HG 60 H85 46 h. CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Cornell University Library HG6046 .H85 The dragon and the juggernaut of specula olin 3 1924 030 209 062 And there came a lion and a bear and iool^ a lamb out of the floc]^; . . Am I a dog thai thou comesi to me ivith slaves? And David smote the Pbilisline . . . and he fell upon his face to the earth." — Ist Samuel, 17 Chap., parts of Verses 34, 43 and 49. Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924030209062 JAMES HAMILTON HOWE, M. B. AutlaoL' and Lectui'ev The DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION AS EXEMPLIFIED IN GAMBLING IN PRICES OF OUR FOOD PRODUCTS Written Especially for the Education and Protection of Our Young Men and Women, About to Enter the Business or Professional World; and a Warning to Our Produce Growers and Provision Packers TRICKS OF THE MANIPULATOR EXPOSED HOW SPECULATORS ARE ALSO BUNCOED AND FLEECED Written by JAMES HAMILTON HOWE, M. B. Boston University, 1882 For Ten Years Dean of DePauw University Author — Lecturer PRICE $1.00 PublisKed by The Dragon Publishing Company Leary Bldg., Seattle, Washington, U. S. A. COPYRIGHT 1916 BY JAMES H, HOWE International Copyright Secured All Rights Reserved REVERENTLY DEDICATED To the Service of the DIVINE RULER OF THE UNIVERSE And to Those Who Have Been and Are Being Grievously Afflicted By The DRAGON *'lVe may reell be perplexed al human fear; and siill more astounded at hatred, tvhlch lifts its hydra head, showing its horns in the many inven- tions of evil. Bui rvhy should n>e stand aghast at nothingness? The great Hed Dragon symholizes a lie, — the belief that substance, life, and intelligence can be material. This dragon stands for the sum total of human error." — Science and Health, by Mary Baker Eddy. A FINANCIAL BUCCANEER BENJAMIN P. HUTCHINSON— "OLD HUTCH" A Financial Ti-aitor to His CoiinLry, Who Startea the Ball ItolliuR "For years Hutcliinson's sinister flgure, lie of tlie beak nose and shifting ' eye, brooded like an evil spirit over "The Pit," a menace to price and peace. He died almost in darkness and despair." — Marcossen. It is not known that Hutchinson laid claim to great beauty, but it is known that lie laid claim to many millions in margins, put up by our people. This serious farce became a continuous performance, until Dragon Senior scooped him into his golden net. "He was later found selling- old junk in New York City." "How are the mighty fallen." '*These six things doih the Lord, hate; vea^ seven are an ahominaiion unio him ; A proud loo^, a l})ing tongue and hands thai shed innocent blood. An heart that deviseth wielded imaginations, feet thai he smifi in running to mischief, A false witness thai speal^eih lies, and he that soweth discord among hretheren.'' — Prov. 7: 16 to 19. "And there shall in no mse enter into ii anything that deiileih, neither rvhalsoever tvorl^eth abomination, or ma\eth a lie." — Rev. 21 : 27. AUTHOR'S PREFACE Request — I ask my readers to thoroughly absorb the Preface be- fore reading the following Chapters. This as an integral part and necessary, in order to fully appreciate the salient points of the main body of the book. A Some thirty-five years ago, I was led, somewhat by by own cu- pidity, to invest in what! I supposed would render a good profit. The sequel was as follows. There was no profit rendered, and the principal disappeared like "Ships that pass in the night." With a strong suspicion that there was a "Negro in the woodpile", and believing that we had been buncoed ; with my post graduate university study and tutoring work, I casually took up the study of speculation, that of the most rabid nature, more as a hobby than anything else; endeavoring to ascertain where my money went, how it reached its destination and who received it. Intermittently, for over thirty years, these studies have been going on; and having learned something that will be of great benefit to my brother and sister, it now becomes my duty to present it to them, and in the following pages will be found a summary which is given with the hope that the information contained will serve as a protection for our young men, and young women as well, about to enter actively into a busi- ness or professional life. A set of lectures which were first arranged, were the outcome of a natural inquisitiveness which later developed into a serious study of a gross evil. This book was written at the suggestion of an experienced broker, with whom I had associated for several years; who proved himself an honest one; and who gave up a lucrative position in a broker- age office, although a family were dependent upon him, because he saw that his employer was carrying on questionable transactions. Neither was he one who, when you gave an order at a certain price, which he was able to fill at a quarter or three-eighths better, pocketed the differ- ence, as has been done thousands of times. It is considered one of the perquisites of the profession ( ? ) . This endeavor to enlighten our people, is not a "Propaganda Built Upon Prejudice", but a denouncement of wrongs long endured. 12 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION Of course there are many ways that a person can speculate and gamble. In lands, mines, oil wells, and business of all kinds. Craps, Bridge-whist, Faro, etc. ; but the men who engage in these risky under- takings should consider their families before embarking. So many mistakes are made. So many homes are placed at the mercy of the loan man; and the wife and mother placed in a state of mind bordering frenzy. But this so-called "business" which I am to uncover, is in a_ class by itself, and far removed from those just quoted. It is not even in the class with those who give short weight on a loaf of bread, or substitute low-grade wheat for high-grade, or mix one with the other, or substitute embalmed-beef for properly cured. Nor with those graft- ing line elevator men or storage grafters, nor the middlemen who "pl«^y both ends." It is gambling of the worst kind, in which the book-maker orders the horses pulled; the faro croupier presses the electric button at mis- fortune; the card sharper has plenty of aces up his sleeves, and jokers and jackasses abound. Here, the victim, sailing at first upon the edge of the whirlpool, is soon drawn into the vortex and submerged. Like the hasheesh smoker, he is lulled into sweet dreams, only to awaken to sorrow and financial terror. It is far worse than lottery; for there, each player generally has an even chance at the prize; while here, there is 98% of chance against one; culminating in no profit, and loss of 85% to 90% of the principal or margin put up to insecurely protect option deals. As carried on at the present time, it is the greatest swindle of the age. This gambling has been one of the causes of the following state- ment: "Sixty-six of every 100 persons dying in this country have abso- lutely! no estate; they die penniless. Of the remaining 34 persons, 25 never accumulate more than $1,300 in their lifetime, and die with less than that. On4y 9 persons in 100 have more than $5,000 when they pass on. Only 2% of the whole population may be classed as "well-to-do. The other 98% of the people of this country have only their wages from day to day, or are dependent upon their relatives, or upon charity. Of every 100 persons who reach the age of 65, no fewer than 97 are partly or wholly dependent, for food, clothing and shelter." These figures are not mere estimates. They are taken from Gov- ernment census statistics. DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 13 In speaking to a room trader, that a movement was being initiated for the purpose of exposing the rascahties of the Boards of Trade, rephed: "Any one who tries to uncover the workings of such institu- tions, is a jackass." So I will say, "Let us bray." After a good straight talk, he acknowledged that "they might have discretionary powers as to price making," and this was all I argued for. Mr. X, a friend of mine, sided up to me one day and said "Mr. Howe, my advice to you is to not to give those lectures." I asked why? "The people will know that you have speculated." The kind- hearted man didn't know that I began by acknowledging this fact. It is my earnest desire to open the eyes of our citizens, who are being fearfully and cruelly stung. Many room traders, brokers and manipulators may criticise my work, but reader, I have not studied this so-called "business" for thirty years, in order to produce a pipe dream. I have been through the mill, and so have tens of thousands of others, to their sorrow. I give you inside facts, most of which have been established and recorded. The evidence of these tens of thousands who have been fleeced, is enough backing to my statements. Miss Beatrice, the daughter of a friend of mine, after gazing upon, and listening to, the "daily riot," of the Chicago Board of Trade, looked up to her mother and said, "Mamma, what kind of animals are those down there?" I do not wonder, for here you will witness a seething mass of rampant humanity; their gesticulations far outshining those of the maniac. Their roarings are like those of the "Bulls of Bashan," and their dancings suggest those of the Dervish, f A veritable pack of desecrating hoodlums. ^ '", If the citizens of Chicago only knetv what the]) Were about and what these halvks Were about, they Would root out this gambling in foodstuffs and tip them out neck and crop. The citizens of Chicago have been roundly soared just the same as anyone else. B Where there is so much that is beautiful in this world, it is unfor- tunate that we have to uncover so much that is bad, in order to root out error, which has burdened our people for sixty years. Evil, or error, must be made so black that we turn from it with loathing. My duty in this matter is to present these findings to you for your protection. I have endeavored to present the case in such a manner, that the Citizens of the United States will be impressed with the enor- 14 ^DRAGO N AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION mity of the crime that is being perpetrated up)on us. The greatest woman that ever lived, has said: — "Whatever enslaves man, is opposed to the Divine Government." Mr. Charles W. Smith, in his excellent