Chicago Daily Tribune Newspaper, December 31, 1881, Page 9

THE YEAR 1881, Trade, Commerce, and Man- ufactures of Chicago for the Past Year. A Season of Great Prosperity in Most Departments, with a Bigger Itee- ord than Ever. Mammoth Trading in Grain and Pro- visions, with the Highest Prices Eyer Known on a Specie _ = Basis. Our Receipts of Brendstuffs Foot Up the Enormous Total of , 148,825,000 Bushels, The Receipts of Flour Were 4,957,000 | Barrels, Being About 50 Per Cent More than in 1880. Tho Arrivals of Live Hogs Were 6,470,900; and 56,178,000 Were Slaughterdd Here, Wo Received 1,546,830 Head of Cattl— The Total Value of Live Stock Handled Was $192, i 500,000. The Produce’ Trade Foots Up $377,- 000,000, Withont Counting Sales for Future De- livery. Rapid Growth. of Our Lumber Trade—The Receipts Were 1,853,040,000 Feet. The Wholesale Sales Aggregated $423,000,000; and Manufactures $309,000,000, The Latter Shows an Tnerease of > $24,000,000; with Tre. imendous Activity, The Total Trade of the Year Amounted to $1,015,000,000, Being a Gain of 12.8 Per Cent. Pow This Compares* with thé $2,250,000,000 of +, Bank Clearingns:-and-Thelr, Inerease. of -»-» 301-2 Per Cent. Our Figures Include Only the First Sales of Personal Property. The year now closing was n yery peculiar one, and its commercial history without a parallel, Ithns been a year of most varied experiences and unusual exeltement in this elty and throughout. the West; while the far Enst has alded to {nerense our activity and tu swell our profits, The record of the trade, connnerece, and manufactures of Chicago makes a grand showing at its close—biggor than ever, but also more variedly checkered, presenting ‘some remarkable bends in the ne of progress, ‘T'rue to tho arrangement of ity figures, 1831 ins indeed beon a Janus- faced year, allice in meteorological conditions and commercial facts. We have handled less produco anid made more proiit, If Chi- cago as a city, and the country at Inrge, have not unduly discounted the prosperity of the future it will be well, A season of prolific yleld on the farm, and: hitherto unheard of activity in the city, was followed by one of tho most bitter winters known in history. Its Intense cold para- lyzed industry and suspended travel, while its long duration Jed to graye fears for the ensulug crops—the backbone of the National prosperity, ‘The storms of winter, which blockaded people in thelr homes for months together, were suceceded by spring floods that swept thousands of thoso homes into 0 common ruin, An futensely irregular dis- tribution of heat and molsture marked tho Gunimer season; and destructive flres in Michigan reminded us forcibly of our own calamity ten years proviously, A. phenome. nal Inequality in the produce of the farm Was 9 matter of course; and wo found the corn belt in Ullnols and the wheat- fields of Minnesotn, herotofore the most favored - sectlons of the West, »Scourged, the one by drouth and the Other by flood; while / tho resulting deficit was partly compensated by more fa- Yorable conditions elsowhors, ‘The uncer talntles of the situation ted to an Intenso Sveculative exeltement, which drow “overy- body,” from tho milllonatre down to the bootbiack, Into the whirlpool of batting on the future of prices In produce, stocks, and Londs, ‘the abundance of money, resulting {tom previous prosperity, enabled this to bo Conducted on w bigrerscalo than ever boforo, Bsithad already permitted tho success of n funding operation which few would have dared to prophesy could be accomplished, ‘The other departmonts of our civic industry, Partly deadened by the winter chill, wakoned. hilo unwonted activity anid the wild throb- ings of the money-making fever, Our Wholesale trade and our manufacturing 8 tablisiments rose almost to tho bursting Bolnt of energy; und real-estate enterprises that had Jain dormant for years took a ew lease of vitality, ‘There was 80 mnuch of his- tory packed Into the six months froim ‘May to October, inclusive, that one found iqulMcult tokeep track of i} ‘Then a ruinyharvost- tue nade poor crops, and. this widened into & winter which tip to yesterday was an open One, preventing the drying of aralp and hin- derlug tt from belug marketed. * ‘The ubove-noted fuets contain sand form the reason why we have not takenso biga forward stride iu 1881 us in 1890, Woe have %. transacted ttle more business In yolume, and some tlepartments show a retrogression. But it was shimply because there was less op- portunity, ‘he elty was almost eut off from the country during the fist three months, and then It was found that thera was not so Much material to be brought In; while the wholsalo and manufacturing tndustries had hot time afterwards to do much more than recover Jost ground, as the yenr 1880 lind heen avery active one, Judged on the basis of dollars, the record fs much more to our credit, the avernze of priees having been Nigher in the Inter twelve months. ‘Cho prlees of breadatiits hive averaged fully 20 per cent higher; those of live stock shown tise of some 25 per cent, and lumber nearly as mueh, ‘Sho prices of mannfactured gouds do Not averigs so much avove those of 1880; 28 other material and Inbor havo searecly ad- Yanced so much as farm products; though this, again, docs not hold geod in all depart- wents, ‘The wholesale trade Is largely gov- erned In prices by manufactures and in aetlvity by the yiell of the farm; hence that does not minke 0 showing quite equal to tho avernge of the three departments, ‘The total welght of the farm produce handled was about 614 per eentless than f1 1880, But agalust this loss wa have a heavy gain in tho wolght of lumber and cont, with a con- alderably Inrger movement in some other ar- ticles, as noted subsequently; which gives aun Tnerease of over 2 per cent mm the number of tons of produce of the mine, forest, and farm, ‘i ‘The following columns contatn a résumé of the business of the elty, chiefly as based on the fact of first selling vatue of the property handled during the year; except that the movement of produce Is also given by quan- tity. A grouping of the multitude of items shows an Increase of 12,0 pereentover the es- thantes for 1880; wileh is very much less than tho 80!