GAMBLING IN FOOD.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 462, 10 June 1909, Page 3

GAMBLING IN FOOD.

HOW WHEAT IS CORNERED IN THE CHICAGO “PIT.”

(By James de Conlay, Jnr.)

High up in a Chicago skyscraper, surrounded by samples of grain drawn from wheat fields all over the earth, there sits a man—a man prematurely old, a telephone receiver at his ear; a stock tape passing through his fingers engrosses his vision ; nervously he chews the end of a cigar. This is the man who is to-day dictating to Free Trade England the cost of her daily bread, who for the moment controls the Free' Trade larder of the British mechanic. This is the man who, by astute calculation, has moved back and forth along railroads and waterways, all Canada s surplus wealth of wheat, has manoeuvred the harvests of the world like pawns on a chess-board, has juggled and jumped good British wheat produced in British countries, which under a sane Imperial Tariff system would find a natural and direct way to English millers, and be lifted for ever out of the realm of foreign speculation. Mr J. A. Patten, who has almost succeeded in completely “cornering” the wheat of the world, is, judged by the speculator’s moral code, no different from any other member of the Chicago Board of Trade, except that he is realising an ambition openly cherished by every man and boy having any business in that admirably conducted institution. Should he fail at the last moment in his present attempt, he will go down to obscurity for a time, probably to “come back” later; should he succeed, as appears likely to-day, his success will bring about a temporary financial crisis in local circles following the ruin of' a number of smaller speculators on the Board. “patten the patriot. ’ ’

Further, those farmers who have held on to their grain yields will acclaim him as “Patten the Patriot;” babies already born and babies to be bom on farms in Kansas and North Dakota will stagger through life named after the new “Wheat King,” for the

moment “Hiram 1 ’ and “Rube” will be at a big discount. Most important of all, Mr Patten’s success, or the success of any other foreigner, in obtaining control of the British bread-basket, means another blow in the stomach of Free Trade England, and for many weeks the Englishman will have to eat less or pay more. Of all American institutions the Chicago Board of Trade is reckoned the most stable, and sets the highest standard, of commercial integrity. It is the switch-board of the grain world; its tentacles reach'out to every State on earth where grain grows. Every call from the “trade pits” finds an echo in the rustle of growing crops anywhere from Canada to Chili, from Siberia to New Zea- . land. Grain that is already harvested is bought and sold there every day for tour hours; grain now growing young, grain not yet planted, is daily speculated in by the twelve hundred members who comprise this remarkable community. FORESTALEING THE NEWSPAPERS. From points all over the globe full crop information is posted up every hour of the session ; a frost in Manitoba, a drought in Queensland is writ large on the blackboards hours before it reaches the columns of a newspaper. The first glance of every member on entering is to the large board set high over the official gallery, where is recorded the world’s visible supply of wheat, maize, barley andjoats. Each member has access to the daily data on supply. For the potential demand there are no official figures to guide. Of the visible supply Mr Fatten knew no more than the merest clerk, but more accurately than anyone else he has calculated the demand and based his operations accordingly. | |This perspicacity, backed by a convincedicourage, has made him the “king” of the present year. Board of Trade operations are carried on in four “pits” provided for that purpose. These are devoted respectively to wheat, maize, oats and barley, and the smallest to hogs and provisions (lard, etc.) The wheat pit is the most important, and on busy days four hundred men fight the mad, crazy battle tor the control of a product much of which has never even been planted. To tourists in the visitors’ gallery the frenzied trading appears as a chapter in the diary of a madhouse —young men, with hair already grey, gesticulating wildly, howling out incomprehensible figures, surging hither and thither in an insane desire to buy or sell something ; flocks of messengerboys rushing helter-skelter between the pit and 200 odd telegraph operators herded in the corner with their instruments, receiving and sending information over “special,” “private,” arid “official” wires; the immense floor, littered with discarded papers, and under the gallery, serene and obvious to the furore, a score of commercial re- ' porters steadily work over their typewriters and hustle copy to the afternoon editions. PERPnet SYSTEM. A quiet investigation, however, brings order out of the apparent chaos, and reveals a perfectly constructed system in which the noise and irresponsibility are merely incidental. If wheat is selling at Sofjj cents and an operator wishes to sell a parcel of, say, 50,000 bushels for cents, he raises both hands over his head, and with

palms facing outward cries “ six* * eights?” or “ Threc&uaxters! ”

Each digit exhibited represents five thousand bushels; palms extended outwards signify an offer to sell at the price ; palms inwards, an offer to buy. At the edge of the pit, perched on a high stool overlooking all the members, sits an official with a block of blank paper in one hand and a pencil in the other. When a deal takes place in which the price has fluctuated from the previous “trade,” he writes the latest price on a sheet and drops it below to a telegraphist sitting in front of an instrument. At the same time the latest price is on the tape and clicking through thousands of offices in cities of the United States and Canada.

Mr Patten may yet fail, and the “shorts,” those men with blanched faces, kneeling at his door to-day may laugh at him next week. Neither party deserves nor desires sympathy. All are gamblers pure and simple, and all have taken the gambler’s chance. The man who suffers is the Englishman ip Free Trade England four thousand miles from the gambling game—the man who buys the bread and pays for the gamble.—Daily Express.