The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-04-23
ABAND0NS THE WHEAT MARKET Bull Campaign Said to Be Off. EATEN IS IN NEW MEXICO Question Asked aslto Whether He
 Has Changed Views.
 -Ls- The Awheat Kiss, Faces . Twe.ty- Five-Mile Drive TAresgA snow
 Storm te Ei.ae Reporters
 wAs Are IHeundlne Him. H.
EATEN IS IN NEW MEXICO

53rF ( s.1f@# atfE
 Chicago, April 22-AThat James A. Patten. hailed throughout the country as the Wheat King" has withdrawn from the market after dispostng If his heavy holdings of May ana July wheat, today.
 To this assertion vas added the fact that prices have tumbied over nine cents during the last week and that MT. Patten himself has sought rest in the fastnesscs of New Mexico ranch.
 Whether he has eliminated himself from the so-called "deal." and. if so, whether he came out with profit or loss. are questions which can be an- swered. only by Mir. Pattsn himself.
 The session of the Board of Trade was . sensational one today uulls had expected that after the six cents decline of the two previous sessions. Q recovery would ensue. Taxing the Patten view of q big crop shortage as correct and wheat intrfnsfcally worth all that has been paid for it. In q pure- iy speculative way the reaction was due
 But the first quotations were a startling disappointment to the bulls. From nearly every point came reports of normalA and even better crop pros poets. Liverpool prices were down. and the shipments from Argentina, Australia and other foreign countries were said to be greater than usual at this time of the year
 Bears filled the wheat pit in a dense mass. and like an eruptive volcano poured forth a swollen stream of wheat. Longs liauidated all along the line and the execution of stop loss orders added to the confusion Ere ouentiy 1t was impossible to make sale within three-quarters of a cent of the price designsted by the custons- CT to his broker.
 The Patten vortex of other and more bullish days to which the cereal might be poured seemingly without af. ance. It was a tremendous liquidAt- ing market and Patten might have been buying secretly through others than his own house. From him there has come no word that he has changed his views as to the salue of wheat Ixa called May wheat cheap nt I. zs and if he stiii thinks so. NJ is pointed out was an excellent iflvestrhsnty The same was said of July at i,os s-s. These prices are approximately nins cents nnder their price of last Foh- ruary. : While MT. Patten. quoted as saying he was fleeing from reporters. was ma king for the ranch of his friend and partner, W. H. Bartlett just over the Colorado line in New Mexico, de1ect- ion was. pictured on the face of many a small speculator haunting the ticker in various brokerage houses.
 Many fortune hes been wiped out by the decline this week and many 6 man who had q. handsome profit on pa- per but still hung on for more. now confronts a deficit There are man, such. The wide publicity given the market brought into 1t many man who ordinarily walked in quieter paths. Even the regulars for the most part followed the bull leader with unusual enthusiasm and until today saw nothing further in the previous declines but Hurry. MT. Patfen so characterized it. and his word was ae- cepted. They held to the limit of theif the speculative slate when their mar gins became exhausted and there was no longer Q reserve to draw on.
 They would have liked very much to know whether Mir. Patten had left or- ders secretly to make further pur- chases at the concession in prices In the absence of such Information, how ever, MT. Patten's absence in @ section of the country where he will not be much troubled by either reporters or quotations, and the utter weakness in- .dicated by today's decline, gave rise to many hints that "Patten was well out of it." ~
 They went so far es to declare that the present slump was due to the li- quidation of the big Patten line of wheat rather than. to Improved cr0p conditions.
 1t is admitted that this supposition may be absolutely wrong. MT. Patten's position against reporters was large ly to published references to himself as a manipulator of the market, the engineer of great ~ corner of the worlds staple food. He smarted un- der such terms to a degree unusual to most men. He was in his office when the decline began to look serious, but in his conversation. he had much less to say about the market than about erroneous statements made concerning himself in the newspapers.
 Its fact that he ran away from the newspapers" said one of his friends today. "FIe was not runnIng the contrary wore him out He is look ing for a rest and he ought to Ind it. for Mir. Batrlett'sf ranch comprises some 300.000 acres and no place on it is there a reporter"
 Z ''IIas he sold his wheat?''
 '1 don't know. I doubt it. He can we'll afford to hold his line, for the pinch was not expected until the short. age really began to be felt in June and July. He expected 6 high price then and expected to market this wheat when the position would be vindicat- ed' At this point in the conversation, d third party remarked that to a man u pa tree" 1t began to look like a vim dication of Secretary of Agriculture Wilson. where information concerntnR crops, Mir. Patten recently regarded Co bs, ''the joke of the century"
 To this smile was the only answss
 The regular daily bulletin Issued by Bartlett, Patten and Company, after the close of the market today. had this to say:
 "The real situation Is unchanged. There is no more wheat in the coup try than there was before tho decline and tho demand is just as good. Our confidence in higher prices is as great as ever."
 Mir. Patten displayed great anger when the reporter persisted in ques- tioning him regarding wheat condi- tions.
 "It's none of your business what Il think" he snapped. T want to forget wheat, and I'm tired of reporters Get