The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-11-04
buckle TsHOP ACTION
sT|Rs UP GRAIN men
DEFENDANTS SAY THEY DO NOT
FEAR RESULTS.
Methods Of Brokers Outside Chamber
Of Commerce Are, Brought Into Lime
light Deals as 4 Small as SO Gents
Are Accepted and Larger Ones With
Corresponding Cheerfulness. !

Der Of Commerce against the bucket
shops, is now the subject Of greatest
interest on change. 1t is. believed that
the chamber will find it possible to
put the shops out of business, yet the
old fight against the Coe Commission
company, when James Marshall was
president of the chamber, is recalled,
and the strategy of George J.. Ham
mond in anticipating and defeating it's
moves still commands admiration.
Hammond was great fighter and he
showed the chamber officers some new
tricks. .@s ~...'ar
There Is today no such large and
commanding institution of the bucket
shop kind in Minneapolis. With the
fall Of the Coe company, the greatest
in the country went down. Nothing
Of its magnitude has appeared, but,
with prosperous times number OF
small concerns have grown up. For
the most part they are Of the "shoe-
cater to the small trader, deal in stocks
by the share and in wheat by the pint
and generally get the money, which is
none the less acceptable In that it
comes in bits. These shops probably
| take thousands Of dollars out Of the
community every week.
What One Man Saw.
A member Of the chameb rwas COM
ing up town recently and passing one
of these hole-in- the-wall institutions,
not great way from Third street and
Second avenue s, he went in. Quota
tlons were being marked on board and
big business was on.
GLOW do you trade in wheat7"
asked the grain man,
1n11 ILL.,
man. 'Use your own judgment and
cashier g Window
Elbow small trade can makes'
ANY size you want. - ~;
The grain man decided that he did
not want to speculate just then, but as
he passed the window on the way out
he saw man handing in SO cents and
getting a memorandum receipt for it.
"What's he doing,'' he asked a
hanger on.
81 r<Buying Priyilages, he. answered.
PUTS or calls.'' ~ -s-.-'. -
<<How much are putsa''
"$1 each.' -, 49,.
"How~ can he do any business for 50
cents9' 49,. 49,: s..
:tHe bought half putt
Thus does the. money come in by bits.
None of the business ever sees execu-
tion. The bucketshop man takes the
money. Sometimes the market moves
50 as to give the trader a. profit and
the bucketshop man has to dig up, but
more often it moves far, enough the
wrong way to wipe out the margin
and the busketshop man gets 1T ALL -
: Superior Figures quoted. =
There are seven of these bucketshops
IN Minneapolis. The Minneapolis
ChanbefTof commerce is not out to- in:
tsct re- With any rights they. may have
ciple It is opposed to them absoiu te
Its plea for their abolition is based
upon the contention that the quota
lions of the chamber are posted in,
these shops, and as they are not mem:
bers Of the chamber, and are not above
is made Indirectly to serve the purpose
is made indirectly to serve the purpose
OF fraud. The chamber would not per-
init them to obtain its. quotations, but
its attorneys allege that the figures are
hrst wired to Superior, Wis, and there
stolen by the shops and wired back
here, in order to conceal their origin.
Action Is Postponed.
Action by. the defendants in answer
to the petition brought by the Cham
Der of Commerce to enjoin alleged
bucketshop' methods in the Mime
apolis grain market will doubtless be
postponed until Tuesday, when An
drew Liddell and Sumner johnson will
return from hunting trip. These men
are members of one of the principal
firms mentioned in the petition for an
Injunction filed in the district court by
Wilson & Mercer plaintiff 8 attroneys.
The men against whom action is
| brought declare that they are not at all
afraid of the result of the movement
| by the chamber. They cite the case of
the same plaintiff against y. E. Wells
| d Co., who have done business for six.
teen years at the same place Of bust
ness, as witness to the fact that no
Roadway can be made against them.
This action is said to be still in the
courts. now in the supreme court, with
no indication that the defendants will
lose the case, which is similar in prin-
ciple to that involved in the present
| instance.
Superior board quotations are used
by the so.called Minneapolis "bucket-
shop" firms, it is admitted by one of
the. brokers. He says that open quo.
tations are used, just as they were used
from the Chamber Of Commerce when
the quotations of that organization
| were open and on the ticker.
AS. to the allegations that one-eighth
of cent is added uniformly to the
chamber quotations and that Hglass
doors, fictitious and deceptive orders
and fraudulent and deceptive telephone
and telegraph messages are used
| they are vigorous in general denial
isolated and the region 50 sparselv set.
about to invest heavily in the develop.
T.AW ON NArTrp Ar rz A rronr