The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1921-01-27

1890, ~ ~. LOUIS Fo9S- OtSpaSc
ing OF futures by those who actually
are owners of the grain as represent
eo oy sales is legitimate, and should
ns permitted If the gambling ard
speculative element can be eliminated.
ms IS an exporting nation. The
foreigner is not interested in the pro-
ducers side, but In getting his goods
as cheap as possible. If 1t were
not Tor the trading "a futures, the
foreigner would have to buy grain
where II is available, paying what It
was worth, based upon supply and
demand. With the futures market
avaiiable. the operator representing
the foreigner makes a bear raid by
selling large quantities of futures,
buys the grain or cotton on the break
below the real market value and then
quietly buys back the futures at q
profit besides. He not only raids the
farmers granary in this way, but he
also plays one surplus producing ma
ton against the other. He raids our
markets by using bearish reports on
India, Australia, and the Argentine.
Then he raids those markets by using
bearish raids on the United States.
Then he makes another raid here be-
cause markets in other countries have
broken.
1t was currently reported by menu
bers themselves few months ago
that a single great operator in the
grain trade, the Armour Grain COM
pany, had offered for sale 100000
bushels Of wheat which 1t had not
first purchased and did not possess,
that it followed these offers with
others amounting to millions OF dol
lars, the effect of these and similar
operations being to depress the price.
The sole purpose of these operations
| was to place the operator on the e1-
change in a favorable position to buy
wheat for the purpose of filling q
contract given it by Great Britain's
purchasing agency.
For, strange as it may seem, this
| is the method taken by large opera
| tors when they intend to make pur-
chases, when they are in the position
not of sellers but Of buyers. In ordi-
| nary commerce when merchant is
| in need of an article he goes into
| the market and buys 1T. But not so
| in the operations of the great opera
| tors of the board of trade. When
they want to buy they first SELL They
manipulate the market by employing
the facilities of the exchange to de-
press the commodity in order to buy
| it at a price below the just equation
of demand and supply.
| The claim is put forth that the
present system is a stabilizer Of the
market 1t has the opposite effect.
Holders of iron, steel, coal, lumber
and hundreds Of other staples know
that the supply and the worlds needs
| will not be materially different to-
morrow from what they are today,
i and that the price will not be ma
terially different, and the same would
apply to the cereals if it were not
| for the violent fluctuations caused
from day to day by gambling in grain
! futures, Because of this, country ele-
yators cannot, with safety to them
/ selves, pay within 10 cents bushel
on wheat and cents a bushel on
| corn and oats that they otherwise
could if this menace did not exist.
On q normal crop of about 5000, 000,-
600 bushels of wheat, corn and oats,
this amounts to around $300,000.O00
direct loss to the farmer from this
source alone. AS to it's effect on the
nation as a whole from a gambling
standpoint, the board Of trade is ex-
tensive and far reaching. There is
hardly a community where these
! branch commission house are located
that cannot point out several wrecked
BANKS, wretched homes, suicides, di-
vorces and misery of many kinds
caused by gambling ii grain futures.
F.. avarice and greed The Payne-Al-
drich tariff was Il still stronger shield.
Whatever President Taft said in its
praise afterward as a good orthodox re-
| publican, he fought it stoutly. 1t was
not that substantial revision down.
ward" which he promised in his cam
pagn. Who has forgotten the fine work
| of upward revision in Schedule !, con-
tanning the rates on cotton goods, and
| the still lovelier specimen of it in the
famous or infamous Schedule K, con-
tanning wooden rates, which made, for
instance, the duty on a low or medium
gray suit of wooden clothing from so to
100 per cent? Even President Taft adj
mitted in his celebrated Winona speech
that the wool schedule was ''too high,
greater than the cost of production at
home and abroad The latter phrase
! has an ironical sound. OF that "differ-
in the United States and abroad plus
reasonable profit to the manufacturer,
which the protectionists had cried for
there was not trace in the law, nor
was that test once applied in the whole
discussion Of the bill