work, "The Economic Ruin of the World," makes the following dedication: "To HON- ESTY, the best and what ought to be the only policy — financial, com- mercial, or political applicable to men as well as to nations. If the basis of these policies is dishonest — honest capital, as well as honest labour (the most sacred of all capitals) must inevitably suffer." He also truthfully says in his "Preface": "A Nation that desires to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, about these 'Bull and Bear' gambling operations in Trade and Finance, will have no difficulty of ascertaining it. I find it most difficult to com- prehend how any honorable man, capable of seeing, reading, thinking, and understanding, and of reasonable intelligence, can fail to under- stand, and is not bitterly antagonistic to these shameful systems, based upon blackleg robbery, shapen in iniquity, and conceived in sin." He hits the nail on the head. What I have written as to what is going on in the various Boards of Trade, is the truth, if only an infinitessimal portion; and my state- ments are backed by brokers of long standing and who know, (what used to be, but now no longer) the game. I write as I see the situation, and there are thousands of others who see it in much the same way, but who have not chance, perhaps no desire, to publicly voice their conclusions. Our people surmise in a general way, that questionable transactions are being carried on in these Boards of Trade; but they demand concrete evidence to convince. They need to be instructed as to methods used and practices imposed; and further there should be some real live examples presented, of those who have been injured, in order to become fully impressed with the enormity of the crimes against the home and nation. This book is written, with the hope of putting! a little crimp in a certain manipulator's wholesale peculations; and it will, if I can induce our people to read it. Please note throughout my book, that it is the "Economics of the Home" that are disturbed. That, in itself, is murder. One will under- stand my personal feelings of grief, when I state that twenty years of home life have been taken from me my rabid speculation; and the sympathetic sorrow I have for the wrecks that are strewn over our country. DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 15 ' I am not a capitalist, nor a socialist, although I believe in higher socialism: the greatest good for the greatest number. .Rabid specula- tion acts to the contrary. Higher socialism, I feel sure that we are agreed upon. Trust business, we might differ, in some respects. Legitimate business we easily agree upon. Illegitimate (sheltered under the false canopy, entitled business) or speculative gambling, we should agree at being yvTong, and Teorking the largest amount of harm to the greatest number. And, my reader, don't you allow any one high in the speculative arena to confuse you, or endeavor to prove to you to the contrary; for he could only put up a bundle of untruths, worthless for your use and damaging in the extreme! C Speculation, leaving out the rabid, has such a reputation, at present, that if a bank president learns of an employee of his institution visiting a broker's offices, how long before said employee would be "called upon the carpet", or receive a formal "services no longer desired"? And Bucket Shops! well, perish the thought. Not only do we need to protect our boys mentally and financially ; there is also a great moral issue, which overtops all statements herein made. I have neither given instruction how to trade upon the Boards of Trade, nor the raising or distributing of food products, nor how corners were run. Matters of executive nature have been well taken care of by writers of note. I have shown up the pitfalls and tried to present the dangerous side in such a terse and truthful manner, that he who reads, may run away saying — from such error and pest "Good Lord deliver us." No matter how much I may read market reports, financial news, crop statistics, etc., my guesses (yes, I call them guesses, and they are, unless you are the boss manipulator) upon future market prices, are made strictly from a gambling point of view ; which, as markets are now run, is about the only safe (?) way. Statistics.are ablind, a delusion and snare, for the absorption of the hoi polloi; and are used profusely by the manipulator as an aid in carrying out his nefarious plans. With all my study I can not guess (?) rightly every time. About four out of five is my limit. This is a little better than Keene, whoi used to guess rightly four out of seven. Some time ago, a friend was dis- cussing the pork question. I believed at that time that Dragon would 16 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION carry the price up after little more decline (he can place the pnce anywhere he pleases) but there were too many trailing after him, and he turned upon them and smashed the market price for about $7 a barrel, before he quit. At this point, after a session of quiet, I said buy all you please; and it has never struck that figure since, and will not for many moons. However, I am not in the business, and must desist from giving opinions as to future trends of the markets. I might state that pork has since struck $29.25. During my studies and writings, when I used to occasionally look out of my hotel window and gaze upon the exuberant life of hundreds of young pupils of the public school, I was given a new impetus from time to time, to continue my work in endeavoring to cor- rect a grievous error, with the hope that at least from such a corner, they should not be hampered in their life work. My hope is to get people to thinking. That being obtained, something will be accomp- lished. If in some degree this book might follow "Uncle TonLa_Cabin" ' in helping to release thousands from the slavery of ia hid s pecu lation^ what a blessing it would prove. I will, of necessity use some "Shop Talk", which may be more effectual than artistic. Watts said: "Each department of life has its language, ex- pressive, if not elegant, and in dealing with this subject, we must per- force adopt the language of the Street." It grieves me that I am forced to chronicle such an array of deviltry, when there is so much of goodness in the world that would better be presented. But I would be derelict in my duty if I did not, in some degree, complete the task I have set before me, for the enlight- enment and protection of our young people who are to take up the burden of running our business and state. And when I think of the thousands that are passing through what I went through, and are being ruined today, and will be tomorrow, my heart goes out to them, and I wish I could abolish tlris license at once. Of the Remittance Men, who often lose in this gambling, I say but little. They are parasites anyway. But of the fathers of families, who are drawn in, I have much to say. Marcossen says: "Food and clothes are the essentials of life. The man who attempts to corner the staples that provide them in order to extort an extravagant profit, and to put his competitor at a dis- advantage, serves no economic purpose, and, by some mystic rule DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 17 of retribution, always comes to grief (?). Herein lies the lesson of all (?) corners." I doubt him. I will say this: that a person who sells short something that he does not own, with the express purpose and determination of depressing the prices of a commodity owned by another person, is a traitor to his fellow compatriot and his country. The persons engaged in this Board of Trade, so-called "Business", are financial parasites. They live upon the passions and weaknesses, gains and losses of others. We might call them of the genus Epiphyte (plant upon plant) better, of Torrubia (plant upon animals, inside and out) . Their leader. Dragon, is like unto the parasitic Jager Gull, that makes the successful gulls that roam along our coasts, disgorge their plunder. With fairness, we might liken Dragon's henchmen unto plant lice, or fish lice, called copepods, for they war against and destroy parity of production and consumption; and, without right or reason, make it more dffficult for us to secure a living. Brokers may think that I am bitter against the Boards of Trade. In answer to this, I will say that, if thirty years ago, I had been possessed of the information I now have, after years of study and reading; I never would have invested my money in an absolutely losing game. It is for this reason that I desire to inform, warn, and thus protect especially our young men, from this fever of rabid gain, this desire to get something for nothing; this destroyer of body, mind, and that which makes for the better life. Boys, read the books I have listed in Appendix 1 . D Where I say Board of Trade, or Chicago Board of Trade I mean several scattered throughout the country, together with their sub- offices. Dragon practically manipulates them all, through one at Chi- cago. The Chicago quotations are found in every other exchange. I realize that L am a diminutive David going up against an elephantine Goliah, and my stone is only a few-paged, six by nine, book. Asi to what each speculator has specifically wrought, I refer you to the books and periodicals given in Appendix 1 , and daily papers published throughout the United States. The stories given throughout the twelve chapters, have for years been common property, and I give, them about as they were retailed to me. With the exception of a few minor details, they are probably 18 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION correct expositions. Those of my own experiences, I certainly can vouch for; and for those given in Appendix II, I have letters in proof, and can Vouch for their genuineness. These represent various grades of deviltry and goodness. I do not doubt that many of my readers will ponder somewhat over the statements made, and then go right back to the broker's office and don the yoke, forgetting the truths which I have herein embodied. They will remember what I have written, after they have lost their all, and are down and out. My dear fellow, kindly look at the illustration of "Busted and BHghted, yet Reminiscent" before you go back, and