¢ per vent of Increase in the returns of the Clenring-Iouse, as that total of some $2,250,000,000 is very much Inrger than tho sunt by whieh wo mensure the total trade of the city. Lhe excess is due to the selling of the satne property more (han once, In part to the transfers of real estate, and partly atso to the immense checking on New York in connectivis with orders to dent = in stocks, bonds, cotton, and petroleum in that clty, We dé not include rent estate, tho reyluy being con- fined to personal property except: as teal estate ling been Improved by the erectlon of buildings, It would manifestly bo impos. sibio to give, In dollars, even an approximate {dea of the speculative transactions of the past year, as they varled in character all thé. way between mere bets to actual transfers, nich of the former involyingonly the pry- ment of differences, nud sonte of It not even that they could not be re forever cereal production of the United States, and particularly of tho Great West, bohind us, reevlved deh wondorful stimulua as to threaten ty fled the work, A large ares was blessed with ‘an unexampled ylold por aero, the olements conspiring to Inerease our production, til at one tine Mlooked as If the American people would be swamped by thecoptous stream from the golden horn of Ceres, compared with whilel the one borne by Amalthten waa but a bugatelle, We hint already deluged Western Europe to an ox. tent which had tmade_ the farmers of that purt of the Olt World unable to compete with us iu thelr home markets without. important changes «fh -rentas and had thus been 2 most important factor In the work of reforming tand tenures in Ireland, ‘The next step In prospect was to a stage in production where even ourselves would be embarrassed by the siltation, and unable to sell the fruits of the soil except at prices which would not pay the producer for lls Jabor. But tha prospect hasehanged. There hag been an Important reduetton In our cereal yleld, not enough to threaten a fam- fine, not even enongh to leave us without a respectable surplus of wheat for export, but stlll suflleient to abolish the fear of being overwhelmed by plenty, and to induce A most important change in our es Umates of selling values. As the focus of Weatern activity, .and the oxpo- nent of Western feeling, Chicago has falthfully reficeted these pliases in the vary- Ing magnitude of her produce movement, We have received tess duriug the past year because there was less to spare from tho farin, Some other lusduences have been at work, but they were of minor fmport com- pared with this one, great fact. We may. add, however, that reeent prosperity hud criabled the people of the West to hold thelr surplus more ensily, and the knowledge of this had much todo with determining the considernbly higher range of prices which prevailed as a consequence of tlecreased pro- duction, Lhe buyer is generully willlng to pay more for an article that hu really wants if ho thinks that tho party holding tt 13 not forced to sell. Partly for this reas prices have ranged disproportionutely high, ‘They have deen higher, aud averaged higher, during the past twelve months than ever before in the story of the West. pail $2.85 per bu for wheat, as In May, 1807, with an average of nearly $2.00 for the whole of that year; nor $140 for corn, as in No- vember, 1804, with an average of $1.03 for that year; nor $43.00 for pork, as In duly, 1864, with 0c for lard, as in September, 1865, But nelther have we paid nearly three “iol- lors” for one, ag was the ease alone about the tine of these “high” prices, which were high prinetpally beentise of a retuced basis, We might aswell call twelvd: actual: inches “a yard,” and then declare a nian to be tive and a half yards high, as to compare the prices of then and now, without redtteing the first to a specie standard. «Performing this opera tion, we find: that our range of prices during Asst iy without 1 parallel, ‘They avero mad- erately low during the winter months; the surplus from tho crops of 1880 being so large itis true we have net ag to depress,and lend some operators to look for a low level of quotations all through tho year, But when the long-continued frosts had disappeared It became evident that tho winter wheat had suffered severely, and that the corn was not fit to market in any consid- erable quantity, while other. grain was be- icyed to have suffered, though in smaller measure. The wheat shortage was early put down at 150,000,000 bu, or nearly one-third of the crop of the previous yearvand subsequent events have shown that the estimate of May was an exceedingly close one, though the National Bureau estimates a smaller shortage, ‘he weather of the summer was not favorable to the shipment of’ the old corn or to the growth of: vie new. It was .foported’ that’ lve stock find beon serlotsly thinned out by-tho rigors of tho previous. winter, while high-priced feed was nt oncd that. ‘Luke, for Instance, the fact that tha books of one commission-house show orders to deal In grain to the extent of about $300,- 000,000, and the grain trates of another foot Up 234,600,000 bu. ‘hese are, perhaps, the largest, buta million dollars per day was 0 sinnll average for ench of ut least. dozen finns during the months of August and September. ‘Lhe bustness of those fow houses foots up a total fully equal to that named in this review ag meastiring the en- lire trade of the elly, As compared ‘with corresponding periods’ in 1880, , the bank. clqarings - Increased «from. 111 per cent the first three months to over 150. per cent in the most uetive perlod, and then fell off to 0534 per cent a month ago; bit in- creased again later. ‘hese figures approxi- mately measure the relitlye march of busi- ness netivity. ‘Che Index moved, howeyer, more extensively than the tacts the Inst six months, . It mounted further up, with tho big produce deliveries of the late summer: and sank lower afterwards, a3 the new sys- tem of deliveries adopted by the Board of of a high estimate of yaluo on those animals which could bo sent to matket. - ‘Tho situation attracted capital, and it went in heavily on both sides, Men with money at command bought largely, that the shrewd observers In tho trade, who had colned money In the past by taking the markels by the forelock, were tho flrstto espy the coming fover, and profited ‘Trado rendered unnecessary a great deal of | togst by ff, ‘hoy bought up to the checking on banks which used tobe a} a cortnin point and then unloaded, inarked feature of the produce trade, . We may note, also, that the risa in prices fast yonr may be partly