his purchase
around so cents, Is cents higher than
the point where Letter began. Septem-
Der was around 90 cents on the first and
at SO ON the last day of the month. The
deal was kept very dark until the last
week. Then the screws were applied
numerically.
The collapse of the Harper deal the
year previous had made every one in.
credulous Of successful manipulation.
This skepticism helped Hutchinson more
than anything else. Oct. the price
was off to $1.02. That there was merit
in the situation was shown by the ad.
vance later without any help to Sl20.
No one has ever owned as much wheat
as Cudahy did in 1898. His line at one
time was 2S, 600, 600 bushels. That was
when Partridge was short at least To-.
900, 900 bushels. There have never been
such titanic risks as were assumed in
that campaign. Cudahy, by supreme
effort, one day-Apil l2-put the May
price to 80 cents.
Pardridge's fortune was in the bal
ance. Cudahy succeeded in forcing
5000, 600 bushels shorts to settle. Par
bridge held out, however. The whole
world was selling wheat. Cudahy had
to abandon the campaign. The panic
had started in financial circles, and his
lard operations demanded all his CAPT.
tai. 1t took Partridge month to cover
up his shorts, and to this day no one
dares to say how large his interest was.
The deal lost the northwest a vast
amount Of money and has made the
Minneapolis and Duluth spectators
timid about hedging at Chicago ever
since.
a collapsed bank, penitentiary sen.
tence for the manipulation and the fail.
IRE of score of board of trade firms
were the results of the Harper wheat
deal Of 1887. The president of the FL.
deity National bank of Cincinnati, an
unscrupulous speculator, reputed TO be
rich and capable, but in truth without
means and passing off effrontery for ca.
pacity, started wheat deal in the
spring of 1887. He gave his brokers the
idea they were acting for Standard Oil
millionaires He bamboozled everybody
around him, the president of his bank,
his directors and his Chicago commits.
sion men. His money came from his
bank, and his speculation was begun
for the purpose Of making for him the
fortune he had claimed, but which he
had never possessed. He began with
wheat around so cents, and on the day
OF his collapse-June IA, l8S7-he pu,
1t to "a cents. He had to take Is, 600.
600 bushels of spot grain, and il he had
kept on he would have had TO pay fol-
$4,000, 600 bushels, for his manipulation
was for July. There was no lack Of
wheat anywhere that year. The board
Of trade directors we~e compelled tc
make emergency warehouse room, such
a'food of it was arriving. Hutchinson
who put wheat to 81 year later, wa,
an active interest against Harper. Their,
were never such shipments from Chi
cago as followed the collapse Of thai
corner.
Corn corners were the rule rather
than tho exception in the early eighties
Kicker, who died leaving less thar
$1,000 900, was known as the "Corr
King" and would manipulate month
after month. The corn crops Of that pc
riod were almost ], 200, 600, 900 bushel
less than they average now, and any