see if you wish to "jine de chorus." There may be a joker in it, but I assure you that the result of an active participation is no joke. The Bucket Shops, the so-called illegitimate children of the Board of Trade, are being hounded to death by their parent, and yet they are only carrying on the same questionable game as their parent, a veritable case of Ishmael. Is that consistent? In speaking of my book of information and protection, some replied, "The people want to be humbugged. They want as much of the element of chance as possible." This might have been so in the time of Barnum, but I believe that the up-to-date men and women desire, and earnestly, to know the truth in all matters temporal and spiritual. Illusions in the past were perhaps greatly enjoyed for a season, until dispelled; but this illusion, deception and snare, is a serious one, debasing and disastrous in the extreme, a thousand times worse than nothing. Listen to Hamlin, governor of the Federal Reserve Board: There is a tendency in this country toward unwarranted specu- lative activity. Brokers have issued warnings in vain. Margins have been increased. The relations between investment and speculation, for the time being, are ruptured. They are giving fictitious values to un- stable securities. They are building on a foundation of hope and fancy." Following this with the hypothesis that there are three kinds of untruths, "lies, damn lies, and statistics"; and that "figures can be made to prove anything"; we might consider Rabid Speculation as an entrance into the "fourth" dementia. A large portion of this work is a confidential man-to-man talk, given in the usual conversational tone carried on during an ordinary casual meeting. I believe my readers will enjoy this better than if I seemed DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 19 to be up in the clouds and far away. Boys, I am with you, so lets sit down and read together. While most of the matter included is of a very serious nature I will digress, once in a while, and "blow in" a little merriment, as it were, with some frivolous doggerel now' and then. There are matters of such foolish nature, that occur from time to time, that one wonders at the twist some brains will take when under stress of circumstances. While at times they fly around as if a scorpion had pricked them, at other times they are afflicted with "mal mesmerism or mental apathy." Although a few stories are included in the book proper, others are given in Appendix II, and more will be given in future editions. One person said to me that if he had not speculated, he could now be holding a position with a salary of $1 5,000 to $25,000. When I asked him to write out his experience for insertion in my book, he said "No, just let me forget it, if I can." Forget it if I can! That is the sad chant of millions. I respected his feelings and ceased to urge further. If those of my readers who have felt the fangs of the Dragon, will send me a truthful and explicit account of how they were drawn in and how much they lost, I will' be glad to make use of it in future editions. By so doing, you will be a help and protection to thousands of your fellow beings. No names will be given without permission. The day of "admiration for the banker, broker or financier, through whose agency our money has been lost", is over. We now demand exposure and restitution, and we are getting it. After the water is well out of our stocks, we will have less of such questionable business. Through our mail, and telegraph service (as soon as our Government takes this over) we will easily get at them. Now there is Henry Clewes. He is a fellow I would like for a friend. From the bottom of his heart, he wishes to have the Wall Street Stock Exchange run right; but he knows that it can't be run properly, until marginal trading and short selling are abolished. There are such a multitude of "Tricks" used to deceive the public, that we have space for only a few out of hundreds that are played. They say that speculation is "a science requiring exceptional talent." Yes, as carried on at Chicago, New York City, and some other centers, it is a science in Rascality. 20 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION Our Government leaders should remember that we are not dealing with a novice when we run up against the Chicago Board of Trade. We are running up against the craftiest robber of them all. You must use his tactics, if you would get at him. With a person of Dragon's calibre, at the helm, you must use the utmost secrecy, as he does. You must bribe as he does. You must gather your data as carefully as he does, and verify it as often. Some may say that I am a socialist. That would not be such a questionable name to have, would it? However, up to the time of writing this paragraph (1916) I never attended a socialist meeting. Some may say that I am not loyal to my country, speaking and writing as I do. Surely, I (who hail from the land of Whittier, Haw- thorne and Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward ; who am descended from two Colonial Governors of Massachusetts; from Anne Dudley Bradstreet, the first poetess of New England; from a line of military men who fought on Bunker Hill and in the war of 1812; and whose relatives represent some of the flower of philanthropy, moral and civic progress, namely — George Peabody, Oliver Wendell Holmes, William Ellery Channing, Wendell Phillips, Richard H. Dana, Elias Howe, and many inventors and artists) can not be anything but loyal. I am chastizing our legislators in order that they and our citizens may be awakened to recognize this evil, and correct it; not aid and abet. Some of my readers may say, as our Massachusetts Governor, John D. Long, said of Wendell Phillips, that I am "more admirable in intent than expression." An acquaintance, and former room trader, who has several times "received it in the neck", said, in answer to my announcing the publica- tion of this work, "The people will pay no attention to your book until they are caught and learn a lesson, as we have." I am of a different opinion. The up-to-date young man and woman desires to be correctly informed. This earnest desire for truth is growing every year. I believe this book will be appreciated. In speaking to one person, in regard to the various rascalities being carried on upon these boards and exchanges he said: "I thought it was necessary to have marginal gambling to create sufficient stock busi- ness." Yes, it is necessary, in order to work you into the jaws of the manipulator. I have written this book as I would write it for the enlightenment and protection of my own son. DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 21 The stories related serve to show the real and devilish workings of "Dragon and his Juggernaut", and Dragons in other fields. One can apply these right down the line from Board of Trade, Wall Street, Broker's Offices and Bucket Shops. All turn out the same sort of sad grist. Those who doubt my statements, read from the Reference Books, a list which will be found in Appendix I. You may say, why not expatiate a little upon Dragon's good points? Didn't he do something to redeem himself? These points already have been magnified out of all proportion to his bad ones. Reiteration, at this age is bad form. I have tried to show the public, what has never before been presented to them in all its enormity, espe- cially gambling in our food products. As "The Globe" said of Rocke- feller and like creatures, "We are not unaware of their many good qualities. But that does not effect the real issue of which Rockefeller (Dragon) is a symbol." Tens of thousands are by him furnished work. Yes, and why not be content with this? Why induce other tens of thousands, using his enormous power for deception, to part with their money for nothing, bringing untold suffering to thousands of families? Prof. William Ostwald's "Economic Oscillations" and "Wave Movements" are abnormally stretched or utterly annihilated by Dragon's tactics; and Norman Angell, in his "The Great Illusion", could not use his theories with Dragon's unrighteous manipulations. This swindler is standing in the way of God's progress, deceiving the people, right and left. What an awful position to take ! Think of it, my friends. Stand- ing in the way of the Ruler of the Universe. Here he is deceiving and ruining thousands, yes, millions of God's creations. What a lovely occupation for any decent person to be engaged in. He ought to hang his head in shaire at such conduct; and bringing such destruction and sorrow upon humanity. What will the Divine Ruler meet out to such an one? Will his last days be as sad and sorrowful as his father's? What is a swindler? Webster says "A swindler, is one who swindles or defrauds grossly; one who makes a practice of defrauding others by imposition or deliberate artifice." The last two words especially fit the case. Dragon considers us, who are workers in grain and vineyards, his 22 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION slaves and his special province for robteries; in like maimer of the buccaneering barons of old; and disrespects us accordingly. What ■were women considered in those days? Chattels! Dragon considers us meet and drink for his hoppers. War, in the time of the Robber Barons, was considered the only respectable business; and this financial warring buccaneer, licensed and protected by the Government of the United States, considers his deviltries re- spectable. It is said that previous to the time of these "Barons", the ruling government, not being able to quell the robbers, made a bargain with them. They were to give a royalty from each robbing, and thus they were licensed and became "Respectable." Isn't the present position of the C. B. of T. and the U. S. of A. a parallel case, with the bad actors transposed, and, as it were, "the cart before the horse"? This is also said to have been the beginning of levying of the "Poll Tax" upon the peoples of the world. This is the anomalous position that our Government is in. It licenses this Chicago Board of Trade, and then makes laws to curb the rascalities carried on there, and seemingly has no power to enforce them. During the present war. Dragon has taken advantage of this catastrophe, and