ganged agninst the increase In the volumo of nfbnoy, as it was in 1880, ‘Thore has lias been an augment of about 115¢ per cent on: the little more than thirteen hundred miliions of.coin and currency !n the country a year ago, But there wns alrendy then more of It than tho ‘owners know how to employ profitably, and for legitimate pur poses it commanded n very low rate of in- terest. By and by it began to surge over into produce, enuslug & rise of nearly 40 por cent in prices above the nverage of many formor years, Mush of St found even worse paying investments than that, and so much of It hag heen sunk in “digging post-holes’? as’ to mako money comparatively searco during tho Inter months of the yer, and lead somo peas plo toaskif wo bave not already Jald the foundation for another genoral collapse of prices to s much lower level than now. Our figures showing the recelpts and ship. decided that things ought to go the other way. Yery henvy loss or Ie town and refuse to go board, leaving little or nothing to pay the costs of, transportation to tidé-water, ‘This was tho signal for a break in prices, speedily followed by a lull ty. A great the shrinkage in quotations, and stald out; as high as wero warranted by the facts in the case, ‘The lator months of tho year wero board where both players hold out long after the gume should have ended Ina draw. ‘Tho situation in provisions was compll- AN argument against fattening and in favor Tho most curlous point In the movement fs the fact turning yound on the other tunel, In full con+ fidence of arevulsion, But the noble army of tailors, who followed thelr first lead, wero more nearly right, if toss philosophical, ‘They kept on buylug tong after tho old heads had Weather conditions and low freight rates favored a continuous advance, till at Inst the bears had to give way. and send prices still Algher while they filled in thelr shorts ata any further, By this time a blockade was threatened, as speculation had forced up our prices to nearly the range on the sea- In actlvi- many outside ‘operators were squeezed out of iha various deals by but enough remained to keep prices up fully auarked by a good deal of backing and _filt- Ing, remind{ng one of the moves on a chess- ments of produce are those compiled by tha Board of Trade, the Secretaries of the lumn- bor and coal associations, and of tho Stock- ‘Yards, from thelr own count or from tho dally returns made by raflrond and custem- ‘house officials: Wo have estimated for tho reculpts and shipments of today. ‘Tio In- spectors nnd Registrars of grain, flour, and provisions have also been drawn upon for Appropriate material,., The statistics of wholesale trade and manufactures are tho results of interviews with prominent parties Inecach departent. ‘The flgures may be ac- cepted aya moderately cluse approximation to the truth, as tu many past years; the est mates for which haye been generally ac cented by all others who havo ossayed to writo on the subject, Wo prosentthe record of Inst year to our renders, as the Intest ono in tho onlysorles whieh has been published, glving o statistical ylew of tho aunual growth of Chicago, FARM PRODUCE. 3 — The produce markets have all beon very active, and generally at a much higher range of prices,. We: have, however, nandled.a considerably smaller yatume of amaterlal than the aggregate of 1880, ‘There hus been Amarked decrease in ‘soveral departinents, and the gulns wor comparatively fow., Tho greatost fulllng off was In tho eusv of corn, tho decrease amounting to 19 million bu, or about percent. Our receipts of wheat aro 834 million bu, or 86 per cont leas that 11 18805 bucthls Js compensated by 0 50 per cent in- ereaso inthe recelpts of flour, Onts and bare Jey show an Increase, and thore Is a falling off in live stock for tha firat timo since 187%, while tha figures for hunber aud cual mount up higher Into the millions than In any for quer year, ‘This decrease In volume farms a white con- trast to the record of 1880, In which year thero was a big augment, espectally in Kral and seeds, But the gains of that and the two preceding years were yu extraurdinary eated by the attitude of European buyer, A tariff In Gormany and a prohibitory order In France, {ntonded to act the same nas the Im- position of n turf, shut out Continental Europe, and Englishmen stood out, like the boy on tho burning deck, absolutely refus-, fig to pay any stich prices as the Americana asked, But our market kepton upward, all the same, till It fell back in sympathy with the break in grain, About six weoks ago it wis Inthnated: that the restric tons would be removed, and French houses recommenced buying’in this market, but sparingly, ag our prices were too high to at tract much business; and they afterwards found that their action had been premature, ‘The groat feature of the year’s business fs tho Increasing importaneo of tho city In the produce trade. Chicago Iiay become moro and more distinctively the focus, not only for the Weat but forthe whole United Btates, in a speculative sonse;- while sho cer- tainly has not lost ground as the coltector and distributor of (he actual property, ‘Some Prominent Now York men‘ wade an effort mora than a year ago to establish, o -Speculativy focus In thutecity, But what was tho result? ‘The oxpurionce of the vust year {ells tho story, About o dozen Chicago firms lave established ofiecs in Now York, and not far from onv-third of the trading here has been done In obedience to orders sunt from: those offices, During lost September those nien wired fnstructions to buy untold milllong of bushels of corn in| this market, while peoplo around them wero vainly trying to sell at5 conts per bu rela- tively leas, and with costs of transportation down to the lowest point’ over known in the history of the trade. ‘They beught wheat in much the sume way then,-and wore cons stantly trading hero during nt least elglt Months out of the twelve, while the New York Produce Exchange was Mttlo’ better than a rendezvous in whieh ta compare notea in regard tu the quotations that flashed over the wires frout Clilcago every minute In the business day. ‘The great Southwest has byen a rampant buyer in Chicago nearly ever since Inst January, The people of that section saw drouth all around them, and they bought the stuit aud ‘THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE: SATURDAY. DECEMBER 31, got ft, genernily