The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, June 3, 1918, Page 11

o A o~ S === "V—\T“f - ) IR » v } ) i3 1 ¢ . dled” for about one-eighth of :speculators at all.- Raising -such “transactions” and have -way: - Qf course such money comes from the pockets of the con- - posed to make their money by . pushing prices down. Of course - "bears get along very nicely to- . gether, for they manage to. Gamblers Take Millions From Farmers Enormous Profits Made on Foodstuffs That Do Not Exist—Only the : Public Should Store Products and Fix Prices e E would think that with a monopolistic hold on the market and the power to fix prices and rob producers and consumers coming and going, the closed market system would be quite satisfactory to its owners. Not so:” After having cap- tured the earth, in the shape of a monopoly over.all produce that actually exists, it reaches out and takes in the moon, in the shape of a monopoly over all possible “future” crops and values. In addition to its big brace game in handling .actual produce, the system has developed a side show wherein it buys and sells crops before they are harvested, at a low margin, but so fre- quently and at such little trouble and expense that this pleasant exercise has proved very profitable. A “future” is any part of the infinite amount of future farm produce likely to exist in the rosy imagination of a food gambler. There is no limit to the number of times “futures” can be sold and resold. The system has present produce so thor- oughly monopolized that it feels that all future products belong to it and that it is safe in trading on them and justified in making all the money it can out of.things “before they happen.” PRODUCERS AND 3 CONSUMERS PAY These future crops pass from hand to hand at a low margin —future wheat is usually “han- X a cent a bushel, but there is so much future wheat and it can be “handled” so frequently and so cheaply, that this low margin does not worry the crops on paper with the aid of white collared servants and passing imaginary quantities of produce from hand to hand is a much more simple and in- expensive problem than that which confronts the farmer. As usual the producers and consumers are the goats of all to foot the bill. Just how do they do this? Simply this TRADING IN FU- TURES IS THE VERY THING THAT FIXES THE PRICE PAID TO FARMERS AND CHARGED TO CON- SUMERS FOR ACTUAL PRODUCE. When these “hot air” transactions have depress- ed the selling price of produce, the farmer gets that lowered price for whatever he has to sell and the speculator pockets the amount he has gouged out of ' the farmer in this way. Later, after the farmer has “ sold all the produece he ecan _spare, transactions in futures raise the prices on these “blue sky” goods, the consumer has goods, gouge ‘the consumers and pocket the -winnings. e Probably for the purpose of fooling the people and keeping them interested in a sham fight until their pockets are emptied, speculators are divided . into “bulls” and “bears.” The bulls are supposed to make their money by pushing prices up. sumers. The hears: are sup- . low prices for produce is what robs the farmers. But the fact remains - that the bulls and X but as FARMERS, regardless of party. have it always happen that prices are low when- ever the farmers have anything to sell and high the rest of the year when consumers are obliged to buy. STAGGERING SALES IN FUTURES These “operations” are carried on by and under the protection of various boards of trades and cham- bers ‘of commerce. These bodies are the most privileged organizations under our state and na- tional governments because of their tremendous political influence. They are a law to themselves and are practically immune from punishment. The two largest of these bodies in the United States are the Chicago. Board of Trade and the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce. They prac- tically control the wheat trade of the country. The extent of speculation in these two boards in wheat alone will give some idea of the tremendous robbery that is going on in all lines of produce in the United States. Future sales of wheat in the Minneapolis Cham- ber of Commerce alone have totalled not less than 10 billion dollars a year. This is a great deal more wheat than ever existed in the whole wotld in one year. Profits from this “paper crop,” raised by of- fice clerks, at one-eighth of a cent a bushel would i SOCIALISTS ATTACK THE LEAGUE l The above is a photographic reproduction of a Socialist party pamphlet attacking the Non- partisan league, issued from the Washington state headquarters of the Sociallsg party. The. to pay this price for the real . pamphlet pretends to “expose” the League, claiming it is an organization of “political mounte- and the speculators banks,” and