will clean up somewhere between $40,000,000 and $60,000,000. He probably considers that he is financially elevated in accordance with "divine right of kings." He will hold to that thought until the Government topples him from such an abnormal and erroneous perch. That old doctrine may go in Europe and the Orient, but not with us. While Elbert S. Brigham, Commissioner of Agriculture for the state of Vermont, and others are endeavoring to preserve a proper parity between production and consumption, supply and demand, Dragon is using his capital and gambling paraphernalia to destroy this happy medium, where both producer and consumer can meet on common ground and poverty lessened, and is successful. His crimes go untram- melled and unpunished. A writer of Springfield, 111., states: "Poverty is a breeding place for commercialized vice." According to the Illinois senate white slave investigating committee, "Poverty is the principal cause of immortality. DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 23 Poveifty creates in the home a breeding place for commerciahzed vice." According to the Illinois senate white slave investigating committee, "Poverty is the principal cause, direct or indirect of immorality. Thousands of girls, it says, are driven into prostitution, because of sheer inability to keep body and soul together." And we have in this country a Hydra-headed monster whom I call Dragon, this swindling criminal who, with all of his commercial backing (which means hundreds of millions), and years of accumulated gambling paraphernalia at his beck and call, producing these conditions. This book does not strike at those merchants doing a legitimate business in the Board Room of the Juggernaut. They are about the only redeeming feature. May they in time, be the only traders in the, at present, American Monte Carlo of Wind Speculation. Of Dragon's "evasion of railroad rates", "refrigerator freezeouts" or "competitors undermined", I say but little. Some Packers are fined to-day $1 I 7,000. Piffle! Dean Swift wrote: "We can see what estimate God places upon wealth, as He bestows it upon some of the meanest of all of His crea- tions." We might add a few lines that a talented tramp was heard to utter: .< ^ j- 7 r ■ ■ ■ 7 A little thieving is, a dangerous part. But stealing largely is a noble art; 'Trvas mean to rob a henroost of a hen. But stealing thousands makes us gentlemen. " Maple, in searching history, found that, "Two hundred years ago there stood on the English statute a law which forbade the noble- man, when he went hunting on a cold day, to kill more than two serfs to warm his hands in their bodies." While appreciating the enormity of Dragon Junior's crimes, I blame the Government about as much as I do him. As I have written in a following chapter, he should be protected from himself. Like "Phaeton", his horses are carrying him on to moral destruction. As a husband and father, as far as I know, he is faithful and true. As a philanthropist, he is a semi-failure. As a financial buccaneer, he is a success. But of his wages, I want nothing of them. Here we jail thousands who take from us a loaf of bread or $10,000, and allow these windy robbers who relieve us of hundreds of millions, to live in gilded palaces. My dear reader, put this in your pipe and smoke it. Since the year 1872, or thereabouts, to say nothing of many failures, has any 24 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION surface trader on the Chicago Board of Trade ever run more than one successful wheat corner? Name the successful ones, Lyon, Hutchinson, Harper; Pardridge, and Leiter (possible exceptions) Phillips, Cudahy, Fairbanks and Patten. Lyon, Partridge and Patten, stand out excep- tional examples of keen surface men. Lyon and Pardridge were soon eliminated after Dragon became active and Patten was careful enough to take the side of Dragon in his success of 1 908-9. Dragon later secured a million and a half from Patten, before Patten "woke up." It is useless for anyone to try two consecutive big deals at this date. It is also very dangerous to try even one. "The Dragon'l git you, if you don't watch out", with apologies to the wraith of Riley. Even "Deacon" Drew, after becoming a "down and out", said "To 'speci- late' in Wall Street, when you are no longer an insider, is like buying cows by candle light." The Great Plunger, Dan Sully, after his wings had been clipped, said, "We must have Governmental control and supervision over cotton." How much more do we need it over Food Products. Between the pilferings of Dragon, "Rockefeller- Stillman" crowd, and several other grafting combinations, including thei "Steelers", we will, in time, according to some, be as the Roman slaves, glad to accept anything. H I do not give information as to the amount of wheat grown, now in the hands of the farmer; distribution, consumption, etc. That is splendidly taken care of by able writers. As I previously said, I stick close to the "Speculative Gambling" side of the subject. Dragon Junior has had this error burden thrust upon him, so do not think too hard of him, but reserve some of your bitter denunciation for our Sena- tors and Representatives now encumbering the sacred Halls at Wash- ington. I strike Dragon Junior severely, and do so, that he may be awakened to the error of his ways, and the enormity of them. I can realize how the "old timers" enjoy an occasional meander into the scene of financial carnage; and they will prance like war horses, upon inhaling the scent of smoke of battle. It brings back old times, old scenes; and these old sinners in this field of human activities, love to ruminate and enter the reminiscent, amid the ticking of wire instruments, rustle of the tape, chalk scratching upon the quota- tion board, passing shop talk, etc. I do not expect to reach these hardened pachyderms. It is the young men and women I am after. DFIAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 25 and I depend upon the parents to assist. They should see that their sons secure this book from their local library, and see that they carefully read it; better still, if the parent reads with them. If faithfully carried out, I feel confident that our boys and girls will be well protected from Rabid Speculation. To whom shall I specially turn for assistance? To the women. The American woman, God bless her, is not afraid of anything nor any- one, when it comes to defending her home and loved ones. I I herewith thank those who have assisted me from time to time. Writers, to whom credit has been given throughout the work. To a few Chicago brokers, with whom I passed portions of many days in interesting and instructive converse, gaining truths I could not secure from any other source; who innocently unbosomed themselves for my edification and the enlightenment of the gulled public; during such time as I was upon the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade. To the Commission Agents and different Bucket Shop Proprietors, for the evi- dence they also submitted for my use. To the room trader who innocently dubbed me a "Jackass", and stirred me to renewed activity; to a noted Ex-Judge, for kind advice relative to the subject treated. To a Chief of Police for careful revision. To the "Daily Bulletin" of the workings of the Board of Trade, and daily papers, for tran- scriptions of telegraph dope, for varied truths and untruths disseminated. To those who have presented me with personal accounts of disasters to homes of our Republic. To various periodicals, books and papers; and for excerpts (see List of Appendix I.) To the Assistant Librarians of a Carnegie Library, for timely references, and those who furnished appropriate sketches for half-tone, namely: Miss Sarette Manter and Mrs. Grace Jack-Ketcham. To those who have reviewed my manu- scripts, from these I specially mention a broker of fifteen years' experience (see his letter. No. 1 of Appendix II.) ; and those who have written letters of sad experiences, and others who have commended my lectures and book. Those who subscribed liberally to the balance needed to finance the First Edition. To a young lady who invited me to assist in the divine services of a Christian Science Church, where I received some of my best thoughts for this work; to One who advised my retention for the regular incum- bency; and, in conjunction with others, gave needed advice and encour- agement in certain uplifting studies; and to the members and supporters of 26 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION this same church, for corporial sustenance while writing and collating for the last four years. To the eminent Attorney, Charles D. Fullen, I am deeply in- debted, for erudite information and various citations, decisions and arguments of real educational value, which should receive most wrapt attention. These will be found in Chapter XL These were not handed me until nearly all of my work was written. They were such verification of my statements, that I included a portion, with his per- mission, in this volume. Mr. Fullen is a past-master in the knowledge of the workings of the Chicago Board of Trade. Here is a man, who, if our supine Government really desired to uncover this rascal, is fully competent to do so. With this case in his hands, he would show up Dragon in the role of a financial pirate, and do this in a legal way. When will we have a President with backbone enough to order this to be carried out? We can not hope to have the hundreds of millions already taken from us, to be turned back to the States from which they were taken. But we do have a right to keep other millions from going into Dragon's hopper. I am indebted to my brother, with whom I passed many blissful years in Boston, who, after I had acquired some knowledge of specula- tion from him, was sorely tried because of my stubborn continuance in practice at that time; and who has grieved because of my serious study since then. He little knows how much good this experience may work for our people, if they believe me; and how much they will bless him for his share in preparing me for this work. I am deeply grateful to my cousin. Miss Clara M. Bixby of Cali- fornia, a devoted student of Christian Science, for past encouragement in my art and while writing this book ; and who