The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1905-05-02
They Offer Aluring Chances
to Lift Debts or Get Rich
Quick - How Merchants
and Bankers Get Into the
Game-Nearly Every Big
Corner Involves Funds of
Numerous Big Banks
Basis of Big Deals.
By ". e. RAY,
Dean Of the Financial Editors Of
Chicago.

OnlCh8O.
Special Correspondence of the News.
paper Enterprise Association.
CHICAGO, May "A speculative
corner is to the general public what
big fire in town or city is to the
small boy.
There is something spectacular
about It which attracts the public in
the first place.
There is something very promising
in the way of profits about il which
attracts that portion of the public
which has money to burn-which is
the same thing as money to specu-
late
Then, too, there is something sticky
about it which holds the men who
engage in its very much as the fly
paper catches the flies.
II matters not how many corners
prove failures, the next one that
comes along is Just as big an attrac-
ton for the public as the previous
ones. Perhaps there is little OF
the P. T. Barnum idea In the matter
of speculation-he said people like
to be humbugged, they also seem to
like to be f1eeced.
The man who bets on the game of
n card sharp on the street is called
a sucker because he tried to beat an
other mans game. The man who un-
dertakes to follow a big speculative
deal and get something for nothing
except the matter of risk, usually
finds out in the end that he is try
ing to beat another mans game.
I have been looking up the records
and / find that not one corner in 20
cinch corner carried through in the
grain trade in my experience of 20
years, and that was a small affair
in oats involving but a very few mil
lion dollars. and the courts are not
through with the litigation yet
1t may be stated in general terms
that the running of a corner usually
becomes a matter Of financiering be-
fore it gets anywhere near it's end
ABOUT NINE OUT OF TEN BIG
CORNERS INVOLVE THE FUNDS
OF NUMEROUS BIG BANKS, and
the success or failure of the corner
may depend on whether or not those
banks will furnish the sinews of wa,
after ii looks as though the deal was
getting near the danger point.
There Is usually treschery in bis
deal somewhere before it is ended
If there are two or three big inter.
ests in deal at the start, the chances
are that some of them will take ad.
vantage of the others and sell out al
time when the greatest financial
strength of all concerned is needed
1t often happens that powerful people
in fighting a speculative deal have
greater influence with the banks. the
insurance companies, the elevator
owners who have the storage capacity
at their command. than the man who
is running the corner.
The latest enormous wheat deal
engineer by John w. Gates, differed
from many others in this respect
that there was at no time from the
beginning to the end Of his operations
when there was not money enough
and to spare for everybody who ha6
orders to fill. Commission men and
brokers had only to say how much
they wanted. and 1t was as easily oh.
tanned as water. This deal still fresh
in the minds of the public did not
reach the stage of acuteness ir
finances, insurance or storage inciden.
tai to the handling of the cash prop.
erty. II was a clear case of a mar
finding that he was facing a situation
which 1t was better to avoid thar
to try TO surmount.
Big grain deals or corners have
their origin in various conditions
Nine times out of 10 the disturb
ance in prices starts with some inter,
ference with the usual production OF
some leading crop.
In wheat il may be winter killing
It may be insects. ii may be floods
1t may be wet harvests, it may bt
ruination of the quality of the grai1
after it is harvested by weather
which will not permit it beinl
thrashed and stored.
Dating from 1904 the word rust
will be a significant cause of feal
and excitement in the wheat tradinl