Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1907-11-22
The Evils of Speculation.

NdlldCeS fdTUlcI. We are JuSO
now getting some fine object lessons
on the evils Of speculation, a vice that
seems as difficult of determination in
the business world as intemperance
in the social world. Dairymen are
wondering why it was that a short
time ago they were getting thirty
cents a pound for butter fat and in
ten days the price dropped to twenty
one. We will explain it to him: Some
large butter firms in Chicago conclud-
ed to boom the price of butter and in
doing SO pushed it up to a point where
it was profitable for packers to manu-
facture ole~omargarine. Like other
spectators, they were not satisfied
until they put it up to a point beyond
the reach of a large portion of the
butter-eating public. Under the pres
emit financial conditions they failed,
Of curse, and were obliged to put on
the market in one day enough butter
to supply the city of Chicago for three
weeks and take whatever price they
could get for it. If they had allowed
the law of supply and demand to take
its course there would have been no
increase in the manufacture of oleo-
margarine,~nor would there have been
any necessity for flooding Chicago
with butter in a single day.
The copper mine owners started out
last summer to boom copper metal,
and pushed it up to twenty-six cents
a pound, about twice the cost of min
ing it. Copper users finally refused
to buy, and a great flood of copper
was poured into the markell sending
it down to twelve cents and sending
the stock of one of the leading mines
from sixty cents down to ten cents
in a single day. The normous losses
sustained by spectators in stocks of
coppercompanies precipitated a panic,
with it's untold losses to farmers all
over the west as well as to holders Of
securities all W. the east. For i'm
mediately following this trouble the
price of every kind of live stock and
grain Immediately fell, which within
twenty-four hours affected the prices
at which they were purchased at
every market in the cattle and corn
states.
Farmers and others have been feel
ing secure on account of the moderate
crops and the high prices which (un-
der the law of supply and demand)
they would command the world over;
and believed that whatever trouble
might occur among the gamblers in
Wall Street, they would not. be made
to suffer. They>are now beginning to
learn that speculation, or the attempt
to corner any particular grain or stock
in any part of the world is felt among
the farmers Of the west almost as soon
as among the investors of the east, SO
closely are all ranks and conditions
of men bound together by ties which
they cannot sever in this period of
our civilization.
Nor need we be surprised at these
results. They are just such as have
occurred in every part Of the world
in every line of business. Speculation
in corner lots has laid waste many a
promising city. Speculation in lands
has ruined thousands of farmers as
well as business men. Speculation is
simply an attempt to interfere with
the legitimate operations of supply
and demand.
The farmer can never afford to spec
ulate even in the products of his own
farm. When his hogs or cattle are
ready to 60 and he holds them longer,
he ceases to be a feeder and becomes
a Spectator. When his wheat and
corn are fit for the market and he
needs money, but still holds them for
a price which he has fixed in his own
mind, he ceases to be a farmer and
becomes a speculator with the odds
against him every time. If he does
not need the money, he can afford
to hold his grains for what in his
judgement is the highest market. Fol
somebody must hold these grains til
they are ready for consumption, anC
the farmer can do it cheaper thar
anyone else; but he cannot afford tt
fix a price below which he will moi
! sell, unless that price bears some re-
lation to supply and demand. 1t is
often one thing to raise a crop and
another to convert it into dollars tc
, the best advantage. How to checl
: the evils Of speculation is another
matter which we may discuss at an