Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1909-04-29
CORNER IN WHEAT
HAS BEEN BR0KEY
Break in Market Follows Desertion
Of Leader, and Many Fortunes
Have Been Wiped Out.
Mad Scene in Grain Pit When Dl
covery is Made of Patterns Unex-
pected Vacation.--Red Letter
Day in History of Chicago
Board Of Trade.

Chicago.-James A. Patten, Inc
wheat king, has apparently abandoned
the fight, and has sought the seclu-
sion of ranch in Colorado, twenty
five miles from a railroad, declining
to be interviewed on the probable
outcome of the remarkable corner OF
May and July wheat simply declaring
that 1T is vaction time; have plenty
of money, have earned a rest, and
now | am going to take it,"
When seen at Trinidad, Colo, on
Thursday, prior to his departure for
the ranch of w. H. Bartlett, his part
ner, Patten said: There is a short
age of wheat and that accounts fol
the high price. l have not manipu
lated the market; simply bought
wheat and contracts to deliver wheat.
just like steel makers buy raw iron.
Why not? | bought wheat; yes, all
could get, and when 1t was cheap We
sold when the price went up. That's
ALL"
But Patterns disappearance from
Chicago has been taken by many TO
mean that he realizes that he has met
defeat.
Thirty million bushels of wheat, az
low estimate, were dumped into the
pit on the Chicago board of trade
within the space of few short hours
Thursday.
From the tap of the opening gong
until the bell changed the closing of
the most sensational days trading
ever experienced on the board, the
bears were in full control of the mar
ket.
The price of wheat, carried along In
a maelstrom, broke with almost in
credible rapidity Fortunes were
swept away In minutes,
The pit was a bowling, fighting
mass Of men who looked and acted
as if they suddenly had been bereft
of all reason.
Sell Sell! SELL This was the or
der of the day. And for every seller
amongst that mob of screaming, tear
ing, pushing, money-mad men, there
was buyer.
Thursday, April 90, 1909, will go
down in the history of the Chicago
board of trade as a red letter day.
Wheat for the May delivery broke from
$1.24A at the opening Of the days
trading to S1.20% at the close.
Wheat for the July delivery broke
from $113h at the opening to $1.09A
Wheat for the September delivery
broke from S1.05 at the opening to
$101%.
The losses that were sustained dur
Ing these hours of wildly excited
trading are known only to the men
who were on the wrong side of the
wheat market But they amounted to
millions of dollars. 1t seemed as
though the psychological moment had
come for action for a break in the
prices of wheat The manipulations
of the king of the wheat pit" James
A. Patten, had put the prices of May
and July wheat to higher level than
they had been in many years
At the close of the nerve-racking
day, George w. Patten, the Office man.
ager of the firm. and in the absence
of his brother, "Jim,' the field gen
eral in command. figured up the slips
that were handed to him by a weary
bruised corps of traders and calmly
announced that his firm had bought
more wheat than it had sold during
the turmoil
This statement is not believed by
many, the charge being made that
Patten has taken his profits Others
declared the wheat king is hopelessly
ruined