Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-04-19
When Accused Of Having
A Corner on Wheat,
Says What He Has Wouldn't
Feed the World One Day.


Chicago, April 18.-After memora-
BILE speculative week, the tickets
good night" was received at noon Sat
urday with deep sigh of relief from
board of trade men, not to mention an
army OF laymen drawn into the vortex
OF the wheat pit by the publicity given
James A. Patten, the bun leader, and
his following.
| ,'''Good might" meant day and half
for quiet reflection on the great prob
lem of the season-''will the public eat
this years or last years wheat three
months hence?"
Mr. Patten Saturday personally left
the market to it's fate. which fate. from
the evidence of the Patten crowd, i'm
proved considerably, as prices ad-
vanced more than one cent in May and
July options.
| Mr.. Patten paid his respects to Sec
| rotary of Agriculture Wilson, declaring
that the latters estimate of the avail
able supply Is joke. and lectured re-
porters who he alleges have been more
entertaining than accurate in their
| stories.
| AS to talk of removing the tariff on
wheat as slap at manipulators, Mr..
| Patten was for it.
Il am in favor of removing it right
now, because we will have to do it in
side of 10 years at any rate. 1t
wouldn't affect the price of wheat a
penny, for the markets of the world
are on parity right now.
Take off the duty on corn, oats and
| live stock, too, for it will not be long
| before we have to import them.
| have said this before, and Jim Hill
| has beer preaching it to the farmers
| ale ng his railroads for the last three
| or four years.
LAS to Mr.. Wilson, he is absolutely
incorrect. There was not 143 000, 900
bushels on farms on March l. The
| total was nearer 1O0.0OO0OO bushels.
| My information is better than his, and
1 know what l am talking about.
But don't take it from me: go to
| any big trader who pays his money
| for accurate information on which to
risk his capital.
"They say I have corner in wheat.
I have not. The wheat have wouldn't
| feed the world for one day."
The weeks place in speculative his
| tory is due to the practical passing of
| the so-called May DEAF and the active
| ensa cement of bulls and bears all along
the line concerning the proper prices
| of July contracts for wheat.
From this time on the price of May
| may tiuctuate erratically but it is
stated that there will be little trading
| in it.
The bears admit that Patten won on
| that struggle and that he is arbiter of
the price. Few settlements of this de-
| livery. it is said, remain to be made.
The price during the week ranged be-
| tween $l.25ss ard 1855 and closed
Saturday at s1.2S1s.
July wheat. which went to S1.14ss,
| under tremendous pressure on Thurs
day, closed Saturday within a shade OF
the best price of the week at $1.18as
Whether this price is too high or too
| low cannot, of course, be known until
the time for delivery on contracts
| Both Secretary Wilson and Mr. Patten
| have remarked that time will tell, and
| time in the present instance, means
two months and half from the
pre- sent.
That the fight between opposing in
| terests will he one of the most exciting
| in the history of the board of trade no
| one doubts. In the aggregate it will
| be waged between those who believe in
the accuracy of the government re-
ports and those who pin their faith to
the Patten view
New York, April 1S-New facts de-
veloped Saturday concerning bread,
| flour and wheat, which showed the Sit
| uatioH to be more acute than at any
time since the Chicago pool began to
gamble in the poor mans staple food
They We're as follows:
| East Side master bakers privately
agreed to raise the price of bread at
their meeting on next Friday.
| New York's supply of flour was
shown to be 300, 900 barrels short of the
normal.
| The best grade of spring patent flour
was quoted at $40 a barrel, the high
est price reached. with the prediction
of a continuous increase in price for
the next three months.
General shortage of -four was re-
ported by mills in Ohio, Kansas, Okla
homa and points in the northwest.
Many small mills are closing. ostensibly
for repairs, but in reality because they
cannot compete with mills carrying
stock at the present prices Of wheat
The agreement of the East Side bak-
ers to raise the price of bread was con-
tirmed by Joseph Book president of the
East Side Bakers Association. A pri-
vate meeting of master bakers was
held Friday night, Mr.. Book said at
which it was agreed unanimously to
raise the prive of a scent loaf one
cent, with larger sizes in proportion.
Formal action, he said, would be talk
en- at a meeting of bakers next Friday
night. The new prices will be put into
effect next morning.
/ The big uptown bakers and the
Brooklyn bakers still say they will not
raise the price as long as their old
stocks of -four last, but they expressed
the opinion that the little bakers in all
parts of the town would have to follow
the lead of the East Side bakers.
Cleveland. April 1S.-The first rise
in the price of bread in Cleveland came
Saturday. Jewish bakers throughout
h. IL