The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-07-15
DIsTuRBERs OF TRADE.

Chicago is just now the seat OF two ele-
ments which are disturbing the industry
and trade Of the country. One of these
combinations is composed OF rich men who
have money enough to send the price Of
July corn up to twice its normal value
IL is Of comparatively little consequence
that the ten milliOnaires who are corner
ing corn will bring 10 financial ruin five
hundred or a thousand men Of much
smaller means, or that they may make
defaulters of a few men who will use the
money of other men who are fighting their
S19O.O0O.OO0 because all are gamblers and
care little for the business of the country.
Hut this is not the case. The cOrnering of
July corn requires great deal of money
so much as to cause a slight stringency
and TO cause banks to ask higher rates of
discount More than that. these gamblers
in wind corn have disturbed the price of
leading commodity in this part of the
country. The transactions have almost
doubled the cost Of keeping the teams of
horses which move the commerce of cities.
and 1t interferes with those manufacturers
who use hundred of thousands of bushels
of corn a week in the production of corn
foods. In other ways this cornering of corn
is an interference with the orderly courses
Of trade and industry. In other words,
the ten men cornering corn are engaged in
a conspiracy in restraint of trade. Tens
of thousands will be losers or will be put
to inconvenience simply that a few mil
y III !,
by getting all the money that few hundred
/ or a thousand men possess or can Dor
/ row. If the trade in corn could be stopped
/ by a number of armed men taking pos
session of the railroads until their price
/ should be paid they would be denounced
as train robbers. IN what regard are these
men who are cornering corn morally any
l better?
The other dsturbers of trade in Chicago
/ are not millionaires, but those whose
leaders spend much Of their time in de-
nouncing the rich. They are the men who
are holding up the commerce of a great
city over a trifing pretext of wages that
does not amount to five cents day to a
man. Those men, the freight handlers, are
backed by hundreds Of teamsters who. only
few weeks ago, made a contract to ac-
cept a certain wage Behind the strikers
are thousands of the criminal classes
| in Chicago, while the men on strike
number about 10000. BY this combina ton
TO paralyze trade. every small farmer
| whose poultry, eggs, seasOnable vegetables
and fruits find a market in or through Chi
! cagO is a loser. 1t is not the rail
roads and the rich of Chicago, but upon
| every man and woman who sends a dol
lars worth of produce to market. Worse
even than this loss to producers is the hard
ship this stoppage of business forces upon
the jewellers of Chicago and other cities
whose food passes through it. Those who
will suffer first and most are people who
earn small wages when employed. but
who, idle now, will have no means with
which TO purchase the necessaries of life
the prices OF which will soon be doubled
while others. like ice and vegetables. will be
entirely cut off.
There is no law which will interfere with
these two classes who are disturbing the
industry and trade of the country. Is il
not possible that the vast majority which
depends upon the orderly movement OF
trade and industry may have some effective
remedy against both of them?