paying too high a price therefor. St. Louts somo years slice erected amammoth Board of ‘Trade bullding, and had to soll it recently. Sines then her trad- ers have bought a good deal of spot wheat, and corn, and moved some of It down the rivor. Dut they have done Iittloof that with- out sending orders here to buy or sell, aya hedge wyuinst loss tn handling the property; and the example of buylitg or selling hero was followed by others to the extent of hun- dreds of miltions of bushels, The share which Cincinnati has had {1 our wheat inne ket hos been told so recently that it scarcely need be repented, further than to any that a fow of her folks were atone tle long of about 19,000,000 bi of wheat In this niarkel, bestdes that bought by numerous tallers ov after the war horses of tho dent. Orders to deat in suimtler — qiantities, but not necessarily sinull ones, per se, were sent In from Detroit, Idlunapolls, Cleve- land, Toledo, Philadelphia, and other cittes tov numerous to mention; and even the bucket-shops at Interlor and inferior pinees hedged In this clly against the risks taken at homne, Chicayo noyer transacted halt ‘ns much speculative business fn produce, for parties residing elsewhere, In any previous year as in tho one Just closed. Indeed, there has been tov much of specu- Jation to be healthy, No calm, unprejudiced observer will gainsay the statement, Speen- lation has been xo exuberant as to block the wheels of legitimate trade. It lias overlaid all else and imade the handling of produce merely a subsidiary affair. 1t has demor- alized receivers and shippers and drawn into tha wihtrlpool’ of , excitement very many men (and womotl) who aught to have kept out of it altogether. The man with abundance of capital may as wold -risk some of ft in wheat or pork-asin buylng a fast horse orn pleco of unproductive real estate, Gut the man who risks the money of others, or all of his own,dy either knave or fool, and perhaps both. {he most deplora- ble feature of the case hus veen the thou- sands of people who haye haunted “Game dlers’ alley” here, or the-bucket-shops In the country, watching the course of prices, and ‘) wasting more thue on a $10 stake than would be sufltciont to earn the money, while nex- lecting a legitimate occupation necessary to the support of selves and families, ‘The Increase of speculdtion has Involved an increase of trading places in city and country. Tho Open Board of Chicago, which was opened about four years ago, with an admission fee of $5, has now a mambership of about 140, and has Inergased theadiission fee to $240; it was'$100 twelve months ngo, ‘Tho trading here is on thd basis of 600 bu lots. of grain, though the transactions are mostly in 1,000 bu lots. On tho regular Board there is no oMclal Minit, but one searcely ever hears of less than 6,000 bu of grain nnd 250 packages of pork or lard, untess ft be in single ear Jonds for immedinta delivery, und it isno unusual thing to seu 50,000 or 100,000 bu.of grain bought and sold in ‘a single lot. ‘Tho Open Bourd grew tired of the 600 bu Imit a few months no and raisdd the minimum to 1,000 ,but quickly returaed to first prin- ciples, whilayn third Yonrd was organ- ized for-trading in the small tots supposed to have been taboced by the second. ‘The Call Board is still another organization, but closely Identited with the Board of Trade,” and tho transactions of: the one ara usually rung up with those of. ‘the other, though this Is not ofticlally provided for in the rules. On the Call Board there isa morning eall for provisions only, andl oho In the afternoon for both xrain and provisions. A very wide dliference of opinion oxists with regard to the valuo of a call In propies, Some hold it to be nn unmitigated nuisance, especially as applied to grain; but it has enough of adyo- entes to make it necessary for the disaffected outs to nttend In pergon or by’ proxy, and tie aggregate of sales ntgome of Its sessions isainiply enormous, «L4e- for for-meniber- ship in the Cnt! Board was ralsed to $1,000 In November. + é. ‘There ara numerous other establishments, somethnes called * bucket-shops,” which ara not trading places in the proper sense of the term. ‘The proprictors of thesoshops simply take in money from customers in the shapo ot bets on tho future of the market, though Ing. A great den! of money -is turned over in these places, and in the purchase and sale of puts aud calls on the curbstone, all of whichis no botter than so much gambling, ‘There have been wonderfully few failures on the Board of ‘Trade during the past year, considering the violent fluctuntions In prices, Plenty of embarrassment to be sure; but eyen that was mostly the embarras do richesse, Many firms were unable during _the'buslest time to keep Intelligent track of the vast number of orders they wore called upon to execute, and some were weeks be- hind In tlio posting of thetr books, though as full n force of clerks as could be utilized was employed night.and day. A walk through tho streots in the vicinity of the Chamber of Commerce at any time in the night during Suptember was suflicient to show that scores of bookkeepers were at work In the offices of leading eommission merchants, and sov- oral rings of settlement wero reported to have been completed between tha hours of Sand Oin the morning. The fallurea would Nave beon stilt fewer in number had mem- bers of the bonrd adhered to tha rule that brokerage does not presuppose credit, but docs monn ensh «own, and enough of It. Sone of the henviest losses of the year havo been incurred by taking orders withouts deposit, and depending on being able to draw hn caso the market should go against the deal, Thamember of the board {s obliged to respond almost instantly to enlls for mar- gins, or “Ile down” and largoly trust to the good will of lis fellow-members for permts- sion to rise to his fect again, ‘Tho man olf the board can only be reached by process of law, which may be a work of years, and if resiling In another State the chances of ro- covery are decidedly. problematical. . It-may take time yot for members to be satisied that the best business ts that which Is transacted on small commissions and good security—tho Intter being a sine qua non, When the outside world has speculated so largely as during the past year there have necessurily been heavy Josses as wollns large gals, Shuple speculation adds nothing to tho wealth of the world. . It