Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, August 27, 1881, Page 2

P — i " GRAIN SPECULATION, Fortunes Made and Fortunes Lost in Wheat and Cern in a Week, Origin of the Great Bull Move- ment—Big Operators Interviewed. Opinions of H. O Armour, Rnfas Hatch and Others. New York Herald, August 23, The extent of the recent grain spoc- ulation may be inferred from the fact that Rufus Hatch is known to have carried at one time 1,800,000 bushels of corn; a prominent down town mer- chant, who prefers to keep his name wut of print, had 3,000,000 bushels, more than the entire supply at Chica- go; and Mr. Keene, it is said, held 1,000,000, purchased at 45 conts and sold at a profit of $200,000, accord ing to rumor, The Armours, of New York and Chiufu, held even more, and are credited with having made a handsome fortune. Among the “‘shorts” who have lost large amounts of money a prominentGerman bank- or is spoken of, who, for himself and his custorhers has dropped 8700,000 within a week, mostly of foreign ac- count. The loss among small opera- tors who had sold the market short have been very large in the aggre- wate. INTERESTIEG OPINTONS, Below will be found the opinions of some of the heavy operators in grain, 1t will be scen that they agree in the main as to the cause of the great hull movement —short crop—but differ as Yo the future of the market. It is to be regretted that th ews of Mr. James R. Keene, who is largely intex- wosted in the pruducc markets, could not be had, owing to his absence in Newport. MR, ARMOUR PREDICTS HIGHER PRICES. Mr. H. O. Armour, of Armour, Plankington & Co., Broad street, a member of the bull clique, seemed to beo reluctant to give his views, and said: ‘“We are packers of pork and don’t think we know so very much about grain.” “‘But your house is reported to fig- ure largely in the grain speculation?” “Well, 1 buy things when 1 con- sider them cheap, and sell them when T regard them ‘as high—that’s true,” ‘‘How about the corner in wheat?” ““There is none, TIt's all nonsense,” “Not a cornerin August wheat when its price is 5o much higher than that of September?’ ‘‘No, there's no corner. A great many people havo ‘sold it short and the season is backward, so that it can- not be delivered very fast, but you will find that as the month goes on the price will soon adjust -itself to its Kl.npur level. Only wait till people ve a chance to deliver the wheat they have sold.” “‘How is the s generally in grain?” “I am a radical believer in much higher prices. I think all provisions are bound to be higher, as they al- ‘ways are whep there is a shortage in the crops.” ’ “‘And doyou think that will turn out to be 80 heavy?” ‘‘Very large, indeed. Why, if the estimotes of the department of agri- culture go for anything at all they in- dicate a shortage in wheat alone of from 25 to 30 per cent,, which, in a production of, {wbelinve, about 475,- 000,000 of bushels last year, would amount to from 125,000,000 to 160,- 000,000, or about equal to our entire export of last year.” THE SHRINKAGE OF CORN, ‘‘How as to the shrinkage in corn, Mr. Armour?” ““Well, if the government estimates are all right the corn crop is from 300,000,000 to 400,000,000 bushels short. Now, that's a calamity to the country, and no editor sitting in his chair and writing an_editorial on the wicked speculation knows anything about it. That means such a change in the relations of demand and supply that there must be arisein proportion to the new condition of things™" ““Then you do not look for a further break in prices?”’ “‘Oh, the speculation has been enor- mous, and there may be violent flue- tuations up and down—no doubt there will bo. hen we bu{ we move the grain in Chicago to this city for ex- port. We don’t buy on margin, but move the stuff itself.” ““What will the export demand be, in your judgment!” “Prices show that wé have not much to export, even if the demand should be great, which I don't believe it will be.” “‘What effect will this speculation have on the farmers’ interests?’ “Well, they have much smaller crops, but tb{.'fll probably make it up by the higher prices they will re- ceive for their pmsm." ‘‘Conceding even the shrinkage in crops‘ Mr. Armour, are not prices ab. normally high already?”’ “‘Not st all. For the past five years we have had enormous ero and abnormally low prices, \Vhyfi am uot & very old man and I have #old wheat at $3 & bushel.” THE PRICES OF GOOD FRODUCTS, “‘Has not the average price of corn for the Elll fow years becn near 40 cents a bushel?” ““That may be, but we have had a succession of the most enormous crops —a perfeet glut of corn. I remembar the old fashi price used to be about $L & bushel. But then, us I told you before, T am very radical in my views.” “‘How high do you think food pro- ducts will go?” ““I would not dare to tell you. The longer & man lives the less he finds he culative outlook Imnk'."lff.:?f e for the next twelve months md to rauge mu::. higher, Rumunbe; we are t supple To0d for the’ world, bod whn to the supply tion in_food nroducts ever known in this country, has it not (" “Not at all. The volume of sp: lation has grown with the incrcase of the country; buby as o “the fluctua- tions they have been small compared to those of some years ago, - This specnlation is a haby compared to some I remember, MR, HATCH'S PREDICTIONS, “‘No, si Mr. Rufus Hateh said; “‘the recertt advance in corn was not fostered by artificial means, The wheat deal may have been brought about by manipulation to a certain ex tent, but the rise in corn was the natural result of affairs which still ex- ists, and which may make corn still higher.” “To what do you refer?’ was asked. ““Well, the whole thing can be ex- plained very briefly, You must know that there is a strip of land along the west side of the Allegheny mountains and extending through the states of Ohio, Tndiana, Tlinois, Missouri, Kan- sas and Kentucky. Tt is about a thon- #and miles long and from 500 to 700 wiiles wide. That embraces all of what is known as the ‘winter wheat section’ of this country, and is what is known to grain men as the ‘corn belt,” This year tho winter wheat raised in this section will be betwoen 40 and G0 per cent of the usual crop. In fact, taking the whole of it together, there is reason to believe that it will not thrash out more than half a crop. But corn is even worse, and there is no question that there will be a good dellll less than half a crop. In brief, the whole cause of the recent rise in grain may be summed up in two words—short crops, The shortage in corn is more marked than in whoat, and the members of the wheat pool would not have been 8o successful in bulling No. 2 red if the failure of the corn crop had not helped them. This was something like a piece of luck, for the condition of the corn yield was not known when the wheat pool was formed.” ““What were the causesof the short- ) ““In the first place the winter grain was injured by " the extreme severity of last winter. Tho wet snows wet a great deal of corn that had been cribbed, Then came the long dry spell of this sanmner, which has se- riously affected the only yield this year—that which is harvested in June, Why, when it was thrashed it turned out only onc-half what it was expect- ed to yield. I have seen apecimens of corn from almost all sections, and the cars ave largely composed of mere ‘nubbins,’ and the wheat is equally poor, with a short and thin berry.” ““How about the bull clique?” ““The pool was formed last spring and consisted of speculators in Chi- cago, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and this city. At that timo everybody else was a bear. It was known that we should not have full crops in this country, but it was not supposed that they would fall far short of an aver- e, and the cstimates for the crop in urope were for a very heavy yield. The pool, as they call it, consisted of men like Mr. Armour, James R Keene, Hutchinson, of 8t. Louis, and several others.” *‘And Rufus Hatch, of this city?” the reporter suggested, interroga- tively. {‘Well, the vegaran operator replied, with a peculiar Bmile, ‘I was on the outside. But, as I was saying, ‘hey sent agents to the grain country, and they soon found ample reason to know that the crops were going to be hardly more than half what they ought to be. G course it didn’t take men like Armour & Co. long to know that the correct thing to do was to operate for a rise, They wereshrewd enough to do it and they have made some money. When I commenced buying corn in May it was down to 44 and 45 cents a bushel. It 13 now 72 and over.” A FURTHER ADVANCE, ““Will there be a further advance; has the bull movement reached its hight?” ‘‘Well, the advance has been so sudden since the 1st of August that it is natural to expect that there will be some reaction, ~But the highest prices have not yet been reached, in iy opinion, because, as I have said, the ‘;rlin crop will he much shorter than has been expected, There will be another riso when the fall wheat is harveted next month, There is no disputing the facts which lave caused thorise. In the first place the corncrop last year was not so large asin 1879, — the year before,—so that during last winter, which was a very long and se- vere one, the farmers were obliged to use millions of bushels to feed their stock, - This was a serious draft on the lutply on hand. Butit was not until the drought of the middle of June that we began to hear much talk of a short supply of corn. The July statement ulP the agricultural de- partment put its prodable yield at 90 r cent, * Since then they “have put t a great deal lower,” THREATENED EVILS, drought, and if it continues four weeks lenger in the winter wheat section it will be too late for them to plow for their fall wheat. Nothing can save them but two weeks of rain, and it must come soon —within two