The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-04-16
WHEAT'S HIGHEST PRICE
 IN THIRTY YEARS SOON
 DROPS ID LOWER POINT
James A. Patten Jumps Into the Pit When the Break Begins and Buys 3,oooooo Bushels
 to Stop the De-
 cline.

Chicago. April 15.-It was a day of tumult and sharply shifting fortunes In the wheat pit of the board of trade today July wheat, following decided advance to new high level sudden ly dropped an extreme 4h cents. The pyramidal fortune of small speculators vanished In a trice and the day was saved from rout only by the vigorous exertlons of the bull leader James A. Patten. Within the last 15 minutes of trading MT. Patten bought 5000, ,000 bushels of wheat for July delivery. The while he chewed the stub of a cigar and ran his fingers collectively through the unshaven gray stubbie for which this had been no time for him to re- move from his face. A carnation adorned his coat lapel but there was a layer of Chicago dust on his coat and hat.
 Nothing but furry" he said, but that was after the turbulent pit had been deserted for the day.
 During that final quarter of an hour he was very busy man. Into the cor ridor of the Western Union building in which the Bartlett-Patten offices are to be found f1oated the sound of high pitched, nervous voices as clerks at the telephone shot in buyi1g oirfers to other clerks in the pit.
 Buy fifty. Buy a hundred. Bhy twen- | ty-hve-' ''sas'sa
 These numbers referred to thousands of bushels of wheat and there were many smaller ones--so many in fact a physical impossibility to do SO. MT Patten personally visited the floor of the exchange and directed his own deals by word of mouth.
 Patten Is Mighty.
 It was Patten against the field, and the final gong showed that the former apparently was as mighty as ever. His purchases and those of his followers to- gether with the profit taking of shorts who lost no time in securing the fruits of their bearish daring, caused a re- action of over a cent all adong the line. buls DGlOTe ltlS iiiC hOal U oL money of the small speculator had gone.
 Far from the maddening strife on the board in hundreds of bakeries tn ere was different although related scene. Flour had risen and the bakers with corrugated brows were trying to find out where their profits were coming from unless the price of bread could be advanced.
 According to one of the largest bakers in the city, the price of flour has doubled in the last six years; lard has done lilSewise milk has advanced 33 1-3 per cent; delivery charges have mains the same. Three years ago when flour prices were on a rampage many bakeries saved their profit by reducing the weight of their loaves and the quantity of flour used. But 1t is said there Is no further extreme of economy to which they can go and meanwhile they allege their net earnings are nil. So far however, no concerted action has been taken with regard to the sit uatlon.
 No Warning of Break.
 The speculative day on the board opened without indications of the sen sation to come. May and July quietly rose to new high prices, the former to s129is and the latter to s1.1S7s The July price was the highest since 1877, when a European war exhausted reserves.
 Either one or the other of the options mentioned has been doing the something since the first of the month. hoe a trading 6aV since then that one or the other has not created a new top price.
 Patten bought and sold as usual, most ly buying July and selling May. He Is said to have disposed of 100000 bushels of his May holdings today and to be practically out of the option. His en- ergies are now centered largely in July.
 q still have some May said MT. Pat ten, but I am chiefly interested now in July. I'm not paying much attention to the deferred futures. They are new crop months.''
 It was 15 or 20 minutes until closing time when the selling tornado hit the pit Stop loss orders came out in a deluge and the bears stirred by a i've cent decline at Winnipeg based, 1t was said, on reselling by exporters, attacked the market with great spirit. July tum- bled half a cent at time to $l.14la, an extreme loss of 4ss cents. May in larger jumps dropped to Sl2o, ana sep tember an undisputed new crop month, which had attained H.0S7s, declined to $1.05%.
 Here the Patten purchases made their influence felt and the close of the ses- sion found July at $115 to Sl.15%; May at sl27k to $1.27%, and September at s1.06A.
 Prices a Year Ago.
 In contrast to these prices those Of a year ago are of interest. During April a year ago wheat sold at an average of 95 cents and July around S5 cents. The first sale of wheat for delivery Tn May of this year was made here June 2s last at S9& cents. Whether 1t went to MT. aPtten is not of public cerord but he was among the earlier purchasers Since then the price has risen nearly SC cents. This, however, does not serve