puts money into the pockot of one man only by taking It from the pocket of some one else, Tho hondling of the produce of the West in passing It from tho producer towards the consumer adds to its value; but tha men who content themsolyes with betting upon ft while it; is boing thus moyod cnn only win ad others loss, ‘Thly solf-ovident proposition. seems, however, to bo above thy comprehension of somo peo- ple who havelost money during the past year, and they have denounced the Board uf Trade oud thecity fn no measured terms, ‘The worst invectlyes, by the by, have been heard from Men who made more than they fost, and re fused to pay thelr losings while placidly pock- Ctlng thelr gains. Such may well be passed by in silence, But there are others who are Teajly ats loss for information why the mare et should invariably advance on them when hey give an order to buy, and decline when thoy want to sell, ‘Tho reason is that they act on an Impulse common to scores, perhaps hundreds, of others; and it is the prepanudor- ance of buyers or sellurs thut puts prices up ordown, A hundred men send in orders to buy wheat, their reagon being the fact of bad weather, Very few send selling ordore, and tho city speculator, who wlso knows that the weather is bad, ts unwilling to sell exeapt at such an advance as will give a reasonuble chance of profit by te operation, ‘I'he com- inisslon-men have to bld up prices or they cannot fill the orders in competition with each othur against few sellers, ‘The weather changes, and most of Wie hundred men send iu orders to sell, while there are few buying the transactions are called buying and sell, 88I—T W. Y-FOUR P. orders, and the city speculator fs not ina \urry to buy, because he knows that a con- {inuance of fine weather will be likely to send tho market still lower, Tho imarket nattrallydeeciines under such elreunstances, and the commission inerehant fa nu more re- sponsible fur the fact than he was for the advance. It is the people outside who make the market nine times out of ten: and then lay the blame upon the elty operator, who fs simply taking hiy chance on the exercise of is own judgment, if a specilator, and sim ply exceuting his orders if working on com- mission. Of course, there are shrowd, un- serupulots men on the Board of ‘Trade, as elsewhore, who are ever on the lookout for & chance to muke money by sealping. ‘These men will “whoop up’ the market they see people buying, and will then sell when they think it has about reached the top, But they are often mis taken, and: fn any event have the same right to buyand sell as olhers have, Asn rule, to which therq are very few exceptions, the commission merchant does the best he enn fur his client, and takes aprite in so dolngs Just as the lawyer takes a pride In gaining 0 case over hig opponent. If he loses itis not so much his fault xe hls misfortune, It needs no argument ( prove that tho tremendous speculation in produce here has Increased the importance of this efty as a dis- tributive centre, Less may linve passed through, but we have controlled more, In- decd, with the exception of the relatively sinall quantities of grain which St. Lous has sent down tho Misstssippl, it may fairly be claimed that Chleago has controlled tho entire movement in the West, and much of that at the seaboard, ‘Choe reader may pitt it the other way, Hf ho pleases, and say thatthe speciation hero hay ‘controlled and entised the masterly Gieetivity whieh prevailed on the seaboard during soveral months of the yenr. It was the fuctof high prices here that kept up quotations at tide water, and Incited the people farther West to pay even higher flyures for the stuff than could be obtained by sending It here. ‘Those transactions were all based upon the figures furnished from Chleago, - ‘They veered up and down as we moved. Even the British markety, though generalty below us, almost to the exclusion of our produce, were more dlependent than ever before upon our prices. ‘Thoe and again questions asked from this side ubout the probable course of the mar- kets in Europe were responded’ to. substan- Ulally inthe words, “It all depends upon you. Ifyou weaken wae decline, “If you ad- vance we strengthen’; and the course of events proved that these respondents had dinnosed the conditions of the caso cor- reetly, : ‘Thase who read the British commercial reports, and notlved that, as a rule, they anly refer to New. York quotations from this side of the Atlantic, my perhaps think tt too much to claim that it is Chienzo which regu- Jates prices in Liverpool and London. Still Wore so inay the few who have traveled over there and found ithat New York figures are the only o1vg from Aimerien that are gener- ally quoted..! But the reason fs found in the faet that our exporters all do business on the basis’ of Uritish currency, They cable the prices in pounds, shillings (and pence) at which they will forward a given quantity of ‘Heat, flour, corn, lard, or bacon, ineluding al} charges for cost, freight, and Insurance. ‘Thg British mnerchant uses those figures ag his“own, goes upon the market, sells so muuch stuf to arrive, ifthe ean do itatu profit, and then orders It to be forwarded. That Js the way In whieh most of the wheat and corn fs handled, while considerable quantities of flour from the country and bacon from this elty are forwarded to be sold, tho one on commission and tlhe other on Joint recount, Hence, while the people there may talk New York quota- tions, and,-often without knowlng what, the figures’ meni to~ them, they “net Chieago prices, whlch tlicy'do-imderatind “and “ap. preelate, “ It is a significant faet, too, that the foreign buyer can generally purchase more cheaply | here than on the seaboard. Sometines itis adli{erence in frelght rates, the exporter here having the chotce of rival routes, not. only from this elty, but from: the thousand and one cointry points at which he edntrots the property. He is able to select the route which the ever-changing phases of competl- tion make the cheapest for the moment. At other times it 1s because capltal is running a speculative deal, that makes it necessary to control the spot property, which is offered to the foreigner at a sharp discyunt in order to get It out of the way, and permit ten tines as much tobe made on futures as Is snerl- ficed the other way, In order to contrat the market. Cases of both kinds have cropped out