OCR Text |
Show DEALING IN FUTURES. flight when wheat was dropping like a skyrocket stick and farmers throughout through-out the west were selling their winter win-ter wheat at $1 per bushel for July delivery a bill Introduced Into the Illinois Il-linois legislature hit at "futures" as a remedy against such "corners" as have been ascribed to "Jim" Patten and smashed on the Chicago Board of Trade. The bill provided that any one who sells what bo does not actually actu-ally possess at the time, or buys what is not actually delivered to him on the spot, shall be sent to the penitential peniten-tial y in addition to paying a fine ranging rang-ing from $1,000 to $25,000. Intended as protection to the consumer the moasuro hit at the act of grain and cotton growers who sell their crop at high prices before they are ready to deliver it. Millers have repeatedly taken advantage of similar situations to secure prohibitive laws against contracts con-tracts for future delivery as competition competi-tion would largely be eliminated in the purchase of grain during harvest months when deliveries are heaviest and produce low prices for grain at the expense of the growers. This -was tho situation in Argentine until last ear when a system of "future selling," sell-ing," backed by a reputable grain exchange, ex-change, was established to lessen tho fluctuation of price and supply before and after harvest. m m m - |