The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1902-10-23
"CORNERS,, ON GR4IN.

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There has been considerable COM
ment OF late on grain corners and
their effect on the legitimate market.
The Chicago board of trade has been
the Waterloo of many great s'corner''
operators and grain gambling wrecks
have strewn the sea coast of commerce,
The recent resort of a prominent grain
firm on the Chicago board of trade to
the courts for protection from annihil-
alton in business because of monkeying
with the board of trade buzz saw and
the granting of the injunctions by the
court, will no doubt have wholesome
effect on the gambling phase of the
grain trade.
A recent address by F. O. Paddock
OF Toledo, read at the National Grain
Dealers convention at Peoria, Ills,
brought out some interesting points.
He charged that the grain inspection
in Chicago was at times manipulated
to suit the large operators who were
conducting corner on the market, and
stated his experience in shipping
three different consignments of good
clean corn to Chicago, the grade on
which was not determined by the char
ter OF the grain but was graded low be-
cause the big manipulators wanted it
to grade that way. Mr.. Paddock said:
"a grain corner in Chicago affects the great
commercial interests of the whole country, Just
as cancer or blood poisoning does the system
it poisons all the life-giving and health-pro-
ducing conditions of all the arteries of the
grain trade. from the producer to the consumer
and must be done away with if we hope to re-
gain and maintain normal conditions in the
business on the legitimate basis of the law of
| supply and demand. Cash grain in the country
as you all know, bears little or no relation to
the contract made in "a corner" no matter
how good the quality, and the farmer or coun-
try dealer rarely if ever derives any benefit
whatever from corner
He made the charge that the in
speotion of grain in Illinois was a crea-
ture of politics and was regulated by
political influence. He thought that
If tie proper grain inspection commits
sion was appointed that the grading
''in" would be somewhere within gun
shot of the grading ''out'' and that
corners would become extinct. The
commercial grade should be the con-
tract grade, as grain that is good
enough for millers, and consumers east
and west and that is good enough to
ship to the markets of the world ought
to be good enough for any man buying
for future delivery whether for actual
use or speculation.
He gave a few instances of the re-
suits of corners: ''Old Hutch was re-
puted to have had more cash in the
bank than any man in Chicago; the
amount is said to have been eight to
ten millions. He put September wheat
to So and died in poverty. slack"
Cudahy had three to five millions in
bank in 1898, and before the summer
was over and his corner ended, he owed
two and one-half million dollars. Joe
Letter IS said to have cost his father
seven millions in the greatest deal
ever attempted. Coster & Marion
went broke" after putting corn to a
dollar bushel. Phillips and his blind
pool met their Waterloo in May; and
have had it intimated that the Har-
ris-Gates crowd are some two or three
millions behind on their July corn
corner" .~