Show A GIGANTIC aln ain GROWING EVIL THE general public hear of cc cobers comers on various articles of commerce com oom merco and have a vague idea of their injurious effects but the extent of their operations and the vast and widespread disaster which they occasion are not known even to people who endeavor to keep beep themselves posted on all matters of current interest an article which appears in the august number of the worth north american reviews handles this bub sub J jeltina act in a very interesting manner manners and goes into details with which tew lew persons outside of 01 lue lne inner rings of the exchanges are at all acquainted quain ted tod it is entitled 49 making bread dear and Js written in ha tak ing style by henry D lloyd lioyd from this we learn how the products of the country are manipulated and speculated upon and how the markets for their bala baia and purchase are regulated not in the interest r eat of either the producer or the consumer or even of the general dealer but of the cliques of capital ats which rule the exchanges and enrich themselves by the ruin nuin of thousands and the oppression of millions the manufacture of prices it appears is a business that does not depend altogether upon the supposed inexorable laws of supply and demand it is work ed by certain combinations it is controlled by bob boissea bos bo seg sea 11 and purchases are made which largely exceed the actual supply and sales are effected which are greatly in excess of the actual demand this may seem beem strange but it is nevertheless true it Is done in one way by the purchase and sale of futures 19 farmers and county grain buyers who want to take advantage of high prices but are too busato ship their wheat to market can tele graph a broker on the board to sell bel fon ron future delivery the miller it if wheat looks cheap can buy for future delivery these contracts are futures rut rul tures utes ures 71 these contracts are negotiable and are used for purposes ses seb of speculation of course every article represented by these theae fu futures must ba actually forthcoming on demand by the time agreed it U a million bushels of wheat are sold in future ture ealsa a million bushels of wheat must be produced at the required time if not heavy damages are collectible but baies bales of futures 1 ara made not noh only of grain waiting to be shipped but of that expected by the shipper and speculation of often ten ton turns over and over goods that cannot be produced on the market it is a frequent tice tica of the millionaires who manip ulata the boards of exchange to not only corners corner the surplus of a crop by buying it up wherever poablo ble but to squeeze the dealers in the contracts contract 3 for future delivery and anel cornering them demand is made of the dea lera for delivery and that being impossible heavy damages are extorted e d often to tho the ruin of the unfortunate dealer who cannot fulfill fulfil his contracts contract because those who have 9 co cornered the futures have made it impossible for him to do so BO the price of wheat is run up but not in the interest of the farmer whose grain is disposed of but of the clique who have made the corners comer and with corresponding detriment to the public for whom brond broad is thus made mace elear near one of the corner F operations which have been so BO disastrous to the country is thus thua described in the article referred to tithe the wheat corner comer of 1879 was commanded by a new yorker it began with an inspired chorus of prophecies of low pricia prices which continued aa long as the clique were buying of the farmers the price was run down to eighty one and a half cents centa a bushel when all the wheat and wheat contracts to be had were obtained the price was raised to one dollar and thirty three cents in every eveny way the results of this corner were deplorable the markets were crazed the cliques held heid according to their own state ment twenty million bushels ands and according to the estimate of close ose observers verb verp in tho the trade seventy nill mil lion bushels at one time their wheat was piled up in the eleva eleTa elevators tors and on the railroad tracks intentionally tio nally stopping the way ways so that no other wheat coull be got to market by the farmers and dealers wheat was refused to exporters at prices they could afford to pay the english buyers went to bombay and calcutta and the east bont bent their first sampie bampie to liverpool not ten years ago have in consequence taken a place next only to us ua in supplying the british markot market during darlng the w winter ter four hundred vessels lay for in months t a in now york harbor the owners pleading for wheat even at ruinously low rates many of them ran into debt and the majority ot of them finally had to bli sil sail away to seek beek cargoes elsewhere when the time came to despatch this wheat from chicago and now york to europe to 0 put t i it out of the way ways the head of the clique said to the railroads III 1 I will III lii give you so BO many million bushels to carry if you do not take it at my rate I 1 will ship it all by lake in the spring the cutting of rates which ensued was waa one of the irritating causes of the war that followed among the trunk iines lines in the same way syndicates have repeatedly peat edly forced the navigators of 0 the jv lakes kes to take such rates as they chuse choso to pay for there was no one to compete with the engrossing engro asing shipper transportation 0 ed at one time and at ano another ther hopelessly der deranged ged and all the banking and abher other business that must attend the movement of the crops goes by fits and starts three out of every four floering flouring flou ring mills of the country were kept idle for over two months one of the oldest members berkof of the produce exchange prepared for the legislature an catl cati mate mats that this syndicate by not selling and by not letting others sell and by fleeming fleecing flee cing those who had been inveigled info dealing with them and by the injury that had been done to the millers the shipping interest the exporters and the consumers of flour floars had caused to the country of not less than three hundred million dollars the pork corner which came at the same time as this thia in wheat was described as follows by the london tim temes times amid the turmoil of the presidential election there has haa been closed one of the largest and most successful speculations which has ever excited the brain of chicago the ohe armour pork corner comer its influence in advancing prices was felt in every part of the world A chicago dispatch of november ath saye bays in n july 1879 after one member ot of the nirm firm of armour co had re returned turned from europe where he had been bean taking observations of the pork market the firm began buying pork at eight dollars a bar reland in december when it had risen to fourteen dollars a barrel closed out making a profit of two million dollars not satisfied that it had reached the highest highes t price they continued bus bui busing buying ing until pork had dropped to nine and a quarter dollars a barrel absorbing their profit prone and an add dional million in april of this