The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-05-02
PATTEN'S CONTROL OF WHEAT MARKET Chicago Grain Broker Declares
 t Is Net a Corner HE IS BUYING REAL WHEAT Patten Began Buying Wheat When It Was Only Eighty Cents BusheI
 and He Has Made An
 other Fortune. !;
HE IS BUYING REAL WHEAT

l From the Chicago Tribune.
 "Jim" Patten says that he has not cor nered the wheat market.
 Yesterday morning, however. when Mrs. John J. Jones of 11111 steelworks street, in South Chicago. raised her eyes when her grocer charged her 90 cents ] for @ 24-pound sack of flour for which she had been paying 75 cents, the grocer explained 1t, quite as matter of course
 Its the corner on wheat, ma'am," said he. 'Its 90 cents today, but 1t may be S125 before 1t is done with"
 This Sunday morning, if Mrs. John J. Jones of South Chicago chances to see | the Patten statement which leads this article. she's likely to be in doubt little. It's Patten's word against the grocer's, | and Mrs. Jones doesn't know Patten. Just suggestive line on Patten. too, may complicate matters even more. For this morning in the First Presbyte- rian church of Evanston the chances are almost beyond doubt that James A. Patten, millionaire grain broker on the Chicago board of trade, not only will be in his pew at morning service, but that
 
 basket for the church offerings. And the grocer not only may not be member of church, but Mrs. Jones may have caught him several times in the past putting something over on her. When is a wheat corner not wheat corner7
 Patten Shows the "Difference."
 "Jin" Patten says the corner isn't a corner when a grain broker, looking over the worlds wheat supply and its future crop prospects, begins buying real wheat out of real bins at less money than he feels wheat Is worth and storing it in dis tributing centers at which real millers will appear a little while later, clamoring to buy it up for making it into real flour at a real advance of 15 cents on 24- pound sack.
 I'm in the business of buying wheat" explains MT. Patten, provided he feels called upon to explain. T began buying wheat last fall at less than the wheat was worth. I've been buying wheat ever since when 1t was offered at less than felt it to be worth. I've been selling some of it at the market prices. Millers have needed it in their business. And much of this wheat, of course, Is still for sale. It's real wheat though, which will make good bread.'
 Come to think of it, MT. Patten's busi- ness deal in wheat is a good deal like that of Joseph's-I forget his last name pulled off centuries ago down in Egypt. It was real corn that Joseph bought and stored. But how was that, anyhow? Didn't Joseph sell it again at the same price? Something like that as I remem- Der, but it's so long ago 1t doesn't mat ter now. The Joseph stunt for a text in the First Presbyterian church of Evanston this morning, however, would be & hot one wouldn't 1t?
 "Jin" Differs From "Joseph."
 Unlike Joseph of old, "Jim" Patten has one brother-George-in with him on the present wheat deal, while the other silent partner Is w. H. Bartlett For all pub licity purposes, however, Jim" Patten Is Joseph to the whole deal and among his fellows on the Chicago board of trade "Jim" Patten's word is taken without dedication or discount.
 Jim" Patten has been doing lot of silent, forcefuI gum chewing in the last two or three months. Accordingly as the wad of gum is big and in the measure of force with which the Patten jaws crush it. fellows on the board of trade for years have gauged Jim" Patten's finazl- cial entanglements in corn and oats. It is only since last November that the boards membership has had opportunity to observe Patten In the process of get ting in under all the No 2 hard wheat in the United States
 The two Pattens and Bartlett, as a trio of flyers in wheat, have had all the money they have needed for the deal. They haven't borrowed dollar. In the opinion of a veteran friend on the board, -the three men have had anywhere from SIP, GOO, 900 to S15,000000 cash on which to draw checks They had this in sight when last summer the agents of the Pat ten deal started out on a voyage of United States. Argentine, and continental Europe before they reported.
 Trio Begins Active Campaign.
 Even the bears in Chicago had been ad- hitting that the 1908 crop of wheat In the United States would be 2,500,000 bush els short. It had been short 2,500,o0O bush els the year before. When the Patten agents finally reported 1t was to the eff feet that the worlds supply of wheat promised to be hundreds of millions of bushels off the normal on May l, 1909. Government reports were to the con- trary, but such a thing doesn't affect Patten. Patten put fresh wad of gum in his mouth and gave the word to buy. And the Patten trio has been buying ever since.
 How many bushels has Patten bought? Put it at --,00o.o 900 bushels. You can put in the numerals in the third group of figures-Patten himself won't do 1t for any man living But it's somewhere be- tween or just beyond 2o.Ooo, 900 and zO,- 900 900 bushels
 That wheat" says an old board of trade friend of Patterns, looking upward through the smoke of his cigar; that wheat has cost Patten on an average of s1.O5 bushel from the beginning of the deal to date. On Tuesday of this week Patten sold wheat f. o. b. in Chicago for $1.36 bushel, while millers in St. Louis were taking Patten wheat from the cars at s150 a bushel. That'll leave you guess coming as to Patten's prof. it's"
 Patten's first purchases of wheat last November were in the 80 cent class. To so many of his smiling critics, looking on at corn and oats man breaking into the wheat pit the attempt was so like 30 cents that finally they broke into a laugh To which Patten replied with