The Norfolk weekly news-journal. (Norfolk, Neb.) 1900-19??, 1909-04-09
WHEAT COT UP TO
S1.26 3-S TODAY
BUT CLOSED A CENT OFF FROM
THAT FIGURE.
TRADING SHIFTS TO JULY OPTION
Not In Years Have the Sensational
Scenes Been Witnessed on the
Board Of Trade In Chicago That
Marked Yesterday and Today.

Board Of Trade In Chicago That
Marked Yesterday and Today.
Chicago, April S.--May wheat again
| established a new high record today,
touching s1.2G%, but closing over u
cent off from this
July contracts in which the bulk
of the trading is now done, advanced
to $l.12& @$112A.
On the Chicago board OF trade, to
use the language of one of the biggest
operators, everyone Is bull crazy"
Never in the history of the wheat
| pit has there existed such condition
of affairs as holds at the present time.
Never has there been such wild
scramble to buy, buy, buy and then
buy some more. May wheat or July
wheat, it matters not; 1t all looks alike
to the frenzied crowd which desires q
| line of wheat in anticipation of raise
in prices of the commodity. 1t mat
ters not to this frenZied crowd of
| buyers that prices already are high,
that they are even now reaching to-
ward higher level than they have in
| fifteen years.
| tits going up and up and up! Get
aboard the band wagon" is the cry.
James A. Patten, out of his long
line of May wheat, just to keep the
prices from skyrocketing and from go
ing to too high figure, dumped one
million bushels of May wheat in the
pit.
| Fought to Buy the Surplus.
| Like a school Of hungry trout rising
to the fly, brokers gobbled up this one
million bushels. 1t was all sold in
less than 1t takes to tell about it. Men
fought, fought like madmen, to get a
slice of this wheat. They crowded
and they pushed and they showed;
they battered hats and they tore cloth
ing in their efforts to buy wheat. The
price was a secondary consideration.
They wanted wheat Some of the
crowd got it, others were disappointed.
Practically every man in the country
who takes a flyer in wheat is a bull
now. There are few bears, but they
Iare not many. They are2becoming lore
and more scarce as the days go by. The
farmer, the banker, the storekeeper-
all are bulls. They believe that the
highest price has not been reached
by any means. They are looking for
more advances from day to day.
The reason for all of this frenzy?
Patten and existing conditions.
Conditions Also Are Responsible.
When James A. Patten started his
gigantic deal in May wheat, deal
compared to which all other deals on
the Chicago board of trade fade into
insignificance-a deal which unless
unforeseen circumstances come to
pass, will net Patten and his associates
millions of dollars-when James A.
Patten started this deal he did not do
so without having carefully studied
conditions. He believed that there
was a shortage of grain in the United
States. He staked his millions upon
the strength of these convictions. He
gambled. And results have shown
that the Patten convictions were
based on the rock of truth.
Men who know the wheat market
and who watch not only prices but the
conditions which make prices on the
Chicago board will tell you some
things in language about like the fol-
lowing
The country has bought wheat on
the backward spring and upon the
poor growing weather; upon the fact
that in many localities the plant has
the appearance of having been win
ter killed." that in some points in the
cenarl state and generally throughout
the southwest, the cash grain situa-
ton is strong factor; that in the
southwest millers are in an unenviable
position because they do not know
where their wheat for milling pur-
poses is coming from; that in many
parts of Kansas price cuts no figure
in the market, for the wheat is not to
be had; that the spring is backward
and that warm weather is badly need
ed that the farmers are holding their
| wheat in anticipation of even greater