Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1908-05-20
PA11[N CORNERS CORN
Responsible For Highest Mark
Ever Recorded, With Two
Exceptions
HAS ARMOUR BEEN SQUEEZED?
Packers Crowd Said to Have Been
Caught short-Further Rise Pro-
dicted, With IS Cents a Popular
Guess - Patton Coolest Man on the
Board During Trading.

Chicago May 20.-Patten pyrotech-
MICS were what blew the corn trade
into a frenzy of excitement yesterday.
The price of the vanquishing May de-
livery scared skyward in skyrocket
fashion, shorts coming down hard
with the sticks. Within about three
minutes the grain rose 3 cents. to ~
cents, which, with two exceptions. Is
the Hottest mark the golden cereal
ever has reached in the history of the
board of trade.
The Patten millions piled up with the
advance, to what extent is purely a
matter Of conjecture. With James A.
Patten at the top of the heap. many
in the trade would have ]. Ogden
Armour at the bottom. but knowing
ones say that country shippers and q
coterie of ,he less pretentious Wall
street operators are the principal slf-
ferers from the big advance. high
official of the Armour Grain company,
is authority for the statement that that
concern is not short more than 100000
bushels. which 1t stands able to de-
liver at the tick of a watch.
Nature has been Patients principal
and most powerful ally, not only prev
ious to and at harvest time. but now.
or course. the plentiful millions have
had their part in giving formidableness
to the big corner" but the clouds
and the sun have played the stellar
roles Country dealers - handlers
thruout Illinois. Indiana, Iowa, and
Nebraska, principally-short the mar
ket have the grain at hand to deliver
on their contracts, which expire with
the month, but the recent heavy rains
have called a halt to their shipping
operations. All they can do now is to
sit back and watch their bank acOunts
dwindle. What else they do is not
known.
Roads are so soggy. practically im-
passable in many sections, that the
grain cannot be, hauled from crib to
station, and inasmuch as many of the
shorts live far from Chicago. even a
them little more than the hope that
,lMlSeTS III tue uO0IleuH lDTcdSts
Meanwhile Mr.. Patten calmly chews
his gum on the floor of the board OF
trade or nibbles at the end of his cigar
in the smoking room off the exchange
hall While the uninitiated galleries
f1uttered and wriggled with the excite
fhent born of the skyward leap of May
corn, the former mayor of Evanston
was glancing over the weather map.
apparently oblivious to what was tram
spring in the seething pit. He was,
to all appearances. the least Interested
man in the corn trade. But when 70
cents was reached he quickened the
speed of his jaws and there was a
nervous shifting of feet of men who
have made years of study of the big
operator From 70 cents the price
slipped off until at the respite bell Is
cents was the price.
The extent of Mr. Patterns holdings,
with those of his confrere and business
partner, William II. Bartlett, is not
known to anybody outside OF the we'll
doored room on the second floor of the
Western Union building, but men who
have tried to follow the progress of the
deal figure that he holds approximate
ly 100000 bushels of the golden grain,
which is being merchandised as rap
idly as conditions will permit. Mr. Pat
ten also is popularity supposed to be
long line of about 100000 bushels
of oats, which on paper stand him
handsome profit. These, too, are being
merchandised as rapidly as possible.
While many of the smaller shorts
have heen hard hit by the big rise in
the price of corn, bulls Of small caliber
have f1ourished Those who have had
the courage to stand with the big OPP
orator thruout his deal are In the pro-
verbal clover. Many things can hap
pen between now and the end of the
month, but many in the trade believe
that conditions warrant a further ma
terial rise in values before the begin
ming of June. Some of the more radi-
cal have gone so far as to mention
dollar corn. Eighty-five cents Is a pop
ular figure.