The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1905-03-10
Gambling in Bread

John w. Gates of Chicago together with coterie of
board of trade gamblers, has manipulated corner in
May wheat This caba of spectators secured con-
troll of thirty millions of bushels othe cereal. By this mo-
nopoy OF possession it proposed to push the price of
May wheat up to $3.50 per bushe and if possible $500
per bushe The 'shorts those who are on the wrong
side of the market-w be compelled to settle at the price
fixed by Gates
Let's Who is to benefit by the increase in the
price of wheat-a forced increase? Not the wheat rasers
for the most of them have sold their wheat Not those who
must have wheat to fill their contracts for they the
position of the who is held up at the pistols mouth
Not the mers for they must have the wheat whatever the
price Not the bakers for they pay for their
hour And not the consumers for they must pay for
their daily bread. And in the last analysis THE CON
SUMER FOOTS THE BILL The miller and the baker
can pass the price along. The public must pay.
What is the difference morally between this holdup of
the people by raising the price of bread and the methods of
the armed robbers of the middle ages who levied tribute
upon defensess people' Ethicaly speaking there
difference And the only distinction as to the size of the
loot The medieval bandits able to compass the spoil
alton of single district. GATES AND HIS GANG ROB
THE PEOPLE OF THE WHOLE EARTH-everybody
who eats bread.
Legitimate speculation? Modern business methodist
Nothing crminal7 This is precisely the point. THEFT
is LEGITIMIZED. Business" is prostituted and made
highway robbery Crimnay is made to depend upon the
scale of the cine The poor fellow who steals bag of
bread goes to Jail The constituencies caba that steals
billions of oaves of bread goes terrapn and champagne
Mr. Gates and his associates crime hope to (take mind
you not make ten to fifteen millions of dollars of this
transaction And thus the stomachs Of the poor
plotted to make money for these shrewd long headed
business men,"
Can stop t7 Of course not France stops it. The men
who gamble the necessares of life in that country and
put up the price, go to prison The penalty Of the lay is
sufficient to deter them Of course stop the whole
sale gambling in bread and meat and fuel in this country
if tries to stop it. And for years nobody has tried
But change has the spirit of mems dreams
Today the strong hand of government is reaching after
John D. Rockefellers business graft Inequty in the
sight of all men and government says it must be stopped
The robbery of the sockmen the hand and the rob-
berry of the meat the other by the beef trust
is to be stopped by government
We beginning to wake up to the fact that civil
cation is honeycombed with injustice We have grumbled
about long enough What everybody business
nobodys business Now, thanks to aroused public senti
ment somebody is making everybodys business his
In obedience to aroused sentiment the president of the
United States demands ''square dea
Putting up the price of bread for the sake of is
not square deal If Standard Oil obbery can be stopped
if railroad rate robbery be ended if the rascay grab
bers of the peoples meat be punished also
be found stop the wholesale gambling in bread and to
punish the rascaly gamblers.