Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1914-05-08
Who Fixes Prices On +:
North Dakota Grain?
Expert in Marketing Discusses How Minneapolis Chamber OF
Commerce Uses Artificial Means to Control
the Wheat Market.
BY Frank G. Odell.

t,5'.- BY FraI
Who makes the price of wheat?
Ask the operator on the Board OF
Trade or the statistical sharp and he
will answer: "The Liverpool market
And that's a joke-or 1t would be a
joke il it were not SO serious.
Chicago used TO be the big grain
market. 1t isn't now, but it is still the
big bucket shop where "the lambs are
shorn" through dealing in futures-a
polite term for gigantic gambling in
the peoples bread stuffs. The receipts
Of wheat at the Chicago market in
1912 were 35,914,OOG bushels. 1t is a
slow day on the Chicago Board of
Trade when two hours trading in the
pit does not show futures bought and
sold in more bushels of wheat than is
actually received in a whole year.
The grain gamblers on the Chicago
board will sell futures on twenty-five
million bushels of wheat while Liver
pool is buying a carload. And that's
ABOUT as much as Liverpool now has
to do with the fixing of the price on
your wheat, Mr.. Farmer.
Seats Worth $4,000.
There are 1894 members of the Chi.
cago Board of Trade. Their seats are
worth $4,000 each. The building and
ground on which it stands are valued
at $4,000, 600. Nearly eight million dol
lars. all accumulated from profits in
dealing in your grain, or in gambling
with o. P. M. "Other Peoples Money
Interesting, isn't it?
Four big concerns headed by the
Armour interests, now practically con.
troll the Chicago market. The balance
of the 1854 are pikers, operating on
a shOestring. If it were not for the
lambs who gamble in futures, they
would be on their uppers.
1t would be a good thing for the
country il they were on their uppers.
Union made denim overalls. would
lend an air of real responsibility to
most of these alleged Business Men"
Eut it is not dealing in futures that
most intimately concerns us at this
minute. This story is written for
pun pOoC. vail yOu ~ t9cJ a.
peep under the lid of the grain CON-
bine and see what makes the wheels
so round. Let's borrow Aladdin's fly
ing carpet and take a little trip to
Minneapolis.
Where They Have the Real Thing.
Minneapolis is the city regnant in
the empire of wheat. Here are the
largest milling interests in the world.
Through this primary terminal market
roll solid trains of grain that stun
the senses when one cOntemplates it
in the mass. Here is the. heart and
soul of the big grain combine. r.
| quote figures from the annual re-
port OF the Minneapolis Chamber of
Commerce, which is the grain ex-
change of that city; the receipts and
shipments of all kinds of grain at that
terminal in 1912 totaled the sum of
249,S72,97O bushels. At the regular
commission of one cent per bushel,
this amounted to profits of $2,49S, 729
which went to the commission men
OF that city in One year. This is an
average Of about $1,000 for each of
the 500 active operators on the Mime
'apolis board, without taking into &C
count receipts and shipments of mill
stun, dockage, shortage, lowering of
grades, mixing and various other
clever devices known to the initiated
for swelling profits.
And that ought to interest the
farmer.
What Us = Commission Man?
A commission man is the legal
agent OF the COnsignor. When Il farm
er, or = farmers elevator sends grain
to a commission men he is supposed
to represent the seller and get for
him the highest price the market will
pay, He is supposed to protect the
interests of: his client, the seller, in
every possible legal manner. If he
don't do this, he is Il plain crook.
Get that straight. There may be some
device which enables him to evade
the law made to catch common crooks
out he is O n the less a crook, if he
does not honestly represent his prin-
cipal, the consignor, and secure for
him a square deal.
Now, there are no crooks in the
Minneapolis grain market. They admit
their honesty themselves. This a
ket bears the reputation of, being the
the rcleanest in America. If this be
true, God save the worst when the
people learn the truth.
Engage a member of q grain ex.
change in conversation about the ne
culiarities of that institution and he
will Immediately assure you with all
apparent gravity, that at is a public
market place, operated on a high
plane to perform a useful service" If
you express any doubts he will re-
peat this statement and put it all in
capital letters, his eyes being suffus-
ed meanwhile with melting reproach
that one should doubt the integrity of
an established institution of Big BUS
mess. .
Now, that's a bigger joke than the
one about Liverpool fixing the price.
When a board of trade man gives you
that spell about public market" Just
ask him If you can come in and sell
your carload Of wheat. You'll find out
in a. hurry who that market is "pub-
lic' for.
listen OF the millions of bushels
of grain that pass through the Min.
neapolis market, not a bushei can be
sold directly by the grower to the
Minneapolis miller. 1t has to pass
1-g