weeks. The dread of this continued drought has already had something to do with ad- vancing the price in the west. If it continues four weeks longor wheat will go up 25 or 50 cents a bushel,” *‘How about the spring wheat eropt” ‘*We cannot tell you just what it will thrash out. But it will be a great deal less than last year,” *“Then you think that as the crops are undoubtedly very short, prices will be still higher?” ‘‘Yes; wheat is going to sell here about as high as it does in Europe. To give you an idea of the shortage 1 may say that Bamuels, of St. Louis, one of the largest dealers in the wost, writes me that le is shipping wheat to millers in the g.urt of the w country of Kentucky. Corn and wheat are both l.u{_hor in 8t. Louis than in Chicago, which has hardly ever been known be- fore. The quality of the corr. is so that onldy about 60 per cent is and pronow merchanta- pected . | ble (or No, QILAIIfl the remaining 40 per cent is either warked No. § or re- THE OMAHA DAH’ cted. The crop in Europe has been tter than we have had here in three years, but it falls far short of what Was expected, except in Rossia, The speculators in Europe have lost a great deal of money They undertook to sell wheat short, and it took them about six weeks to find out that out crops had been badly. damaged. 1 have not a bushel of corn, but 1 will venture to say that in six months it will sell at &1 per bushel. We shall have the shortest crops that has been raised in twenty-five years in proportion to the land under cultivation, I have had correspondents traveling all through the wheat country, and have received as many as fifteen or twenty dis- patches a day, so that T have full ad- vices."” CONSRRVATIVE VIEWS, Mr. W, H. Trafton, Jr., a conserva- tive, attributed the rise to short creps, and ‘expressed the opinion that prices might be still higher before the end of the year. The beginning of the pres- ent bull movement, he said, was about August, and since that time more than 13,000,000 bushels of corn have been sold at the Produce Exchange for speculative purposes—John Lyon, a heavy speculator of Chicago, bein, one of tlm first buyers, Armour & Co. were the largest speculators in wheat, holding 2,000,000 bushels of the 30,000,000 now in supply in Chi- cago. ‘“‘In Germany,” Mr. Trafton continued, “‘the crops of wheat, oats, rye, barley, and hay prove to be very disappointing, the yield of rye, oats, and wheat not more than three-quar- ters of a crop, and some of our corre- spondents place rye at not above two- thirds on an average. In Roumania and a part of Austria much injury has been done to their crops. ¥From France the advices are also unfavor- able. As thrashing progresses the yield is disappointing for both wheat and oats, the latter especially bad; and instead of that country ex- porting, as has been stated, they will Lave to import from 30,000,000 to 45,- 000,000 bushels of wheat, and also very freely of oats. The injury to the root has been scrious, and all this intelligence combined has contribu- ted to. the buoyancy and excitement that have characterized our market for the past week, Prices of both spot and options have been rapidly advanced, and have been forced above the limits of most shippers, o that the export trade has been ro- stricted greatly. It is very evident that the real situation of this country has not been properly conveyed to the minds of Buropean readers; indeed, the majority of them have been mis- led, and therefore will be slow to ap- preciate the situation as it really is. For the first months of the cereal year Western Burope will have to de- pend upon this country to supply much ot their d ncy. The fact of their roserves being lighter than at any time for many years will compel them to be free buyers of new wheat early in the autumn, so that the com- petition here will be greater than many suppose; and as the quantity to be contended for is very much less in this countay than last year there are many good reasons why farmers should” count on good i Prudent and conservative 8 men regard the financial pit- natiop with much: appreh¢nsion; /the’ weak position of our banks and the constant drafts upon them by large operators here and the west, to carry on their gigantic speculations, may, it is feared, lead to disastrous results, It will be seen that the reserves of our banks have been reduced from £9,000,000 to about $2,000,000. This great change certainly places them in no very enviable position, and when they dJecline to extend further aid to speculators to enable them to carry out their ‘corners,’ then we may look out for a sudden collapse that might temporarily unsettle values,” —_—— The Great Crater of Kilauea. The following pen picture of the fearful crater of Kilauea is from the Honolulu Advertiser ' of July 26: ‘Tourists to the volcano for many years past all remember certain active pools of lava, the North and South lakes, which ordinarily