atthe surface more than once during the past year, the conditions being such ns en- tlrely to exclude dealers on the seaboard from the competition, It Is thus that the great bulk of the export business ‘of the country, tosay nothing of supplying the needs of consumerson our Enstorn seaboard, Isactual- ly done here, so far ns the speculative artl- elesare concerned; and that involves the transaction of an {mmense business in other articles of produce. . ‘The material may not all come here; indeed, that 1s merely a see- ondary utter In the trade, being chiefly tin portant tothe labor employed in handling and to tho owners of storage-room, ‘To this we may add the vessel interest, which, If mentioned last, is not the least. ‘The Chien- gv merchant advances the money that Is pald by the country buyer to the fariner, and in very miny cases Owns the warchouses tu the country into which !t fs reecived and the erlosin whieh some of it is stored duringthe winter, “Others of him” “nro almost as closely Idontifted With the selling facilities on the seaboard on both sides of the At- Juntle, And so the provisions and bread- stuifs are bought and sold here on a mam moth seale, of which our reculpts and ship: nents are not always an Index, and never a mensure, Of courso this would not be possible with- out abundant capital; but that 1s never lack- ing, ‘The only serious ground of complatnt isthe fact that there Is sometimes too much of it, ‘Tho trade itaelt is thu reverse of be- ing poor; it contnins not a few of the wealthiest mombers of the community, But the monvy of the world ontslde is nt thelr com- mand, alinost without stint, The reason is that produce Is_ property, and when insured. ean always be deponded upon, not only to return the monoy, but.to do so whenever needed, Hence n groatdeal of money fs all tho time at the command of the trade while awalting opportunities for other Invest. ment, and Immense suns are constantly em- ployed brit as the safest and most profitable modo of using It There ts reason to be- Heve that more capital has been declined, thongh oifercd at very low rates of intorest, than has been used by our leading produce firms during tha past year, Of course this ‘refers only to thut required for actually handling the property, ‘The Bonrd of Vrado has at Inst. got rid of the Incubus of street delivorles, under which it labored for many years, Oct, 16 the method of maklng dullyurles Inside the hall between 120 and 8 p.m. dally was tried, tuk not work very well nt first, chleily owing to tho diMloulty oxporfonced by membors in adapt | ing themselves to the new method of con- puting storage due as between buyer and seller, while the warchousemen continued to charge on tho old plun of 3a per bu tor euch ten days after the Ist. ‘Iho storage partot the reform was abandoned after a little less than two weoks’ triai, and since then the other part has worked smoothly. One no longer seea a hundred boys dashing through the streets aud dodging In and out of aflices as If they were muniucs one or two days {u every nionth, and the thme-honored practice of making “the other fellow pay the storage” has nearly faded out of existence, ‘The method of computlag stor AGES, ago at the rate of 3¢milt per day was in- vented as acheck on that practice, with Its attendant eviia; but tho grain receivers did not taka to It kindly, and tt has since heen found unnecessary, the delivery system now in-use betng sulllcient, Its greatest ad- vantage, however, is that It has very much Jessened the opportunities for cheating by Intention, or Dlundoring, It fsreally 9 mar- vel that the commercial world was not long since startled by soma gigautle fraud in de. lvertes, and a wonder that. mistakes were 80 few and so ensily rectified. Yet the Inttor was not always enay. Several cases word reported where deliveries made during the exeltements of the past year were not traced out and settled 111 several weeks after wards, The receipts were thrawn down on the counter without metmorands by either barty, One caso was curious enough to bu referred to specitically in this con- neetion. The pressure of business lind obliged parties in the trade to hire extra help. Among the extra hands was a man who had dropped out about two years pre- viously. Ilo was given receipts for a rotund lot of wheat to ba delivered to Mr. A. and threw them down on the counter of Mr. f5., who was then oceupylag the office in which Mr, A. did business two yeurs previously. It touk a month to rectify the blunder. The Board of ‘Trade 13 doubly hampered inn property senso; It ows more money than St has a legal right to hold, and holds more property thun it hoy ause for. It now seeins Probable that an effort will be made at Springtield, during the present winter, to pass a law empowerlng Boards of ‘Trade to own property. If this be done, the Board will thon be able to entirely remodel its recent plans for the future, ‘The money re- ‘qulred to erect the magnificent bullding pro- poset for {ts occupaney can then be ralsed by tho sale of additional member- ships, obvinting the necessity of borrow- ing.n dollar, and the Board can retain control of Its present quarters after having vacated them, or devote the use of the prenlses during the remainder of its long lense to some public uso which will deify Mammon without degrading the worshiper, and prevent the building being occupted by a rival organization. ‘The indications are that the price of membership will be raised stl higher—say to §10,000—the rise to take effecta few weeks ahead, during which a Iitndred new members would be admitted at the present rate, with possibly a limitation to the number of members thereafter. On this point it may be permitted to say that the Board of ‘Trade has the right to raise the price of Its membership, but not the moral right to Himit the number of persons who may belong to it. The price is inerely a commercial matter, which may be depended upon to regulate itself in the long run, how- ever much. it may be legislated upon, ‘There {s some question about the wisdom of a turther advance ‘nt — present. - ‘Tho offiviat price a year go was only $1,000, and fs now $5,000, It is argued that a high price tends to exelude worthy young men whose chief capital Iso training in the business, and to let in parties who want merely to speculate with money which has been earned by others. On the other hund, however, it 1s urged, and