Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1909-04-30
CORNER IN WHEAT
HAS BEEN BROKEN
Break in Market Follows Desertion
Of Leader, and Many Fortunes
Have Been Wiped Out.
Mad Scene In Grain Pit When Dis
covery 10 Made of Patterns Unex-
Pected vacation.-Red Letter
Day in History Of Chicago
Board of Trade.

Chicago.-James A. Patten, the
cheat king, has apparently abandoned
the fight, and has sought the seclu.
sion of ranch in Colorado, twenty
Ave miles from a railroad, declining
to be interviewed on the probable
outcome of the remarkable corner of
May and July wheat simply declaring
that TT is vaction time; 1 have plenty
of money, have earned rest, and
now l 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 short
age of wheat and that accounts for
the high price. / 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
q low estimate, we're 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 II
maelstrom, broke with almost in
credible rapidity. Fortunes wer'
swept away in minutes.
The pit was bowling, fighting
mass Of men who looked and actet
as IL they suddenly had been beref
OF all reason.
Sell! Sell! Sell! This was the Oh
der of the day. And for every selle
amongst that mob of screaming, teal
ing, pushing, money-mad men, ther
was buyer
Thursday, April %, 1909. will g
down in the history of the Chicag
board of trade as a red letter day
Wheat for the May delivery broke frol
$1.24A at the opening of the day
trading to $120A at the close.
Wheat for the July delivery brok
from $113h at the opening to $1.O9a
Wheat for the September deliver
! broke from $1O5 at the opening
$101A
Z The losses that were sustained du
q ing these hours of wildly excite
[ trading are known only to the me
$ who were on the wrong side of Il
: wheat market. But they amounted
y millions of dollars. 1t seemed
though the psychological moment ht
come for action for break In Il
prices of wheat. The manipulation
of the king of the wheat pit" Jam
s A. Patten. had put the prices OF M;
and July wheat to a higher level tn;
4 they had been in many years.
: At the close of the nerve-rackil
. day. George w. Patten, the office ma
% ager of the firm, and in the absen
II of his brother, "Jim," the field &c
v. eral in command, figured up the sill
to that were handed to him by wea
In bruised corps of traders and calm
f. announced that his firm had boue
ed more wheat than 1t had sold duri
m the turmoil.
is This statement is not believed
lie many, the charge being made Z
a Patten has taken his profits. 9th
is declared the wheat king is hopeless
ruined