The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1905-02-24
GATES THREATENS
TWO DOLLAR WHEAT
Great Market Gambler Is Said
to Be Out for Gore in
the May Deal.
LINE TO REACH Ao,OOO,OOo
John w. Proposes to Run the Biggest
Grain Corner Vet and the Small
Bear Fry Are Fast Dropping
Out of the Game.

Chicago, Feb. lS-John w. Gates is
out for the blood of bears in the wheat |
pit. This much became so plain with
in twenty-four hours after he reached |
the city Monday that it required the
sale of millions of bushels of his wheat
to prevent a premature touching off
of the fireworks.
Mr.. Gates left for the Pacific coast
over the Illinois Central last night
planning to stop en- route at the hot
springs in Arkansas, and to remain un-
til April l. Before going he said that
present prices of wheat would look
very cheap within the next sixty days.
AS this has been his boast for some
time and as he has a plan OF making
good his boasrs-wnen ii suits his pur-
poses to do so-there was a panicky
feeling among the shorts in wheat.
Bears Panic Has Cause.
In the large number Of conversations
held by MI Gates with friends and ac-
quaintances who called at his office in
the Rookery and the Railway Exchange
building and at the Chicago club.
where he spent most of the Monday
holiday, great deal leaked out to
give basis for the fears of the bears in
wheat.
Mr.. Gates was figuring With his
! friends that the western short sellers
might be able to deliver 1O,O00,O 900 bush
els of contract wheat to him by the
end of May next. With such a basis to
| llgure from it did not take the specu-
lative experts of the wheat trade long
to figure out that Mir. Gates wheat
! holding, now or in contemplation, must
| be 25,c0o.000 bushels at the very least,
thus much being necessary to insure a
profit from the deal if the cash wheat
to be paid for. the corpse" of the deal;
was 100000 bushels. AS Mr.. Gates
has not recently had the reputation of
doing things by halves there were
! those who We're willing to concede Mr.
Gates and his friends a holding of per-
maps 10000 900 to 40000,000 bushels
L. and N. Deal Set the Pace.
Even this large total would look small
In financial way when compared with
the Louisville and Nashville deal. in
which Gates and his friends forced ].
Pierpont Morgan to pay a tremendous
price for controlling interest in the
road, meanwhile paying Mr.. Gates
firm, then Harris. Gates & Co., ire
mendous sum in commissions for the
handling of the deal.
At the present time there is not
6 100000 bushels of wheat in sight in the
country good enough to grade CON
tract under the rules Of the Chicago
board of trade. In fact. it is questioned
seriously If half that quantity is to be
had. as the Minneapolis wheat COM
prisins over half of the total, is said to
be below grade in quality. Neverthles
: Gates figured With his friends Sunday
that 100000 bushels might be gath
cred together under pressure before the
May deal matured, this presumably
representing a maximum quantity.
Deal May Mean So Wheat.
Allowing for necessary losses in mar
lleting this wheat at lower prices in
|, case the next crop prove normal one,
hn Nnr.t, ,1,,,, 1.lJy
counts on making a deal that will set
record for many years to come, and
, that will outclass anything ever before
seen in the Chicago wheat pit.
To Guido all predecessors, both in
price and quantity of wheat handled it
would be necessary to put wheat above
the 50 price marked by b. P. Hutchin-
son in 1888 on small quantity, and
above the 81 SIS figure reached at one
time on large quantity in the Letter
: deal nearly nine years later.
: Having shown what he could do with
f the leading financiers in the east,
: Gates has an ambition to show that he
il Is bigger than anything in Chicago
e where he has made his big start in life
: Thus far he has proved nothing salts
factory in this line. In corn deal a
O few years since his firm ran the price tC
s about 80 cents but it was generally
n thought to have cost them and their
e friends a large amount of money to dc
e it. In a corn deal last fall the weather
G conditions proved against the success OF
t such an undertaking, and this also was
abandoned at a loss
Bears Grim Alternative.
5, The wheat deal promises better
e Scarcely bushel of contract grade
l. wheat has been ground by the miller!
It since the last crop was harvested. New
: ertheess, despite the high premium.
l. offered for it, only 100000 bushels hav,
is piled up in the warehouses of the coun
L. try, where the wheat can be counted
e No new wheat. of course. can b.
1t counted on in time for delivery on Ma,
contracts The only recourse for tn
bear. therefore, is to go into the whea
pit and buy the grain back from Gate
and his friends or go into foreigl
:, countries and bring it in over the 2
cents per bushel duty.
However, there are few shorts who's
= interests are large enough to warran
'e this. Some are hoping Mr.. Gates pre-
r dictions of higher prices are like thos
n he has often made on various indus
r trial stocks just before he prepared t
as in the wheat pit yesterday that tn
n short seller was being prodded fror
behind to force him to buy at a Sigh
i'll advance over the then current marke
is Gates After Big Game.
d. II the general public could be er
,'l Unused to the buying point it woul
-. not be necessary to carry the de;
AZ along for another four months 1t
" very doubtful, however, If the publ
y. could be induced to do this. In whea
{. unlike stocks, the public has it's ow
"a a ideas as 10 values. No hope can be er
'e- tertained of creating a public wave {
buying in wheat far above the 81 mari
To run a successful Zealand M
Gates certainly does not contempla1
.e- anythinG else at DreSent-he mn,
~ therefore go after large game wealth
j., shorts among capitalists, Spectator
en- ain dealers. elevator men, miller
re- and the like. Smaller spectators ha,
nd within the last week abandoned II
nd May deal as too blooded for them. tn,
err leaving the deal stripped to it's ell
he mental properties
ed
tut More Hostility of Castro.
ais Paris. Feb ia semi official di