with much force, that a high price would tend to Insure commercial probity, because no one cord afford to jeopardize his membership by evad-. ing the payment of small sums, aid this would lessen the necessity for calling mar- gins so closely as now. Instances are not rare fn the past where men have let their memberships lapsa by default rather than pay differences of a few hundred dollars which hind acerucd against them. But the Innitation In regard to numbers fs another matter, and would probably be found to be imprudent and even suicidal, as well ay un- just. ‘The Board of ‘Trade 1s turgely specn- lutive In its character, and organization;. but tnt speculation ts founded upon the, fact tliat the Board transacts thelegtllmate prod-- uce business of the great Northwest, It is the recognized agent of the farming community on the one linnd, anid of the consuming worlkl on the other. Any attempt to assert that none buf certain designated persons, or their successors, can or shall transact that business would surely ‘recoll disastrously upon the asserters, just as the trades-union has fnvarinbly gone to pleces when it assumed a like attltude., It would amount to nothing more or less than a kicking over of the pall of ntlk which hind been so assiduously gathered, and would richly deserve Its fate, The action of the Directors of the Board in regard to prices has been widely eriticised, and very harshly tao, ‘he prices of oats for tho last day of July,and of wheat for the close of August, were ench fixed at about the polnt elnimed by the longs, leaving defaulters on those contracts to settle at the top notch of the market. But when appealed to Inter, in regard to corn, the Directors fixed upon a figure which was confessedly far betow the inurket, and a long way under the price at which shippers were buylng it to send to tha seaboard, ‘There is hittte renson to doubt that ‘the Directors fixed the figure for corn lower than was justified by the quotation aspect of the case. About 68e would have been nearer to the rleht asa price, But It should be ru- membered that d2c was not decided to bu the the price of corn, it was simply glyen as a limit for protection in thecalllngof margins. ‘That action empowered the shorts ta call margins down to 10 per cent below 62¢ per bu, but did not disqualify the longs from calling up to a dollar, provided they chose to bid high enough for the corn, The Directors only provided the means of making the longs fulfill thelr contracts fn case of a brenk to- wards vormal values, ay they had previously inststed on the shorts lying up to thelr con- fracts, Anda decisive interposition was not only warranted but Imperatively demanded by tho®act that onr elevators were being rapidly tilled up under a cessation of ship monts, Which paralyzed our Inke murine, throw sailors and. laborers. out .of .cmploy- ment, and threatened to blockade the antire grain bustuessof the ely. Thesituation was a Gordian knot which It was wise to cut, though perhaps it was- not cut at the best possivle point, A good deat wag sald about capital bow withdrawn and ar- ders withheld on necount of the step. We cen only say that the elty and tho trade was better off without such capital and such orders as would have Involved the catas- ‘tropho towards which wo were raplaly hastening; aud no sensible man will decline to trady hore in the future because the Bonra of Trade, through Its ofllcers, peremptorlly ordered the crowd that was blocking up tho pathway to ! move on,” . It may seem strange that with a considor- ably'smatter movement of farm produce re- celyers should have complained more loudly than eyor about the searelty of cars; but so Mis, Enstern routs haye been short of curs nearly all through tho year, and shippers Were sometiines weoks behind in Mliing their orders, Western roads, too, were short of cara. A great deal of. the trouble Is due to tho Jack of welghing facilities in the country. When grain is consigned to the elevator hero It is weighed on the empty. ing of tho cars, and the country shipper sel- dom ‘complulns that Justlee hes not been done In the matter of quantity, ut a good deal of grain hus been bought here for cune algnment East, without transfer at. this point, ‘This was especially ao during the autunn, when our elevators were su full that some of them refused to take in moras] araln. In such cases sheortatual cars would often be sent on East, and tho: contents welghed on the seaboard, after which tha ears would slowly find thelr way buck home, Another greut aud growing difliculty is the fact that transfers here hays to ue made over several roads, For instance, & Michigan Central ear sent to the North- Western eloyator for 4 load, has te puss over the Hng of three corporations, the middie onebeing the Fort Wayne, and somettmts has to be Idle for several dnys bofore the two Intermediate connections can be made. Tho Sreater the number of cars ordered ont the dronter ts tho block, and the longer average (elny to each ear, The scarcity of fraiatit- room was also In part due to the fact that St. Louls had not storage-room for the larger quantities of grain that were’ attracted thither by her higher prices during the past Bix months; and many ears lind to stand on track theto for three to four weeks together, walthny fur a chances to unload, Some of the receivers of grain suffered very severely by the sharp upturn in prices during tho simmer: months, ‘They “halt al- ready advanced on the property In the coun- try, and soli ft ahead at the lower prices of the winter and spring. They were enlled Upon to margin up heavily to seenra the de- livery of the property; and in the enso of corn were obliged. to repent this porform- Ance for several tnonths In succession while walting for the gralate cure to the point where it would grade ns No, 2 It was this uiuch tnerensed expense and responsibility thatied them to agitate for the increase in rates of comuisston which wns so extensive: ly objected to. ‘These difleuities, with the decrease in pts, and the knowledge that parties outside wanted to specntate more than ever, tempted several ot the receivers to enter that field, and some of them did It so extensively 13 to comparatively neglect tho recelving business, Some of the horses Which have bought and sold most henvily for partles outside the regular trade are among those who previous to Inst mldsum- nier had done very little