The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1905-05-02
00s0s000a00eD0Geeo090os OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES

world 1t was a moderate degree of
| winter killing over the soft winter
wheat states and the terrible blight
of rust over the spring wheat states
of the northwest during 1904 which
laid the foundation for the excitement
which has prevailed in the trade for
months and which caused fortunes
to be made and lost within the past
week.
How does the public become involv-
ed in the whirlpool of speculation?
How do shrewd business men and
bankers become interested to the dam
ger point in following such opera
| tions? First, a deal is always well
advertised. The bad weather, the
crop shortage, the unnatural condi-
| tons which cause the disturbance in
production-all these are well adver-
tised to begin with.
The public begins specializing in
| its own mind as to what the effect
will be. Grain men in touch with
| the farm on the one hand and the
| big central market on the other hand
are the first to show a lively interest.
Nearly all grain handlers become
spectators because it is often neces
sary for them to buy or sell in the
open market for the future against
the cash property which they are
handling.
Grain buyers at every hamlet over
the country are in close touch with
the retired farmers retired mer-
chants, men of means, and their
views on what is going on at the. big
speculative market are soon accepted
by those they associate with.
When the grain buyer, the retired
| farmer, and the merchant get inter
| ested enough to go to the local bank
and draw few hundred dollars each
| to put up with some commission
house as a margin on grain, it is but
one step further until the country
| banker, seeing his patrons making
| money by using their money, decides
that he is in the money making bust
ness and he quietly slips away to
the city and makes his plans to be as
smart as those about him.
The clever county official, who has
big salary and lots of leisure, is
| another who will soon find himself
opening an account prepared to make
profits from speculation. When big
grain deal is engineered by a man
of millions, renowned for his vic
tories in Wall street and high finance,
| famous for his brilliant moves in
acquiring railroad properties and
/ building up a fortune In a day, the
| thing takes on glamour and a bril-
| liancy which attracts some of the
| brightest financial minds of the
country. From this bright picture
and bright prospect there is too often
the awakening that the big speculat-
( i've venture is not a success.
Then comes the crash, then come
disclosures, then come the chapters
which have to be written of the
I downfall of men who have been
| bright and shining lights and pillars
of strength in the financial world.
Comment on this subject would be
! incomplete without reference to the
desperation players. The man up to
| his chin in a food of debts halls with
delight the big speculative deal into
which he can plunge as pauper and
| come out as a prince. If the stream
| dries up while he is making his
plunge he is discovered and the world
| is horrified.
| There are laws against corners.
| Why? Because it is laid down by
wise legislatures that men of trade
! should not be allowed to improperly
advance the price of the necessaries
of life. There IS no law against
speculation within reasonable limits,
based on conditions which make the
action of markets natural. The courts
J step in at times and define the limits