Evening star., 1921-08-21
BIGGEST OF CANDLES
ENDED BY NEW LAW
Grain Exchanges Must Give Up Business
- Running Into Many Billions of
Dollars a Year. !. -
BY &. GOULD LINCOLN.


TINE Capper-Tincher anti-grain
gambling bill is about to be-
come q law. When it is put
into operation. it's proponents
say, the greatest gambling institu-
tion in the world-an institution that
makes the old Louisiana lottery and
Monte Carlo appear almost infinitesi-
mal-will pass into history.
Just a word about this gambling
institution, which has it's centers in
thirteen Of the big cities of the coun-
try where grain is actually sold and
delivered in large quantities, and
which has thousands of feeders
bucket shops and the like-located in
all parts Of the country. The thou
sands who play this gambling game
wager that the, price of grain is
going up or going down, Just as the
patrons of a poolroom wager that
this horse or that will. win a race.
They make the bets, and the manip-
ulators of the market are also the
bookmakers. and rake in the money
of the suckers" who wager their
money.
Sales Run Into Billions.
Take the Chicago Board of Trade.
of them all. On an average. Chicago
actually receives 325,000,000 bushels
of grain in a year. But in year
there are sold on the Chicago Board
of Trade s.000.0o0.o0o BUSHES of
grain for future delivery" To put
1t another way, the dealers on the
Chicago Board Of Trade sell for fu-
ture delivery more than fifty-one
times as much grain as Is delivered
to the Chicago market in a year. In
a period of twelve months. these
dealers agree to deliver, on future
contracts, more grain than there is
wheat, corn. oats. rye and barley
grown in the whole world in that
period. OF course, they have no in
tention of making delivery. and could
not make the deliveries IL they did
intend to do so.
More than 80 per cent of all the
sales for future delivery made on
the Chicago Board of Trade are not
followed by an actual delivery of
the grain. 1t is said that only .2s
of per cent of these trades actually
result in delivery Of the grain.
Money Made On Asuelers..
What happens on the Chicago
Board. of Trade is~typical of what
happens in the oth4c centers. It Is
an evidence of the vast gambling
games that are conducted in the
grain that must be produced II the
people are to live, and which must
be purchased eventually by the peo-
pie that must eat them.
The dealers. 1t Is said. do not make
their money on the wheat which they
actually buy from the farmers and
sell to the millers. They make money
of the men who play the market,
hoping to make money themselves.
The result Is that the grain market
Auctuates, not In accordance with
the supply and demand, but with
tho manipulations Of the traders.
who are skillfu1 in their ability to
force prices up or down-principally
down, however. in recent months and
years. Occasionally In the past
traders have attempted to corner the
wheat market, or the market in
some other grain. But this was
hardly chubby" Where one trader
made money others lost in such
transactions. The outcry against such
corners from the public met an an
awering response in the hearts of
the majority of the traders. and the
boards of trade themselves laid down
regulations more or less effective
against such transactions.
Growers Helpless Victims.
But bearing the market down has
NOT had the same public condemna-
tionLexcept from the producers of
the wheat and other grain. The
great majority Of the gamblers who
NAV the market bet that the prices
are soins up-this Is true. it is said.
IN industrials as well as in grain.
So the outside gamblers, the men VINO
are the real suckers, lay themselves
omen TO the raids Of the bears-and
ths raids have come frequently. The
farmer who produces the wheat fs
a helpless victim of these bear raids
too.
a.. sells .ls,000,o00,000 bushels OF
rra,n In a year, for future delivery.
does 4 business that runs into $15,-
oeodeS,ooe to .2o.ooo.ooo.ooo a year.
Tis maximum business of the Louis
lana lottery. when it was In its prime
was 3so,eoo.o0o a year. and Monte
Carlo has annual receipts OF only
s1oooo. 600 or $12.ooo.ooo. Of which
about half are net receipts. =
when wheat and corn came on the
market last year, bear raid began
which lasted ten months and forced
the price Of wheat from $2.75
bushel down to IS cents. Yet all the
time there was a>greater demand for
American wheat than ever before.
The law of supply and demand sim
ply was not allowed to operate by
the gamblers.
Aims to End Evils.
Besides making 1t possible for the
law of supply and demand to oper-
ate, and to stabilize the market for
grain, the bill now about to become
a law proposes to put an end to the
following evils Of the present sys-
tenn: Market manipulation by big
traders; dissemination OF false crop
information; gambling In indemnities
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