The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1909-06-07
THERE WAS No CORNER IN
WHEAT

wheat holdings at profit OF a mill
ion dollars as some say. Others say
he made five million dollars. 1t Is Of
no great moment how much he
made The question is. was there 8
speculative corner in wheat or not2
Patten says there was not He has
continued TO say that since last fall,
whel. his prediction was first made
that the spring of this year would
SEQ wheat worth $12o per bushel.
Secretary Wilson said there was
a corner; that there was an abund-
ance Of wheat in this country for all
needs. and that the abnormal price
was due alone to a speculative cor
ner.
Patten was right, and farmer VIII
son was wrought both were guessing
Patten outclasses the secretary as a
guesser If both were proceeding on
Investigation and reports of agents
in the field. then this Chicago brok-
block. so far as we know the thing
is all right, but somehow it gives us
a sort of gone" feeling around the
pit of the stomach. to have as big
thing as the agricultural depart
ment so badly worsted.
Patten closed out all his contracts
at $1.25. just what he said months
ago would be the price of wheat in
May He missed it a little on this
The day he closed out cash wheat
was worth S1.50 in Chicago. Patten
could have forced a settlement at
that price on all his contracts-that
is, he could have forced into bank
ruptcy all those from whom he had
bought wheat at prices all the way
down to ninety-five cents, and who
could not dig it up at S1.5o. There
were several million bushels of such
purchases 1t is figured that Patten
paid an average of $1.10. To break
those whom he had bested in the
guessing match would have done
Patten no good. So he gave away
two bits bushel on several million
misunderstanding no doubt made
enough to satisfy an ordinary man,
anyway.
All the wheat Patten had gather
ed MP has now passed into the hands
of others, probably many others.
But the price of cash wheat in Chi
cago is still around $3.50 and flour
at Nashville is eight dollars a bar
rel. Evidently there is a shortage
in the wheat supply, a shortage so
great that the first fruits of the new
crop will not make it good. Quota
lions at New York and Chicago for
/ July deliveries hover close around
1920. This is nearly up to what
] Patten said May wheat would fetch
that is, wheat raised last year.
July deliveries Will catch some OF
the new crop Winter wheat in Ten
Inessee and Kentucky, and through
out a considerable part OF the win
ter wheat section can be put on the
market in July. Harvesting will be-
Gin in Tennessee by the middle of
June, and two weeks later the
threshers will be at work. But CON
slider August All the winter grown
wheat will have come on the market
by that time and the spring wheat
from the northwest will be coming
in along towards the last of the
month. The spectators at New York
and Chicago think there will still be
shortage in August. They offer 10
bet $1.10 per bushel that wheat
will be worth that much in the
month of August. This means any
day in August.
1t looks very mucn like there is
big shortage in the worlds wheat
supply. and that prices are likely to
rule all the year at a figure which
Secretary Wilson thought purely
speculative, and the result of a sin
full corner. The Southern Lumber