Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1909-05-04
THE aCoIsNERING', Or WHEAT.

X r. -tt Z Il 6
a The wisdom of the world thus far IT has Is
nevsrsdevised a means whereby govern
\ ,nel,ts can regulate the prices Of even
the{icornlnon necessitis Of life. w
The recent ,'cornering Of the wheat
market in chicago through the pun'-.
& tase Of all the available supply by
certain Spectators, followed by a de-.
eided rise In the price Of wheat ana
flour, Is q a phenomenon that has AL
f tr.acted the attention and excited the
4 illa.n, of the civilized world,
u'he manipulation Of The wheat spec
Y lilators is quite generally denounced as
~ crime. The chief operators II, these
dealings is /. James a. Patten Of
II he chicago grim pit, who has bought
8li s Ri. 900 900 bus heels to be delivered to
x, his. order In May This is practically
one sixth OF The wheat crop of the Unit
4 ga States. Tie present holders @of
wheat dare not sell now, or they may
fail !to deliver according, to their con-
traots with Mr.. Patten in May, The
result Is that the wheat is lying idle
y in elevators for weeks and for perhaps
Il months, since Mr. Pntten and his as
e spciates closed most or these agree
nlents4last wInter. The mills cannot
grind this wheat, and -four has there
fore advanced in price at least 81 a bar
rel In the great centers OF population.
]. The size of the bread loaf has been re-
duced, ana the loss is falling upon tho
consumers of bread.
May wheat has sold as high as sl.29
per bushel in Chicago, and s1.3s in New
York. Some fears are entertained that
i prices will advance till bread famine
may result Predictions of $i.50 wheat
In New York are made freely.
On March 9th of this year, the gov
ernne:t reports showed 1s3.692 900
y bushels Of wheat in the hands Of farm
i ers. I. The price Of wheat, upon this
4 announcement, fell seven cents per
bushel or 90 cents lower than the re-
cent high prices.
MI. Patten argues that il he and his
associates had not bought up the wheat,
foreigners would have done So and the
price would thea have been higher
with us than it is today; since In that
event, he claims, 1--WE would have been
compelled to buy from the very Euro
peans we sold to- He regards it as
fortunate that 1t was Americans who
first diagnosed crop conditions and took
: advantage Of thenl-not for the sake of
philanthropy, but for the making Of
legitimate profits. He denies any mani
no rl.et 10y
explnnation:
''Tor4three or four years this has been
coming. and | saw it. At the end Of
each crop bins were. empty everywhere.
With increasing population here and
abroad. 1t was obvious that sooner OF
+ later the crop of one year would be
3 exhausted before anew crop was at
hand. Last fall, If not earlier. ] saw
& ct coming. bought wheat. and my
friends did likewise. The great un-
thinking public here and in Europe
would not, or could not. see what was
coming. Liverpool would not buy
day too high. Now Europe wants 55,
100000 bushels. The harvest was early
& last year. IL has been trying 10 cepe.
thirteen months instead of the usual
twelve, and, it can't do it. We need
wheat for the mills right here in Chi
5g5caSo now.
The Philadelphia Ledger adds the ex-
Il PLANTATION that the exporting price Is
not determined in Chicago but III LIVER
pool. and that when wheat begins &c
4 fow5 outward prices are naturally eaual-
feed. Wheat it says, is one of the
& great mediums of international Elk
change, Gold is the other. Gold Is
now cheap. and not in demand, whils
wheat is dear and Is needed at home,
B We are consequently exporting golt
rather than wheat. The prices Of these
two commodities are reciprocalls' re-
& lated to one another, and the relative
+, fall in gold is SO evidently associated
with "a relative rise in wheat both be,
Is ing exportap ie--as to give tile chicagr
s. bulls a basis for their speculative move
inent.
Most Of The papers. however, express