GAMBLING IN MILLIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 320, 21 February 1910, Page 6

GAMBLING IN MILLIONS.

FORTUNES MADE BY SPECULATORS IN COTTON. Mew York, December 23. Four gamblers in cotton have just won £2,600,000. They have forced prices up to a height which has not been known since the Sully corner of 1904, and operators predict that the Sully records will be passed by the New Year. The four "bulls" are led by Mr. Patten, the Chicago grain operator, whose sensational coups have several times startled the market. "The Big Four" to-day sent up prices with a rush from ten to thirteen points. There were wild scenes when May cotton reached 8d a pound. Some of the "shorts" were badly caught. The ''bulls" have ueen engineering the market for some months past, and so far have had matters all their own way. So much so that cotton which is now being sold at £lO a bale was bought ten months ago for £B. The effect of these operations enabling speculators to raise prices to an abnormal figure is to make it impossible for manufacturers to work the raw material at a profit. It is due to the activities of the "bulls" that the mills in America, in Lancastiire, and on the Continent are able at the pres'ent to work only short time at greatly reduced profits, and in many cases at an absolute loss.