bubbled and tossed a fiery flood at a depth of about 120 feet below the floor of the great cra- ter. Now these lakes have all been filled up, and there have arisen peaks and cones of hard laya that rise. over 100 feet above the south bank of the great srater, which is about 1,000 feet high. But there has burst forth a new opening in the great crater floor not far distant from the old lakes, and anew lake, almost round in form, about 000 feet across and some 70 feet in depth, in ordinary stages, be- low the surrounding brink. Here the great Hawaiian volcano presents the ;nolt varied, fantastic play of liquid ava, Here are some of the phases of the in the t crater of Kilauea. Some- play of a fire lake, as recently observed | all .Y BE the red spray, that fall and near the observer's feet. By this time the spirit of out in- ferno is aroused. The whole fierce red lake is all boil and Teap and roar. It is more than the roar of loud sea surfs beating bold bluffs. The surg- ing tide of the molten earth sounds a deeper, bellowing bass than any note of the sounding sea. And now the heaved up crust, broken into frag- harden | the boiling flood | is now, indeed, a vortex of indeserib- able glories and terrors. Caves open on the sides of the surrounding wall, and man seems more of a hell than he ever imagined. A thousand demons are now holding high carnival in this bottomless pit —and the leap and play of a fiery flood — the dance and swell of a red, surging tide, and the roar and shriek of the dread forces issuing from the red.hot, pulsating heart of the planet, make a thoughtful observ- er Jold his hand to his own heart and say: ‘‘This is enough; the Almighty is here.” ——n Proof Positive. ‘We have the most positi ing proof that TroyAs' ELrcrric ( most, effectual specific for lmdil*' r cases of rheumatism and neuralgia it instant relief, Don't Take Any Chances on Life When Warner's Safe Kidney and Liver Cure will regulate and keep you healthy at all times. ives eodlw Worthy ot Praise. As a rule we do not recommend pa- tent medicines, but when we know of one that really is a public benefactor, and does positively cure, than we con- sider it our duty to impart that infor- mation to all. Electric bitters are truly a most valuable medicine, and will’ surely curo Biliousness, Fever and Ague, Stomach, Liver and Lidney complaints, even where all other rem- edies fail. We know whereof we speak, and can freely recommend to nh.——[]" Sold at 50 cents a bottle hon. (4) oy CERMANENEDY FOR RHEUMATISM, Neuralgia, Sciatica, Lumbago, Eno(mx arengss of the Chest, Gout, Qulcy, Sore Throat, Swall- ings and Sprains, Burns and #, Scalds, General Badily Pains, Yooth, Far.and Headache, Frosted Feot and Ears, and all other Pains and Aches. 1. Preparation on earth equals St. Jacons 015 8 & acfe, sure, simpla and clieap Externui Bemedy. A trial entails but the comparatively tetding outlay of 50 Cents, and every oro suffer- ¢ with pain can have cheap aud positive uroof ita claims, { Directions in Eleven Languagse ¥ 0LD BY ALL DRUGGISTS AND DEALERS IN MEDIOINE. A.VOGELER & CO,, .« Battimo~ 3 DRS. COFFMAN e AND THOMPSON, Physicians and Surgeons. Orrick, Over Cruickshank, 16th St., Bet. 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This is a crust of quiescent lava, and the observer, who has expected to have his sense of won- der strained to speechlessness, says: “Is this alli” No! look! the frozen, glassy lake is alive, What a heave in the center - some mighty beast lifting up that floor! Now a wave of undulation runs round the incrusted marge, And thereis an outburst, & blood-red fount, gushing and bubblnig” from one of earth’s arteries. 'I'he broad disk of the lake heaves and trembles. Fitful, gaseous Geo. P. Bemis ReaL EstaTe Acency, 16th and Dodge 8ts,, Omaha, Neb. This agency does sTRICTLY & brokerage business. Dultuumflm,lw n:o"l't:“ sny bargaine on nsured patrons, instead of'belug vohbled up by the avent IVIL, MECHANICAL AND MINING EN- GINEERING at the Rensselear Polytech- nlc Institute, Troy, N. Y. 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Another crimson fount springs up slong the now fretting and roaring rim of the lake, and another and another of now wildly upleaping fountains of fire toss high™ their gory- crests, even casting gouts and clots of Pay Taxes, Rent Houses, Etc, 1¥ YOU WANT 10 BUY OR BELL Onll t Ofice, Room 8, Crelghton Block, 'O, ATTORNEYS AT LAW, DAVID CITY, NEB, collections in Butler wmm attontion glaen 0 joate Wutk " W.J. CONNELL, ATTORNEY - AT - LAW. Orpica—ront Koo (up siairy) in Hancom's wow brick bLullding, N. . corner Fiteenth o i Bveis ™ " | Goodman. Burdock — 00D 1f yon suffer from Dyspepsia, use BURDOCK BLOOD BITTERS. with Dilionsness, use BURDOCK BLOOD BITTERS, 1f you are prostrated with sick Headache, take BURDOCK BLOOD BITTERS 1t your Bowels are disordered, regulate them with BURDOCK BL. 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