provided funds for half- tone plates, and later, a generous loan for the purpose of beginning the work of publication, so that the work could be given much sooner to the people. I desire one thousand attested evidences, from those who have had their homes or loved ones wrecked by speculation, for future editions of the work. I will not use names of victims, nor of those who report, unless so authorized. Also matter (data or story) bearing upon this subject, will be gratefully received. Send all communications care of the Publishers of this work. In closing, I wish to say that if I was writing a sermon upon such questionable transactions as are now being carried on, especially in DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 27 Chicago, I would take for my text the following: Isaiah, Fifth Chapter, 18th Verse and parts of the Twentieth Verse. "Woe unto them that draw iniquity with the cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope. Woe unto them that call evil good, that put darkness for light, that put bitter for sweet." And First Corinthians, Tenth Chapter, Twelfth Verse, "Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall." Respectfully submitted. The Author. THE AMERICAN MONTE CARLO nniCAGO BOARD OF TRADE IN ISTJ Marginal Option Trading Woiiied Here— Tlae Greatest Swindle of the Age THE CKUBL PITS Wliere Hard-Barned Millions Disappear THE HEARTLESS BROKER Some of Dragon's Henchmen SUBJECTS AND SUB HEADINGS CHAPTER ONE Introduction Some Evils that Have Been Eradicated in Yeabs Past — The JUGGEENAUT AND DeIVEE DrAGON — DecEITEUI,, CeAFTT, WiLT SPEC- ULATIVE Gambling of Sixty Yeaks — Patbician and Plebian Ake Drawn Into the Voetex — No Low Socialistic Propaganda — Specula- tion a Fine Art — Speculation Versus Gambling — E. "W. Smith on "Futures" — President Roosevelt — Slight Ramble Into History Of Speculation From 1200 to 1850 — The Mississippi Bubble — Celebrated Writees — Kings and Barons of Finance — The Great Promoters — Birds OF a Feather — -Man Slavery — Cotton Gamblers — Lotteries — Trusts and Election Frauds — Investigation Faeces — Speculation Defined — The Juggernaut of Speculation: A Curse and One Crime of the Century — ^A Whirlpool of Ecstasy and Despaie — Dragon, the Smooth- est Criminal of Speculative Histoby — A Sube Thing Opeeatoe — Tee- bible Power that Unsettles the World's Bread — Wrecker and Destroyer of Thousands of Homes. CHAPTER TWO One Man Power Gambler, Speculatoe, Finanoiee — One Man Power — Contrary to Our Constitution — Carries Prices to Abnormal Heights and Depths — Thwarts the Interest and Will of the People — Love of Power and Wicked Use — Human Nature Weak — ^Dragon and Patten — Jugger- naut, a Mammoth Bucket Shop — Little Juggernauts Have Disap- peared Like the Red Men — ^Dragon Uses Teickeet, Exalted Into a Science — Every High Card Marked — Mere Operator Has Less Chance Than a Bettor Upon a Horse Race — Not Even Straight Gambling — A Combination That Cannot Be Beaten. CHAPTER THREE The Juggernaut and Dragon The Juggernaut Terrible in Its Power — Taken Hundreds of Millions From the People, Giving in Return, Sorrow, Disaster and Ruin — Standard Oil Said to Be Back or Many Bnoemous Deals — Dollar Wheat and Theee Dollae Flooe, the Deeam of the Alchimist 32 DRAGCN AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION — Bucket Shop Not Moke Pernioiotjs Than the Board of Trade — 95%, Some Say 99%, Is Gambling in Food Prices — Devastator of the Home — Fathers op Families Ruined in Thirty Seconds — Histohy or THE Chicago Board of Trade — Began in 1848, Daily Sessions in 1856 — Mental Machinery Started by Dutch and English Importers — Necessity Prostituted to Base Gambling — Benjamin P. Hutchinson Started Scalping — Lyon Followed — Abmoub Came Into the Game Through a Disastrous Corn Deal — Cudahy, Pahdridge, Sturgis, Harper, Phillips, Leitee and Patten Joined the Buccaneers, and Soon There Were "Sixteen Men On a Dead Man's Chest", Etc. — Dragon Senior Soon Brought System and Order Out of Chaos, Filling His Own Chest and Sitting Tight — He Invented All Sorts of Thicks TO Trap the Unwary, and in Time Broke Or Badly Bent Nearly All of the Above Buccaneers — Anomalous Changes Are Wondered At — The Delany Article. CHAPTER FOUR Corners, and Many Other Devilish Things Joseph's Egyptian Corner, ' Constructive — American Cobneks, Dest]{uctive and Uneconomic — Cotton Corners — So-Called "Patton "CoRNER," The Author Foretold Ten Months Before Consummation — $1.20 Should Have Been Enough for Dragon if Patten Had Not Butted In — Dragon Senior Broke Lyon, Harper, Sturgis, McGoc, THE Keene Corner, Flood and O'Brien Corner, Leitbb, Costee-Mabtin, Phillips; and Badly Bent Pabdbidqe, Cudahy, and Many Others — The Unspeakable Fidelity Bank Failure — Ruin, Suicide, Felon's Cells, Broken Hearts of Mothers, Wives and Sweethearts, Followed IN Its Wake — Nevada Bank Failure — Mackay Put Up Several Mil- lions to Save It — Pakdeidqe and Lyon Deals — Russia's Attempt at One Corner — Same Tricks Befuddle the Brainiest From Year to Year — Joseph Letter Corners — Frenzied Financiers Stop Short Only OF the Penitentiary — Heavy Opebatobs Sometimes Recievb the Solar Plexus — Cudahy Should Have Passed Out With $25,000,000 to His Credit; Left Only About $3,000,000 — Russell Sage Loses Seven Mil- lions — All the World Is Dragon's Spy — "Pit" Afraid of Dragon — Why Butt Up Against Such a Confidence Game? — Last Days of Dragon Senior. CHAPTER FIVE The Powerful System A System Employed, Pebnicious and Bligiitinq to the Individual — ^How Victims Abe Dbawn Into the Vortex — Secrets of the Board or Trade Exposed — An Example — Author's Personal Experience — A Similar Case — The Quotation Board Hypnotizes — In the Toils of THE Dragon — Tricks Thai Are Played — Lo, the Poor Debtor — A Few Are Lucky and Thousands Abe Wrecked — Ghosts of Wall and La Salle Streets — "Amalgamated" and "Juggernaut" Compared — Straddles and Spreads — Program Varied From Day to Day — How Dragon Baits the Game — Hog Cholera Trick — Dragon Fond op DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 33 Goats to Thkow Credit Upon for Great Swejsps of Values — Some OF His Goats Were Hutchinson, Paetbidqe, Phillips, Patten, Leitee, AND Hakpee — Patten, the Steonqest "Surface Man" Evee Upon the Board — Government Very Foolish to Subpoena Big Holders to Secure Incriminating Evidence — Lo, the Poor Lamb — "It Is Difficult to Get Rijj of the Corpse." CHAPTER SIX Short Selling and Other Errors Paradoxical Definition — A Little Doqgeeel — It Is the Short Seller That Gets You (Sometimes) — Try to Sell Si-ioet Some Bank Shares AND See Whebe You Will Land — Much Telegraph Matter Is Pure, OE Rather, Impube "Bunk" — Now Well in the Toils of the Dragon — ■ Quotation From Buekb — The Losses, Wire Expense, Commissions, Membership Fees, and Other Graft, a Tremendous Drain Upon Ouk People — From 1874 to 1894 the South Was Defrauded in Cotton Teadikg $500,000,000 — Deagon Takes Advantage of Was, Fire, Flood, Disease, Various Calamities and Wrong Reports — Manipulators Will Stoop to Anything to Gain Their Ends — Note How the Faemee Is Fooled — A Farmek Upon Speculation — About 2% Gain and 98% Lose — No Chance to Win In This Wind and Water Game — Why the Authoe Quit Speculating — ^Moee Teicks- — Bleatings of the Shoen Lames — List op Shorn Lambs Abb Never Published — It Is the "Luee of Easy Money"- -Difficult to Keep Away^ From Speculation — Women Gamblers, Hollow Eyed, LIaggaed Looks and Pale Complexions. CHAPTER SEVEN Various Stories and Holdups Examples of Downright Sneak Thievery — The Ruining of Peter McGoc — Wealthy Men On Bended Knees, Begging Dragon to IjEt Them Up — A Baptist Preacher, One Goat — Deacon Daniel Drew, Pastoe and Flock; a Sheaeing of $700,000 — Russell Sage and Pastor — Pastoes Weee Used to Decoy Numerous Gulls- — Jay Gould and John W. Gates — Gates and Country Boy — A Fevee-Struck Son — Deagon Senioe Ran Many Pibms Out of Business. CHAPTER EIGHT And Yet More Tricks Played Upon The Lambs A Diabolical, Holdup — A New Yoek Tkigk — A London Tbiok — Wind Markets Rule the Prices fob Legitimate Teade — One Cause of High Cost of Living — The Manh-ulatob Robs the Peoduoee and Consumer — Daily Maeket Review Excuses Often of the Flimsiest Natuee — Bank Shaee, Holdbeand Toiling Cultivatok of the Soil — Opinions of Experts — Millions Taken and Nothing Given in Return- — Bank 34 DRA GON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION Defaultings and Wbeokimgs Hushed Up— Hokbe RacIxXG vs. "GbntbEL Gambling" — Ninety-Nine Trades Out of Oin-e Hundred Aee Bets— $10,000,000 Lost Some Panic Days by Gamblers in Wind wheat — Demvebies, a Farce; the Losses, the Real and Serious_ Side Ma.y THE Day of the Manipulator and Plunger Soon Pass— 85% of XVIae- GINS Put Up Lost; One Broker Admitted 90%— Hog Price Joker JIiN- TEEPEisiwG Dope— Long and Short of the Market — Three Ieick Schedules— A Trick 30 ok 40 Years Old— Wretched Slaughter House Tenements", and Delightful "Pullman Tenements Com- pared—Look Upon This and Then Upon That— Chicago Board of Trade and Christian Bndeavorers. CHAPTER NINE Remedies Proposed By The Author The Educational System, Same as Applied to the Saloon, Dope AND White Slato— An Act Penalizing Short Selling — A Matter foe the United States Secret Service — Depredations of Dragon Continue Yeae After Year — Wigwagging $5,000 and Accrued Profits (?) On Paper, for a Credit of $1,500,000 — What Can Dragon Do Backed By $500,000,000?