year they began buying baying at ten dollars a barrei barrel and bought up three hundred and fifty thousand barrels barneis of pork and one ono million two hundred and fifty thousand barrels of futures s for the last three months they havo have been closing out oat their gigantic purchases at prices ranging from sixteen to eighteen and a half dollars they cleared over boven soven million dollars on this deais denis deal deai and are winners on the two deals deais to the extent of six million dollars 32 the price of pork was more than doubled flour was pat up an average of two dollars a barrel and beefsteak at least one cent a pound as the result of these manipulations this increase in the cost of living has not subsided fork end and meat continued to advance they were higher the next year and higher still last year when pork bold boid for twenty four dollars and seventy five cents a barrel wheat too though it has fluctuated violently has remained in the hand of tile the manipulators MR n and every year since the corn conn comer comen er of 1879 the th 0 average price the mill has had hod to pay has haks been higher than that of the year before s the increase in the cost of living thus produced has helped to bring about the strikes which laboring people in many parts of the country have engaged in their wages have not grown with the price of food and the need of more means to ob tain actual necessities has driven them to attempt to combine against the capitalists to foree force an increase of wages these those strikes havo have proven disastrous to both employed emp loyes and employed emplOy eds and so have been an injury to the country ahree is another extract from the interesting article inee inSe view one summer afternoon a year ago ar a parly of chicago business men were idling in th their P if yacht over the cool waters of lake michigan one ot of them pointed out oat a great lake propeller shouldering its way eastward thero here there boea goas some of our geor corner wheat to liverpool s he eald eaid propellers sailing vessels railroad cars were hurrying millions of bushels eis els away from chicago koput to put it 16 out st ef the reach of the millers the exporters and the traders on the Board it must musi at any cost be ba made scarce bearce and dear for everybody it was wanted for flour and as the stock in trade of the board but as far as the bread eaters and the traders of this country were interested it was thrown away as the dutch butch threw away the spices of the M mauo ruc cas such buch of it as Liver liverpool poul would take was sold at an average loss of ten cents a bushel in order to extort twenty cents a bushel from the american consumer much of it lay for a long while stored in england unsold while the working men and women from one end of the united states to th the ther other question whether it la Is bertero better betten to work for wages on which they cannot live or not to work at all one of ithe ethe the bub business bua ineas men of new naw york testified before the corner committee that he sold corn to go to europe for twenty five cents a bushel less than he made the buyers lu in new york yolk pay him another member of the bie new produce exchange bald baid that he had seen the agents of 0 the cornering cliques standing at the door of the flour malls bidding away the wheat that was needed for bread none but a free peo pao people gie gle pie would submit mit to such wrongs it if there was any alny addan advantage tage tags to thie the farmer from such operations it would not be a natural advantage but there la Is no advantage these corners put prices down when the farmers want to sell and put them up when the miller needs to buy they exaggerate gambling by intensifying ing the fluctuations of price and they cripple legitimate business but the worst of this story is not yet told these syndicates and cliques are beyond the reach of the I 1 law a w any member of the board of E exchange who attempts to appeal 10 lne etke courts from tue lue ruin rain with which the operations of these corners cornera may threaten to overwhelm him is it lely kely to lose his beat seat ts a member worth many thousands ol of dol doi dollars lars larb and thus also his means of livelihood lie he is therefore compelled to submit to t the lie ile arb arbitration 1 tr a t I 1 0 U 0 of f a committee of the board often composed in part of individuals interested in defeating his hid appeal the new york courts have ruled that the seat of a member r Is ia property and can be bought and sold but the exchange takes such a stand that the ruling is practically nullified and the member has hai no redress the illinois courts have decided that these seats are not property thus playing into the hands handa of the board hoard hence those members who have been cornered by bj the rich syndicates rightly named by mr lloyd lioyd the 99 wealthy criminal class I 1 s have appealed for help and redress to tiie tile courts in val vain D the response being that the board Is a voluntary association and there fore not amenable to the courts thus though tuat that corporation la Is created by the state it is beyond the judicial jurisdiction of the state the remedy recommended by mr lloyd llloyd is the establishment of tribunals composed of disinterested per settle disputes that arise over schemes and secret combinations which now permit the exchanges to rob the world ot of its daily bread those who desire to prevent gambling and plundering from becoming the chief ends of the exchanges can do nothing more useful than to bring them back within the jurisdiction of the law it is demonstrated that the death ra rate to among the poor increases with theorice the price 0 ot t bread also that the price of bread rises and falls as acor acon cor nera nere care baro arg made and broken its leits priced are glued to the speculative quotations in wheat the coffers of tho the wealthy criminals who rob their own associates are enriched at the expense espouse of the lifeblood life blood of mil mii lions rong their secret combinations not ionly donly ruin rain other dealers la in food mood products product a but bat bring buffering suffering and want to hoats hosts of their poorer fellow creatures and prepare the way for the spread of dibease and the triumph of the grim monster death are not thesa are without sympathy and without humanity cold coid I 1 bloodless fiendish and relentless S speculations on the needs of the masses and the fa flares failures of legitimate trade among those secret combinations referred to in the book of mormon against which the prophets of old warned this great nation beforehand read mormon chap 9 v 40 ether chap 8 ve v 22 etc they are among the tho signs sIgus of the times they are suro buro to bring trouble distress and disaster upon the country unless something is done in ilu earnest to check their growing power they who expose this greed and dishonorable oppression do service bervice to the cause of humanity and are deserving of commendation making bread dear is worthy the attention of our national legislators and the gigantic evil therein exposed should engage the best efforts of our wisest statesmen fita that it may maybe be grappled with and peradventure be overcome |