The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-03-01
Shearing the Lambs.

0uSSl1 Ing tA0 Ad1AoS'
Altho the price of Minneapolis May
wheat declined yesterday to $l.11&,
against recent high point Of $l.lS
and record high point for the option
of $1213s, it is doubtful if any man
of experience in the local market suf-
fered loss in consequence. For a
fortnight, almost, the press has been
filled with reports emanating from Chi
cago, Of a great corner in May wheat,
engineered by John w. Gates, the noted
Wall street Spectator, and follow
ing Of Wall street men. That many
thousands of traders in wheat the coun-
try over believed the reports cannot
be doubted, and that they lost heavily
is certain.
In Minneapolis there never was much
confidence in the stories, and, altho the
morning press took them in good faith,
the tenor of advices from the larger
greenhouses and the more conservative
of the market commentators was in
clined to discredit the whole movement.
The Chicago comment limited at
So wheat. On the local floor the
men Of longest experience, men who
had weathered the storms of many a
squeeze and corner, who had seen the
rise and fall of Letter and witnessed
the gigantic deals of Hutchinson, Ar
mour and Cudahy, and the lesser deals
Of Patten and Phillips, read in the re-
ports meaning contrary to their open
expression and saw the indication of a
big decline to come.
1t is feature Of the grain trade
that branch of it that is purely specu-
lative-that the market. following
changes frequently. Spectators come
and 60. Always there may be found
about the exchanges of the country
numbers of men of no experience in
the grain business, who try, neverthe'
less, to make money thru speculation.
Sometimes they succeed; again they
fail. These are the men upon whom
bold market manipulation may play;
the men who, having read that wheat
is to go to So because the big
men have said so, rush in to buy, while
the big men, who have accumulated
round lots at lower figure, unload
their wheat.
When, after the recent announcement
of the great corner, wheat failed to GO
up, altho buying orders came in thick
and fast, any one of ordinary percep
ton might have suspected that there
was a reason for it. When, the day
following, the failure Of the market te
advance was explained by the story
from Chicago that the big men hat
postponed the corner until tho SECOND
week in May, the situation was so alb
surd that few Of the veteran traders
could even speak of it without smile
It is the old story over again of Chi
cago Strengthening the innocents for thu
benefit of the few who dominate he
Board Of Trade, and who go upon tn
principle that they need the money.
The man does not live who can pre-
dict with certainty what the marke
will do. Wheat may 60 to So
This is not impossible, but it is highl.
improbable; and if it goes there, it will
only be by manipulation Of the ferces
kind.
Incidents like the Gates corner opel
ate to kill outside speculation. TIL
small trader becomes disguised an
asks himself what sort Of a show h
has in a market in which, as in tn
recent deal, manipulation Of the gros:
est kind is permitted, manipulation tina
takes him for the easy mark, and us,
ally finds him acting the part, and give
, the money to Chicago and her big spe,
: ulators.
When the small speculative trader
wheat has lost his money in the ope
a market, following hazard which h
knows very we'll exists before he goe
in, and backing his money with his ow
Judgment, he rarely makes complaint
but when he follows the Chicago az
r vices because they look right and name
/ Of rich men are attached to them, an
E finds out afterward that he was pu
: posely told to do the very thing thu
: he should not have done, he become
:. Disguised and the speculative branc
of the trade loses patronage.