Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1920-10-25
FARMERS LOST
MONEY THROUGH
| SAVERS FIRM
McCray Vice President of
Grain Concern by Which
Fortunes Vanished.
ATTORNEY GIVES DATA
Special to The Timse.

NYMAN, Ind, oct. 20.--Facts showing
that the farmers of the northwestern
part Of Indiana have lost thousands Of
dollars through the Savers Grain Com
pany Of Chicago, or which Warren I.
! McCray, Republican nominee for Gov
ernor, is vice president, were given In
an address here by Gilmore BARGE, well
| known lawyer of Fowler.
Mr.. BARGE revealed the financial deal
ings by which the money was absorbed
through Board of Trade speeulations on
tour of Jasper County In the inter
ests Of Emmett Scanlon, who is can
didate for representative from Jasper
Benton and Newton Counties.
"The greatest menace to the farmers
of the Middle West today is the Board
of Trade at Chicago" he said.
"The farmer rises early, plows his
fields, plants his grain, tends it dur.
ing the long. hot days Of June, but
when it is gathered in the fall the Board
Of Trade gamblers of Chicago garner
in the substantial profit Of his summers
toll.
During the war, with the greatest
crisis in history upon US, the operations
Of the Board Of Trade were suspended
\ "The Government had to stop this ne
! farious business as part OF the pre-
gram Of saving civilization.
Trading in grain futures suddenly
ceased, but the farmers found, to theiI
great JOY, that for the first time in their
lives they received an honest return fol-
their labor, and that, Notwithstanding
the high prices for farm labor and ma
terial, they were actually realizing .
substantial profit from their produce
and their fields.
"a different story is now to be told
with the passing Of the great world
| war, the Board of Trade has again re-
sumed operationC-the pits are again
open, and many are the unfortunate who
are falling in.
"A great daily Of Indiana remarks that
the grain gamblers of Chicago are again
doubie-crossing both producer and con
sumer. running down the price until the
farmer Is forced to sell and then run.
ming up the cost TO the buying public.
WORLDS GREATEST
GAMBLING HOUSE.
$50 great is this peril to the thrift and
Industry of a a great people that Senator
Arthur Capper OF Kansas has drafted 9
bill to prohibit all gambling in grain
futures and has been led to exclaim that
the grain gamblers have made the Elk
change Building in Chicago the worlds
greatest gambling house,
The farmers OF Benton and Warren
Counties have had some bitter expe-
! riences.
over at sheldon, Ill, just across the
state line, is one Of the offices or 'bucke;
shops of the Savers Grain Company, an
Illinois corporation, and a member Of
the Board Of Trade at Chicago.
Strange things about this company
have recentlyrcome to the light OF day.
Over at Earl Park, a peaceful little
village in the heart OF the corn belt
our neighbOrs organized the Farmers
Elevator Company and started TO buy
grain.
They put in charge a soldier boy
who had gone over the top, as honest
lad as there was IN the county but
over him, and doing the buying and
selling, was one Lee Kelley, who got
into the Board of Trade.
"All at once there was an explosion
and a reorganization Of the company.
Honest men, who had been friend:
all their lives. become embittered To-
ward one another; the soldier boy
who was in nOwlse TO blame, lost a
coed job, and an examiner was ap-
pointed to go over the books.
He made a report in writing. which
is extant, and can be read by any one
LOSSES INCURRED
IN OPTIONS.
''In that report is this item: Losses
occurred in options hedging with the
Savers Grain Company-s9.6 S95 So
"Sixty-hve hunGred dollars Of this
amount, in cold cash. was paid by these
farmers to this Board OF Trade organi-
I zation 70 square their accounts.
"This is not all
"a few miles to the northwest is ar
other little village of Benton County
named Rauh.
1T is also in the center of a fine agri-
cultural community.
THE farmers up there organized the
Raub Grain Company.
But over it they placed the same Lee
Kelley who had managed the affairs at
Earl Park.
"Kelley was not a bad man at heart
far from it.
| "He had wife and three children, and
took a prominent part In the social and
religious affairs Of his little town.
But the temptation TO gamble on the
board CT trade was too much for Kelley.
"All at once rumors became rife that
disaster was in the air.
"They proved TO be true.
zone morning the citizens OF Raub
found out that Kelley had gone.
"His wife end children fingered for a
few days, and then they, too, moved out
under a cloud of humiliation and shame.
IAN examiner was appointed to look
over the grain ledgers.
HE tod the farmers TO at once call
an attorney.
THE disclosure revealed that the Raub
Grain Company had unpaid accounts for
! futures with the Savers Grain Com
pany of approximately $4,000. and that
he had in addition executed two notes
to the same company for the aggregate
sum of $50, 900 more.
Forty 1--we thousand dollars of the peo-
Piles money swept away in a maelstrom
of speculation on the Board Of Trade.
"These are facts CLEANED from first
hand information and are not to be de-
MED.
"This has all happened in the present
year of our Lord, 1920.
PENCE CASE
AT TAB.
up from Warren County, and from
the little village Of Tab, comes another
tale.
crank r. Pence WIS a grain mer-
chant down there and was known to
the farmers far and wide.
"They thought him financially sound
and loaned him money and sold him
thousands OF bushels of grain. He was
nominated for State Senator on the Re
publican ticket and was to have been
voted for this fall
Frank Pence suddenly passed over
into the great beyond and left widow
"They have filed inventories in the