— Dragon Well Intrenched— No Combination But Cub Government Can Stop Him — This Monster Wins So Much, That He Fears to Invest It In This Country — One Pot Of $32,000,000 Was Found In Europe — How About the Income and Other Taxes Lost by THE Government? — Dragon Will Cleae This Yeae (1915) Not Less Than $10,000,000, and Perhaps Not Moke Than $20,000,000, Giving Wind Which He Does Not Even Own, In Return — The Author's Prophesies Were Carried Out, Fae Beyond His Figures — Garbed Under "Business", Our Boys Do Not Know That It Is Gambling — Letter From Leader In Progressive Economics — How To Draw Dragon's Fangs — Wheat Carried During the Late War, From 88%c TO $1.67, and Much Higher Later. Were Coshers, Although Our Peo- ple Did Not Realize It — Counterfeiter and Dragon Compared — Young Heirs to Estates the Easiest Gulls to Manipulate — Gambling, a Curse to Both Parties Betting, and a Curse to Our Country- — No Person Should Be Allowed to Take Millions From Our People, GrsiNC Wind in Return — Liquon Traffic Compared. CHAPTER TEN Legal Citations And Conclusions The Legal Battle Betweem the Chicago Board of Trade and Bucket Shops — Excerpts From Brief of Attorney Charles D. Fullen — Legal Rulings and Statements By Judges Grossoup, Anderson and Mulky That Endorse the Writer of This Work — Our Citizens aee Patient and Long Suffering — Millions of Families Badly Hit While D'eaoon Goes On Adding Foetune to Fortune — Unbalances Our Eco- nomic Structure — Our Presidents Do Not Realize, Or Afraid to Grap- ple — At Present, Our Government Is to Blame — Hutchinson Acknow- ledged That His Corner Huet the People — By the Twist of the DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 35 FiNQBK, Dragon Cah Bbinq Disaster To a Thousand Families — Why Dobs Otjk Government License Such a Stupendous Evil? — The Heartless Beokeb — Concluding Recommendations — A Dikect Appeal To Dragon. APPENDIX I. A List of Reference Books, Pehiodicals, Etc. APPENDIX II. Letters From Those Who Have Been Bitten and Lacerated by Dragon. Km "Lo, this is the man thai made not Cod his sirengih; but Irusled in ih abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his luichednessJ — Ps. 52: 7, '^Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare raiment as ih clay. . . . Men shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss hii out of his place." — Job 27: 16 and 23. CHAPTER ONE Introduction In presenting this work which is written for the purpose of assisting in uncovering a gross and grievous error, an error acknowledged in a general way, but not specifically understood and appreciated in its enormity ; I seriously and prayerfully extend to the reader for his edifica- tion, thoughts and carefully made deductions that have been surging through my brain for some thirty years, relative to an institution which is and has been, for the last fifty or sixty years, luring, crushing and grinding our humans into the pulp of disaster and ruin. Why this financial Juggernaut, with its Drivers, has been allowed to roam at large over our beloved country, spreading a network of speculative miasma, blasting homes that have been reared and carried on under the grandest banner ever swung to the breeze, coupled with Divine Love; I am unable to fathom. Like leeches they continue to suck the life blood of both young and old. By the most crafty deceit and wily tricks imaginable, they have been undermining the honesty and probity of a portion of our people, and continue to draw into their nets, those of high and low estate ; from the bank president to the clerk; from those high in authority to the common laborer. The Driver of this Juggernaut, like the Dragon of Niebelungett, scatters destruction and leaves dry bones along his pathway. Like the Octopus, he saps the energies of our people, wherever his tentacles may reach. Here is a human that has been educated to deceive the world! What an education. He is trying to emulate (without philanthropy) John D. Rocke- feller (God forbid) in becoming one of the richest men of America, by robbing, not only the poor hard working people, but also the middle 38 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION class and rich. All grist is baited for, and he succeeds m hooking all classes. Dragon takes advantage of Drought, Hail, Wind, Rain, Frosts, Floods and Fire; and Thisde, Cactus, Cockle, Wheat-Thief, Wild Mustard; diseases of Scab, Smut, Rust, Leaf-Blight, Powdery-Mil- dew; and such pests as Marauding Hessian Fly, Chinch-Bug, Wheat Plant, Wheat Midge, Wheat Plant-Louse, Grasshopper, Green Bug, Straw Worm, Bulb-Worm, Saw-Fly, Army-worm, Granery-weavil, and Grain-moth. He can make a mountain out of a mole hill, with these agile gnawing swarms; and does so to his own advantage. He is like that specimen of genus homo, who is able to sell us a lot upon the map; and when we conclude to improve it we would have to hire a diver to find it. The Devilish Tricks that He Daily Frames Up, in order to Deceive the Poor Fish, are Many and Subtle. The salted mine is a method of the past. Boosted capital of Trusts, is looked upon with suspicion; but, not poor by any means, we still have a relative of this buccaneering financier with us. Dragon is the most powerful and dangerous robber of the present time; disturbing, as he does, the normal prices of the food products of the world, even to far-away Zanzibar. When I rap Dragon, I am also rapping the system he presides over, and also our Government, which is, in a great measure, culpable; and should be placed upon the rack of publicity. The usual person whom Dragon induces to enter these gambling halls soon becomes hypnotized and sadly influenced to his personal ruin and dismantlement of his household gods. His few short hours of gain, are filled with excitement and fidgety dreams, rather than happiness. His feelings are more like the ecstatic musings of maniac; and he should not be allowed to occupy any respon- sible position. A sanitarium would be the proper place for him. Many soon become rabid and unfit for the usual business of life. Like the man who enters the dram shop, he becomes ein enemy to himself and a terror to his family. It was said of Dragon, probably by a wag, that "he became such a master of efficiency, that he mourned himself into an early grave, because of his inability to utilize the one wasted product of the profitless pig — namely, the squeal." The ramifications of the Chicago Board of Trade are so inti- DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 39 mately connected with other commercial interests, that it is difficult to get at the gambling section. At some former age, it used to be the fashion to ioiock a man down with a club and take away his wife, daughters and money. It is so in some foreign countries now; to say nothing of Mexico. To-day, they endeavor to take your money away from you, by a smoother process; by hypnotizing you; so this which I am giving you, is one form of the smoother or hypnotizing process. Some one said: "If you know of evil being carried on, it is your bounden duty to uncover it for the benefit of mankind. If I had no other incentive for writing a work upon this subject, this one admon- ition would be sufficient. At the outset, I wish to disabuse your minds of any low socialistic tendencies in this book. Higher Socialism, I am sure that we are agreed upon. The greatest good to the greatest number. Trust Busi- ness, we might differ upon. Legitimate Business we easily agree upon. Illegitimate, garbed under business, or Speculative Gambling, we should agree, as being wrong, and working the largest amount of harm to the greatest number. No one knows better where the Pit is, than he who falls into it; and no one is more capable of truthfully dilating upon the insidious environments, than he who remains there or studies the Pit for decades. Bryan says: "Can we explain how a red cow can eat green grass and give white milk which produces yellow butter"? Neither can we explain how this fellow can slaughter so many million animals, make so many fine decoctions and canned combinations so useful to humans; and at the same time, impose wind wheat, corn and pork, upon us. But how our people bite at this spurious bait. Here, in this Board of Trade, is a place where, contrary to the revered Lincoln, most of the people are fooled most of the time. Here they are robbed, as were the South African slaves by the late Leopold, King of the Belgians. Here, they exact a thousand times more tribute than did the Robber Barons of the Middle Ages; and like a blooming pack of dray horses, we not only allow them to burden us; we also license them to pirate upon us in the extreme. Don't the people deserve to be pillaged? Those who know that it is a swindling game? But there are thousands of our young people who do not know. They are the ones we wish to reach. 40 DRAGON A ND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION As I mentioned in the Preface, the broker's roarings are like unto the bulls of Bashan ; and their dancings suggest those of the Dervish. If this was all they accomplished, we still would not cavil. But it isn't. These roarings and dancings, mean mental and bodily suffering for some, poverty and suicide for others, and home ruin. This is what we object to; and that is why I am here before you with this book. As in the case of proverbial gossips, "At every word a reputation dies"; so with these dervishes, at each finger apparition that breaks the horizon of pit-iless humanity; some poor sinner is ousted from a financial activity, and finds gall and bitterness where he expected sweet repose. As there were two Standard Oils, so there are two departments to this Juggernaut. One, a trust business, not half bad, except when they sell embalmed beef to our soldiers; and one, Rabid Speculation, nothing worse in the world carried on under the title of "Business." I shall refer to the latter in the following pages. Here is a specimen simile of their work: When you buy, and then sell or close out your option, you carry out what is termed a "Round Turn. " No commodity is passed, nor is there any intention of such act. This is the same as if you ordered A. to buy you a horse and then to sell it, and you pay him $5 or $10 for doing this. You don't see the horse, and you don't want to see it. It may be a mule for all you know. You only hope to sell the horse for a little more than you paid for it. In case you ordered A. to sell a horse you didn't own, or never expected to own, you hope that A. will be able to buy this wind horse back again for a httle less than he sold it for. Is this clear? Watts defines "Speculation as a fine art, requiring a High Order of Talent." Price adds — "Speculation presupposes intellectual effort; Gambling, Blind Chance; but they often run into one another." It is often difficult to determine where one begins and where the other leaves off. That is what our Government is up against. "Speculation, is a Venture Based upon Calculation; Gambhng, a Venture Without Calculation. The Law Makes This Distinction: It Sustains Speculation and Condemns Gambling. We deduce from the above, that the Successful