The San Francisco call., 1905-04-23
Sensational Drop in
Price for May
Delivery.
Gates Believed to Have Ef-
f9Cted a Combination
With Armour.
La.e Antagonists Join Hands for
a Mammoth Corner of
July Options

CHICAGO, April 22-One OF the most
celebrated deals ever known on the
Chicago Board OF Trade came to cli-
max to-day.
A daring effort by John w.
Gates and associates to control all Of
the wheat available in America for de-
livery during the month of May was
apparently ended with wholesale sac
rifice of prospective profits to escape
possible huge losses on existing invest
ments. Incidentally the result was
one of the widest sessions ever wit
messed in the Chicago wheat pit. At one
time prices showed a loss of 11la cents
q bushel for the day, the price of the
option being driven down in q sensa-
tional series of rushes to 9S15 cents per
bushel. The closing quotatio was 81,
as against 81 80 less than six weeks
ago.
The general opinion tonight is that
Gates and his friends emerged from
the battle with little If any actual loss.
Gossip insists that they effected an al
lance with Armour and other leading
traders whereby the Gates party, while
obliged summarily to liquidate May
wheat on an enormous scale to-day,
was nevertheless protected by its prior
operations and by its allies in both
May and later options.
PLANNING y JULY CORNER"
Another view Of the situation, ac-
cording to some observers. is that the
new grouping of astute spectators, in
Guiding the redoubtable Gates, has
cleared the road for a still more gi-
gantic corner in wheat for delivery
during July.
The idea is that the high price here
tofore prevailing for May wheat has
induced a securing of the country by
grain traders to procure wheat TO sell
to the bull leaders. By dropping the
price 10 cents a bushel to-day the
spectators assumed to be in control
have made il clear that, while the
country is raked over for wheat to
bring here. they mean to buy it at a
figure of their own making. The rush
ing of the price down to-day, it was
argued was a more drastic action than
was for the moment at least required
by the Gates and Armour interests, the
result being that they accordingly
jumped the price back to 81 a bushel.
The Gates party, it is said, had fig
ured that the movement to market
would be practically exhausted before
the month of May arrived. The factor
that is alleged to have caused 1T to
give up the deal was the steadiness
with which heavy shipments from the
interior continued, and the disappoint-
ing, long ng-drawn-out dullness or the
flour demand and the apparent uncon-
Germ of the mills.
WHEAT PIT IN A FRENZY.
The scenes attending to-days start
ling decline were such as are seldom
witnessed in the worlds greatest wheat
,1s% fro71fad ttvffb ov1XiafW the
traders in the pit, awaiting the open
ing bell. huddled like steers about to
stampede The sound of the big bell
was the signal for a mighty roar OF
voices, a din possibly never before
eQualed, according to men who were
present at the stormy sessions that
marked the most exciting periods in
the famous Letter and Harper deals.
Clothing was torn. hats smashed and
bodies bruised in the frantic efforts of
the traders to sell the grain. Shorts
had apparently completely covered and
longs, little and large, hurled their
grain at the hands that were closed
against it. Nobody seemed to want
wheat above 81
When 81 was reached the wild roar
that marked the opening was doubled
in volume But while the nearby op-
ton was plunging downward there was
steady buying movement going on In
July. Brokers, presumably working
for Armour and his associates, whether
including Gates or not, were taking on
liberal lots OF the latter option. In
ore hour alone, it was estimated, these
brokers bought more than 5000, 600
bushels. Tie buying Of July prompted
frightened shorts to cover, they be-
lieving that the Gates forces and the
Armour crowd had combined to bull
the month at the expense of the hard
hammered May.
Tonight it was estimated that g.
0O0, 600 bushels Of the May delivery were
unloaded here and in Minneapolis.