indulges in the usual line of misrepresentation of the organized:farmers’ move-. ment:“ Socialists who are attacking the League are resorting to the same kind of misrepre- sentations as Republicans and Deémocrats who are fighting it. : ; ~ All party machines are natnrally opposed to a nonpart h party, with these kinds of attacks, will make no more progress against the organized farmers than have the Republican and Democratic politicians. = The only basis on which farme_x's can successfully organize is on the nonpartisan basis—not as Republicans, Democrats or Socialists, Independent Socialists, just like independent l.Ie- publicans and Democrats, are joining the League despite the circulation of pamphlets like that reproduced above. The League has no fight with the Socialist party or any other party, as a party, and, being nonpartisan, is free to adopt the good and 1_'eiect the bad candidates and measures, no matter what party they belong to or-originate with, - SiE . The farmers are getting together AS FARMERS, not as Republicans, Socialists or Demo- crats. ' If 45 per cent of the farmers should join the Republican party, 45 per cent the Demo- cratic party and 10 per cent the Socialist party, and refuse to discuss or unite on any other political or economic measure except these promulgat. scatter their votes among candidates for all these parties, the farmers would continue to be _hopelessly divided and could accomplish nothing. However, if 100 per cent of the farmers should join the League and unite on the same program and candidates, they _would haye solid- - arity and would be in a position to get what they want. How can there be any room for farm- ers disagreeing on a common-sense proposition like that? . . {san movemient. The Socialist by the party they joined, and should be $12,600,000. The effect of being called upon to deliver more grain than there actually is in the en- tire world would depress prices to a low level and the farmer would be the victim. One company, ac- cording to the testimony of E. L. Welch, “handled” 630,000,000 bushels of this, although only 60,000 bushels were actual grain. CHICAGO “FUTURE” SALES ENORMOUS In testifying before the rules committee of congress, Samuel Hallet Greeley, who for 28 years had been a member of the Chicago Board of Trade, declared that this body traded in an average of 17, 000,000,000 bushels of future wheat in a year. Willet M. Hayes, formerly assistant secretary of agricul- ture, puts the Chicago board’s yearly trading in wheat futures at 90,000,000,000 bushels. Yet the highest yearly receipts of actual wheat at Chicago do not exceed 50,000,000 bushels. Mr. Greeley testified that at the lowest estimate, the transactions in futures on the Chicago Board of Trade amounted to 300 times the volume of wheat handled in a year. At a marginal profit of one- eighth of a cent a bushel, this means that every ac- tual bushel of wheat handled would have to yield a profit of 371 cents to cover these margins. House Committee Transcript, Vol. 4, pages 1205- 1206, says the following re- garding profits on futures: “How often commission charges are made may be seen from the fact that every time a hedge is made—and it is made many times on every bushel of wheat—a hedging charge of one-eighth of a cent is made. Every time a bushel of wheat is purchased and sold eight times, an extra tax of one cent is therefore levied. It was admitted in all future , transactions the gambling win- nings and charges eome from either the producer or the con- sumer.” - ROBBERY TOTALS MANY MILLIONS We are fortunate in possess- ing from a very reliable source an estimate on the annual “winnings” in the TUnited States from gambling in fu- tures in all lines of farm pro- duce. “A very rough estimate,” wrote Willet M. Hayes, Janu- ary, 1913, “places the money received from the people by exchanges and their bucket shop appendages in America alone at upward of $200,000,- 000 annually.” X This enormous sum of money is taken from the producers and consumers by a bald and insolent process of open gam- bling in the necessities of life. bling. Gambling is based on - present closed market where is simply gouging and extort- ing by means of a brace game, for monopoly over present com- modities is monopoly over fu- ture produce, and after these manipulators have taken from current products “all the traf- fic will bear,” they turn to fu- ture produce and do the same thing. 3 PUBLIC CONTROL IS THE ONLY REMEDY The truth is, the day of gam-i- bling in'the sense that it is a of speculation no longer can be justified on the ground that It is flattery to call it gam- ' risk, is passed, and the profits | B risk. Trading in futures in the its ' manipulators possess the? ! finishing plants and storage - plants. for complete monopoly, 5 PR s Var i i