Manipulator is Lauded; and the Unsuccessful Loser, not possessing inside information of the Manipulator, is Condemned. Therefore, in this so-called "Busi- DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 41 ness", where 98% lose, causing so much disintegration and sorrow, it would not be stretching a point, to call it Damnable. Dr. J. Leonard Corning of New York City, argues relative to the state of suspense inherent in gamblers. He calls it "curve of suspense." "Psychologists point out that the fascination any games of hazard may have for you, varies in proportion to the depth of your curve of sus- pense" . . . "gamesters are prone to have Quixotic feelings of great gain and incident power, which, in turn, tend further to increase the height of the curve of suspense." . . . "Over and above the predisposing role played by such a temperament in heightening the excite- ment of gaming, I am convinced that to it is largely charged those more extreme manifestations of the gaming impulse that so frequently result in the permanent undoing of the subject and the humiliation and misery of his dependents." . . . "That the inveterate gamester carries his excitement away from the table (or board) has it with him, in fact, most of the time, is therefore, hardly the riddle that it is popu- larly held to be. Still the very admission that despite his losses, he returns again and again, carries with it the suggestion of an addiction, a compelhng force, a deranged mechanism; so that, recalling the physiol- ogy of the emotions, one is inevitably moved by a desire to win, to a conception, however provisional, of a morbid physiology implied by the habit of the gamester." . . . "The emotions in gaming are aroused or rather racked in an unique and extreme fashion." "It is easy to understand why those who are chronic victims of the gambling habit are so little fitted for the routine that enters so largely into the activities of common life." This is what C. W. Smith says of "Futures": "They constitute a form of gambling at the expense of a third and helpless party, and thus indirectl}; dab millions of innocent people behind their backs. They are aifecting the prosperity as well as the honour of Governments. They allow, by the abuse of capital, a form of tyranny by the strong over the weak. Is it any wonder, under these circumstances, that we have rrillions of inhabitants, poor, starving, and homeless? It is a disease which is galloping and spreading wholesale destruction. Signs of uprisings are showing themselves all over the world." "Unionism, socialise, hooliganism, anarchism, communism, revo- lutionism, and other "isms" are apparent on every side and all ranged against capitalism — not to honest capital, but to the numerous under- hand methods employed by dishonest capital, in all the great financial centers of the world." "I have witnessed the gradual immoral national effects, upon America, France and Great Britain; and it is these three Christian countries which stand out most prominently in 1 905 as, what I may term, the 'Gambling Nations.' To my mind it clearly demonstrates that the abolition of 'Options' would strengthen and promote a more lasting peace amongst nations than any steps monarchs can invent; 42 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION whether they be styled alliances, treaties, ententes cordiales, or by any other name." He writes of "American and Canadian "Wheat Corners", as disturbing the world's bread. "Such a state of affairs was solely due to the gambling operations by 'bulls and bears' as carried on, on the produce exchanges in the United States in foodstuffs. Operations, I may point out, which would never be tolerated even in Wall Street." Of the rise during the Leiter Corner of 1897-8: "The results on the world were starvation, bread riots, and massacres in some continental countries." Of the bursting of the corner: "On the collapse of Leiter, owing to powerful 'bear' syndicates in the United States, a commercial and financial panic took place, involving the ruin and failure of hun- dreds of commercial houses in various parts of the world." "The one of 1895, caused financial and commercial panics all over the world." "Both Capital and Labour suffer and antagonisms are accentuated between Capital and Labor by 'Bull and Bear' operations." He says: "The Boer War in South Africa, was caused, largely by 'Bear Operations.' Dishonest Capital is the prime cause of millions of our starving people of the world. Even Madras and other outlying points. Manipulation causing 'unnatural prices', often paralyze and ruin legitimate trade." He adds that "During the past twelve months, some twenty suicides have taken place in Paris, London and New York, etc., due to 'gambling' losses in finance and trade. The 'liquidation' of these various men's gambling operations caused a state of panic-like demor- alization throughout the 'World's Exchanges.' " We, a Christian Nation, allow these "Bull and Bear" Opera- tions to go on untrammeled, while we very well know that poverty induces, aids and abets sin, disease and death. Ex-President Roosevelt says: "The man of great means who achieves an immense fortune by crooked methods, does a wrong to the body politic, and becomes a source of great danger to the nation." When the "Highly Moral (?) Road House" called "Sunny- side", was opened, who were the best supporters? The "Boys" of the Chicago Board of Trade. It was "simply useless trying to do business until this affair was well off their hands", so they said. You see, they are "Dead Game Sports", and what can you expect from such "Roistering Blades", and the deceitful business they are in, swindling our men and boys wherever possible. They don't deny it; they glory in their power and craftiness. These are the bright sparks who are fooling with our food products and "disturbing the world's bread", under Dragon's leadership. "Race pool buying" in Jack Haverly's time, was considered "pre- DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 43 cisely as one might buy real estate or imaginary wheat or pork in their respective "rings" or "pits" on the Board of Trade. In ancient times, say from 1200 to 1850, in Lubeck, Frankfort, Bremen, Hamburg and other cities, speculation was indulged, mostly by Jews. This form was called "Forestalling" farmer's crops; gambling in public funds and stocks, called "Time Bargains." Various laws were made and later repealed. There were no "Bears" in those days, and the users and consumers received it "in the neck." Now the producer also receives the "solar plexus"; so at the present time we are saddled with a double curse. Of the London Stock and Liverpool Grain Exchanges, the Paris Bourse, Berlin Exchange, and the New York Stock, Cotton and Grain Exchanges, I refer in a measure. There was the Mississippi Bubble of 200 years ago, 1717. Dealing in futures were introduced to meet the popular demand. The Company also included the Canada Beaver and Tobacco Farming and the privileges of Senegal and Africa. A piece of doggeral was passed around at that time, as follows: "My shares which on Monday I bought Were worth millions, I thought. So on Wednesday I chose my abode; In my carriage on Thursday I rode. To the ballroom on Friday I went. To the workhouse next day I was sent." This was rather unusual speed, but shows us the spirit of the times. Law, the originator, was bundled out of France and later England and died in obscurity in Venice. To "save our face", we better pass over, or gently touch upon the bonds and mortgages repudiated by some of the various states of this country, up to 1 843. Rev. Henry Smith, asked the House of Representatives to restore money to foreign countries, sunk in "Larcenous Lake", "Swindling Swamp", "Crafty Canal", "Rogues' Railway" and other dishonest works. Speculation in America would give us a wide subject. We might refer to the enlightening work of writers of note ; as, one veil after another was torn from our eyes, by Lincoln Steffens, Alfred Henry Lewis, Roy Stannard Baker, C. P. Connolly, Burton J. Hendricks, Ida Tarbell, of Standard Oil fame; Frank J. Kannon, Donald Hamilton Haynes, Brand Whitlock, Arthur Brisbane, Charles Edward Russell, Arthur McEwing, James Creelman, F. C. Howe, Henry D. Lloyd, Merrill A. Teague, Thomas Lawson, the prolific lambaster (scoffed 44 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION at by many, yet a purveyor of the truth) ; Prof. Emery, the economic; Marcossen, and others. The writers above named, with others, have taken up the past and present barbarous methods of handling man and beast, under the heads of such subjects as: Graft in England; Barney Bernato; Free Picnicing; Owners of America ; Secretan Coffee Corner ; Atrocities' of the Slaughter Houses, where a million of four-footed beasts are annually killed to satisfy our cannibalistic cravings; Great Express Monopoly; Jugghng With the Tariff; Where Every Penny Counts; Barring Out the Stock Thieves in Kansas; The Passing of the Plunger; Crusade Against Loan Sharks; Better Business; The Fight for the Forests; The Oregon Land Frauds; Wealth Against Commonwealth; Abraham Reuf and San Francisco; California Bonanza Frenzy; William Burns' Activities; Billy Sunday's Beating the Devil, and with Success; Heney and His Fights; Market Wrecking; Bucket Shop Sharps; Market Gambling and Gambling in General. One by one, the various evils and grafts of enormous magnitudes, have been swept aside; but not without energetic action upon the part of reformers, philosophers and philanthropists. Many that have be;n corrected, are given in this chapter, and yet there are many more uncovered and uncorrected. Each one eliminated will make for a better nation, more peaceful, more humane, charitable and truth loving. We might say that Carnegie was the King of Steel; Morgan, King of Finance; riarriman and Hill, Kings of Railways. Harriman, a juggler of dollars and railways; at one time czar of the street, feared by nearly all. Rockefeller, King of Petroleum; Smith, King of Beet Sugar and Mormondom ; Armour, King of Grain and ' Provisions. Russell Sage, called the Beach Comber of Finance; Richard Crocker, the "Boss of Tammany" ; "Deacon" S. V. White, once master of Lackawanna; William Whitney, the Metropohtan Traction; Thomas Ryan, the