Bisbee daily review., 1917-05-13
Traders Mysti6ed As To Out come of Situation At Close Most Exciting Day In Trade Boards History.
RISE OF g CENTS IS
 SHOWN IN JULY CROP
Government May Again Be Compelled To Take a Hand To Prevent Fabulous Prices; All Markets Active.
(By Review Leased Wire).

CHICAGO, May 12.-At the close of day such as the Chicago board of trade never saw before. traders were asking one another what meas ures would be taken, if any, to check the sensational upward flight of wheat prices. And in other markets Minneapolis, Kansas City, St. Louis and lesser bourses-the same query was being put. There was no an- swer, save in the resolutions of such bodies as the Illinois Council of De fense, which urged congress to take rigid control of the whole food and basic commodity situation.
 May wheat was legislated out of existence by the board of directors as "a patriotic duty" and because its skyrocketing course might inspire a runaway market. As an arrester of advances the move failed signally. At the opening, prices for July and September options hesitAted a few cents below the previous close. The strip of blackboard where the May wheat ordinarily was quoted was blank, but in a short time the ad joining columns began to boom. When the closing gong sounded at noon July had shown a net rise of 22A to 25H cents, with the final figures ranging from $273 to $2.75 and September an even more star ting jump of 16 to 24 cents with last sales varying from s244 to s2.46.
 Board Tells Grim Story
 The course of the market was best visualized in the smoking room of the board, where quotations from the markets of the world are posted. In front of the section devoted to wheat rotund and impertable young man in a gray alpaca office coat. in great sweeping numerals. so that those in the far reaches of the room might see through the haze of smoke, was marking up the prices.
 There were those watching the blackboard who saw more in the fig ures than the cold record of the law of supply and demand. To them it told the story of a stricken worlds demand for bread. the cry of desper- ation from ruined cities and the wasted farms of Europe, the pleas of emaciated children and the say age food-lust of soldiers.
 The impertubable person in the gray alpaca pursued the even tenor of his way. "Two-fifty-five" he wrote; then, "2.57, 26O, 2.631R and presently at the summit of the wave "275."
 Ut went up like a shriek," remark ed one spectator.
 Other Markets Advance
 It was something like that. and the shriek came from shorts. Prices con- tinued their ascent until the shorts had covered" and taken their losses, probably very heavy in many cases. The opinion was expressed that the day pretty we'll drove in these inter- ests and that a decrease in trading might be expected Monday. A ques- tion much handed about was whether if control of speculation in May was good thing, why similar action might not apply with equal benefit to more deferred futures. President Joseph Griffin of the board said that no such action was contemplated at present, as in the opinion of many wheat of the new crop would begin l to arrive by July. He was in con stant touch with Washington, he said and with the United States dis | trict attorney here. What part the federal government played in the boards action is not known.
 There were advances in other lead l ing wheat markets during the day. | At Duluth the advances ranged from | 1872 to Is cents. At Kansas City | where the board ordered the closing | of May contracts, without fixing a | settlement price, the advance ranged from 121z cents to 25 cents.