except In buying or selling for actual transportation from the producor towards the constuer. A comparison of the returns of the Inte census with the Agricultural Bureau esti- mates of yleld for 1879 shows a wide discrep ney. it ins been supposed to show big errors. The crror, however, is not certain to beall onthe side of the bureau. ‘There {3 some reuson to think thata ood many farmers had in mind thelr yleld for 1880 (ex- cept in the case of corn) when they mide thelr census returns, and the age gregates cannot be implicitiy trusted. Tho truth ts that the world has been Attaching far too inuch limportance to the statistical returns, ‘Phe figures are valuable for purposes of comparison from one year to another, and thatis about all, ‘The idea of tellius the yletd of a State ton single bushel is simply ridicutons, Yet some of our State statisticians not only do this, but commit the sull greater absurdity of tabulnting the age eregate price received by the farmer, ond glving it, too, before half the crop is sold. It is exceedingly difficult to mnke the returns for either 1879 or 1890 gibe with the reported exports, and estimates for seeding, and do- mestle consumption, which are based on ob- served facts, The work of sume of the men Who inake up the figures shows that they do not too well understand common arithmetic. Wesuggest that {t would be weil if one or two of the massive intellects drawing pay from the Nation for mathematieal work should bend themselves to the useful task of showing the crop-men how to deduce an aggregate average, as well us helping them to understand that the aggregates cannot be de- pended upon to within a considerable per- centage of the whole. It nag been suggested that the statisticians have posslbly made no allowance for the hnmenso nunber of acres plowed up last spring, but have mul- Uplied the total acreage sown into the ayer age yleld of that giving a crop. ‘This woul! inake a big diiferenee between fact and theory, Our capacity for storing grain was ine creased nearly 15 per cent last whiter by the bullding of the Jowa and. St, Paul clovators (Munger, Wheeler & Co.), but the greater capacity was found Inadequate to meet the Augmenting wants of. the-trade.. There ls a Rtowlng tendency ta the keeping of grain here, -summereas well as winter, it. belng found, worth more to. speculate on than to consuine, ‘This tiny seem unhealthy, but it is true nevertheless; mud there is no good reason why the grain should not stay here as well ns elsewhere All the grain, except corn, Is ripened ‘withtir a very few weeks, near the close of summer, and Its use stretches over a perlod of twelve months. Every bushel that is held here ‘ult wanted by the consumer fs so inueh Jess to bo held In the country, and so more’ money placed in the hands of the farmer In advance of the time when he would otherwise have it tospend. Fully as much capital was offered forthe carrying of grain during the past’ year as could find employment, and the con sequence was that_our eleyaturs were com- fortably full most of the time, though there Was not so much pressure fur room as itn 1890, and less of rebating on stornge charges to those who would move the property out of store, . Our rebatlng this year was mostly In Seplember and October, and the greatest re- bate reported was Lye, belng Mttle more than hulf the maximum rebate allowed the’ pre- vious year. The pressure for, room was, however, so greatin the two months above mentioned that ono railroad refused alto- gether to take grain consigned to Chicago eloyntors, and several of te warehousemen svt about making arrangements to Increase their capacity, while the Directors were for- anally authorized, about the middle of Octo- ber, to make yessel-room regular If they should deem It necessary. Meanwhile sev- eral new elevators were In course of erectlon, and others were determined on. The addl- tions are about as follows: Rocit Istaid A, rebuilt, inerense 750,000 bu; Pacific, Inerense, 850,000 bu; Seaverns A, licensed by. Rocic Island, 1,000,000 bu, ‘Total, 9,800,000 bu. -T hese increase the nominal capacity ta 2. 000,000 bu. ‘The actual eapacity ot the twen- ty-four houses fs probably a little Jess than, 20,000,000 bu, as the Jurger figures could not be actualized without filing up all the bing nnd blocking up the railroud tracks so that the houses could not be operated, In addi- {lon to the above. the Western Indlana folks are bullding a, warehouse, one of 1,500,000 bu is projected by tho Wabash system, Armour, Dole & Co, have negatiated for the erection of rvoim for about 1,000,000 bi of corn, and the Seaverns warehouse, B (private), will hold another 1,900,000 bu, ‘5 ‘The grentost quantity of- grain in store here during the past year was 14,001,555 bu, of which o Uttle more than halt was. wheat, and one-third corn; the remalning one-sixth being other grain, mostly oata, At that date, Feb, 5, thera was also afloat in tha harbor 388,78 bu corn. It does not appear proba- bie, Judging from the rate at whieh grain has come forward sofar this winter, that the demand for storage room will keep pave with our increase m storage eapaelty. ‘There fre now in our harbor 41 ateamors and 143 schooners, with an aggregate capacity of, about 6tH0,000 bu of grain, which can bo used for storage thla winter If required. . ‘They will probably uot be needed, in our Jast annual review we sald this city ought to be ablo to furnish accommodations for at lenst 60,000,000 bu of grain, Our war house capitalists: seem now tu bo awake to the requiroments of the situation, and dls. poseil to furnish adiitlonal coom as rapidly ag could reasonably bo expected. Such a, boom as wo liad lust September could not be- caleulated on In advance, hud, indeed, If. now scem probable that ull the storage rooin © of the city, however much, would have been ited up under that exeltement, People here - wore paylug more for the stuff than itcould be suld for to Its shippers, ‘This at once shut up:tho outward movement, and sthuulated country holders to sond 1 all they couly for ward before tho boom should be over, espe: - clally as the condition of the grain was such us to make then afraid to- sell ft on grade to arrive In future monthy; But the exverlence of three winters join iu showing that our storage rovin ty now widely regurded 93 9 means uf dnvestment for surplus capitals and not the dearest In existence ut that, though some