The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-03-02
FOR SAKE OF FARMERS.
Chicago Board of Trade VIII Try to
Save Dealing I'm Futures.

Chicago. March "A committee
from the Chicago Board Of Trade has
gone to Washington for the purpose
of explaining to senators and mem
bers Of congress, particularly those
from Illinois, what members of the
committee believe will be the bad
effect on the farmer and the grain
trade in general if the pending legis-
lation against trading in futures" is
passed.
1t is stated that there are about
twenty bills pending which are aimed
against futures Most of these
prohibit sale for future delivery of
provisions and cotton as well as of
by the grain men that the cotton and
provision interests will join hands
with them in seeking to get members
Of congress lined up against such
legislation.
Members Of the committee said that
If the legislation against futures
became law 1t would close the grain
and cotton exchanges of the country
and would result in widespread
financial upheaval. It would also, &C
cording to the belief of the COM
mittee, result in great loss to the
farmers and place them entirely at
the mercy of grain buyers.
In a formal statement issued by
President Sager the position of the
grain men is officially set out. Mr..
Sager has issued this statement as a
result Of demands from grain mon
adjacent to Chicago that the Chicago
Board of Trade officials give their
views as to the effects Of the proposed
legislation
In part Mr. Sager's statement is as
follows:
Such legislation will close the
great grain and cotton exchanges OF
the country, will give all speculative
buying and selling to the European
boards Of trade, and will deprive our
farmers, live stock raisers and cot
ton planters of the immense advan-
tages Of the broad. open competitive
markets, now afforded by the ex-
changes where millers. exporters,
spectators and grain shippers are all
bidding against each other. The
grain crops of the country will then
be sold as potatoes, hay, apples and
tobacco now are sold.
There will be no speculative buyer
to absorb the enormous quantities of
grain pressed on the markets after
harvest and carry it until demand has
overtaken supply. Grain will sell at
ruinous prices. The miller and ex-
porter win have the farmers at their
mercy.
None of the proposed laws forbid
future delivery sales except in cot
ton, grain and provisions; such con-
tracts, however, are innumerab1e and
Of daily occurrence in real estate,
manufac turing and comme cree every
where. Such laws will therefore be
vulnerable in the courts. But our
countrys commerce will meanwhile
be injured in a vital part by the
mere enactment of such laws. The
free marketing of the crops of 1907
under the present method saved the
country recently from actual panic.
Business enterprise inevitably In
wolves speculation Such speculation
| is utterly distinct from gambling. Il
differs in no moral quality from the
speculation entered into by the job
| Der, who a.ccumulates goods in pre-
paration for an estimated future de-
mand, or from the business judgment
| used by the contractor who agrees tc
| deliver great building or war shil
at a given price.
saThe problem which confrontS the
! trade and congress is how to do away
with the parasites, and other vicious
and harmful abuses of grain and cot
ton contracts, without crfppling the
enormous business depending OF
| legitimate transactions based on fu
/ ture contracts"