Stock Waterer and Master Manipulator, whose word was law with five large banks, besides many Companies; a veritable "Genius for Concentration." Gates, the Skyrocket of the Exchange, believed "All Life Was Gambling." Of his advent, Morgan said, he was "like a bull going into a china shop." Addison Cammack, the wrecker, was the great Wall Street bear operator. Keene, the "Warwick of Stocks", said of speculation, "Without speculation — call it gambling if you will — initiative will cease, business decay, values decline, and the country go back twenty years in a twelvenionth." Keene advised people, however, to keep away from speculation. With all his resources, he v.cn only four times out of seven deals. Jim had a kind heart for certain forms of suffering. The "scroll above" will show. Rogers, the Richelieu and "Piston Rod" of Standard Oil, of whom much could be said, (read "Frenzied Finance") and William Rockefeller, the "Fly Wheel." DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 45 We might dilate upon the "Barons of Finance", and add to the above, the Astors, masters of unearned increment; Vanderbilts, boat and road builders; Jay Cooke, active in war times; Drexel; Mackay, the Founder of the Bonanza Fortunes and Promoter of the Mackay- Bennett Cable; Havermeyers, Hawley, Flower, Biddle, Mills, (Phil- anthropist) Flagler, Promoter of the Railway to Florida Keys; Higgin- son, Wanamaker, Jordan, A. T. Stewart, F. M. Woolworth, Kidder, Gugginheims; Frick, the Master of Coke; Clark, the Montana Mining Emperor; Armours, Morris, Swifts, Cudahays, and Hammond, Meat Packers; Leiter, Patten and scores of others. The Great Promoters, Eads (Mississippi Jetties) Whitney (Cot- ton Gin) Howe, (Sewing Machine) Bell, (Telephone) DeLesseps, Edison, Marconi, Field, Westinghouse, Aggasiz, Schwab, Spreckels. The Street Car Kings, Vreeland, Root Jr., Yerkes, Elkins, Widener; and Reid and Moore of varied interests from match to can, and so on. We might recall the pillaging of the Railways by Daniel Drew, the nemesis of Erie, one of the first of Wall Street Plungers; Jay Gould, the Wizard of Wall Street, inventor of a rat trap and inci- dentally the railway smasher; Jim Fiske, called "Prince Erie", the Evil Genius of the Erie Railway, a road (as Marcossen says) which was the "seething battleground of sordid and destructive ambition." "They corrupted courts, pillaged the public, and made the loot of corporate properties a fine art." In the early times of the New York Stock Exchange, the listing of securities was often a farce. Addicks, the Tartar of politicians and corporations, last heard from, was in Ludlow Street Jail at the age of 74. Jake Sharp, who came down the Canal to New York City on a load of logs; bribed the boodling Board of Aldermen, and said Alder- men skipped to Canada in one night. Jake died in Ludlow Street Jail. Several others died there. Boss Tweed, who started his boodling course in a Bowery stable, was caught off the coast of Spain and brought back on an U. S. Cruiser, died therfe. Addicks, whose word was as good as his bond, which was nit, died there. Then there were the Cotton Price Disturbers; Dan Sully, Brown, Haynes, Hentz, Scales, Patten, Price and Inman and many more buccaneers. What a farce of fining Five Cotton Kings $4,000 each, when millions had been taken from the people. I will delete the names of the offenders and also what was said by several of the losers. The California Mining, Railway and Banking Kings; Sharon, Crockers, Mackay, Flood, O'Brien, Jim Kenne, — the last of the great plungers — Baldwin, Ralstron, Stanford, Haggin, Hearst, Krutschnitt, Elliott, Fair, Hopkins and the Huntingtons. What an array of mortal talent. We have some 20,000 of these millionaires in this burgh of America. We might review the "Louisiana" and "Missouri" Lotteries; "Tammany Gang," "Ship Trust", "Under the Prophet in Utah", "Beet Sugar Round-Up", "Beef", "Chicago Combine", "St. Louis Syndicate", "Oil and Tobacco Trusts", "The Game Got Them", 46 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION "Rebate Conspiracy", "The Viper on the Hearth". "Office Buyers||, "The Romance of the Reaper", "The Beast and the Jungle", "It[]' "The Passing of the War Lord", "The System" and "The Remedy", "The Pujo Committee", "Brigham Copper Swindle", "Sealshipt Oyster System", "The Failure of Brown & Co., of the Shoe String Capital, with Buck Buchanan's Dollar-Piano", "The Collapse of Steve Dow" of Boston Exchange; "Bay State Gas", "Corruption of Massachusetts' Legislature", "Socialism, a Promise or Menace", the late "Election Frauds in Terre Haute", and final roading of the Mayor, Chief of Police and thirteen other citizens to Leavenworth Penitentiary" ; "Sol- diers of the Common Good." Violators of the Oleomargarine Law have defrauded the Government out of at least $27,000,000 since 1902. Man slavery was abolished among us, after thousands of lives were snuffed out. Horse Racing as a gambling institution, was also abolished after a struggle. The Liquor Question, especially the debas- ing Saloon, is gradually being given a quietus. The Trusts are sub- dued a little. The White Slaver is being hounded from our midst. The Black Hand, Counterfeiter, Moonshiner, Itinerant Gambler, Food Adulterer, Gold Brick Man, High Interest Oppressor, High Rate Loan Companies, Confidence Man, Church Raffler and Grab Bagger, Real Estate Liar, Horse Thief and Trader, are gradually being re- pressed, and we hope they will soon be relegated to oblivion, in our onward march of elevating progress. Now while we have been pounding upon the above named, we allow some of the most polished robbers of modern times, we might say, some of the smoothest criminals and swindlers of speculative history, to go scott free, with now and then a little fine of $ 1 00,000 or so, which is a mere bagatelle to the millions fleeced from the people. Like the Heads of the Standard Oil, as a prominent writer says, they are "sure thing" operators. They never enter a deal on even terms. Their cards are always stacked, their dice cogged and their boxes fixed; and all the time they are trying to prove that their victims have ai square deal. This cursory review does not look very inviting, does it? For the larger portion of this work, I will only deal with two branches of Speculative Gambling, those of Grain and Provisions. To sum these tersely, The Evil Effects of Gambling with the PRICES OF FOOD PRODUCTS. Please note my distinction, Gambling with the PRICES. MORE GAMBLING HOUSES («! m Wiii'iVw. — ' pB'-l^^ ^H ^pi, JB I^' ;: ^ ^m NEW YOKK STOCK EXCHANGE Nearly as Bad N. Y. PRODUCE BXCETANGE Same Old Game N. y. CONSOLIDATED EXCHANGE A Tlioi-n In the Flesh N. Y. COTTON EXCHANGE Quite Rabid at Times "As the partridge siUiih on eggs, and halchelh ihem not; so he that geileih riches, and not by right, shall leaVe them in the midst of his da^s, and at his end shall he a fool," — Jer. 17: 11, CHAPTER TWO One Man Power Kaufman says: "Professional gamblers of all kinds, exist through people who take chances. Wall Street occasionally allows a lamb to fatten on its slopes. If a limited few weren't permitted to eat a little grass, there would be no bellwethers to run bleating off to the pastures where the muttonheads flock, and lead new victims to the slaughter. The only stock market luck is bad luck and that's simply an alias for bad judgment." The eminent jurist, Thomas Burke, said these significant words to me: "You may be able to cure a drunkard, a glutton, a thief, and many other wayward persons; but to regenerate a confirmed gambler is almost a hopeless undertaking." Young men, mark Tvell this statement. A careful reading of Lecky's "Map of Life" will strengthen one to deal with human wiles. Judge Burke also says that "the element of chance enters so inti- mately into every department of life, that it is difficult to determme where speculation ends and where gambling begins." Our daily and hourly appeal should be, that Divine Love place us where we properly belong; where we can do the most good, while aiding progress and uplift. Although, at times, I may indulge in commonplace, sarcasm and ribaldry, I approach this subject with a serious desire to accomplish good for my fellow man. I am watching a friend of mine, upon whom Dragon is playing the same tricks, played for years upon others. I do wish I might be able to shut up this shop before he loses all he has, or I am invited to his funeral. This tenacious error, when once it rivets its tentacles upon one, is very difficult to work away from. I sometimes wonder how many of our years it will take for Dragon Senior and Junior to slough off these scales of stupendous error, 50 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION in order to enter the Divine. I am not judging, I simply leave the thought with you. They say that a man who • speculates in a small way and loses, is a gambler. If he prospers materially, he is a speculator. If he succeeds in a large degree, he is a financier, and is looked up to as a wonder." He has made a great success of life, no matter who was humiliated* wrecked, and covered by debt debree. They also say that "Wind, or Paper Wheat makes no flour, and fills no stomachs." This is the kind of wheat we will discuss. Some six or seven years ago, I prepared a paper entitled, "One Man Power," "The Autocratic Rule of the Board of Trade and What It Means to the Common People." It reads somewhat as fol- lows: "The American Farmer produces a nearly Ten Billion Dollar Crop (now over ten billion) ; and this enormous product of our fertility is, in a great measure, controlled by one person at Chicago ; through his servants, a Board of Trade and a few Satellites." Dragon Senior was satisfied with America for his financial king- dom. Junior requires the whole World for his. Senior had forty in his office; Junior requires 1,500 in his. Some seven years ago, $140,- 000,000 were offered for his holdings. And think of it. Most of these millions were robbed from the people. This would be a small ] price for his holdings now. All of the grain elevators of a transconti- jnental railway are in the hands of a questionable power; besides 400 or 500 small city elevators. If it were not for this, or any other one man power, the market price never would so frequently be depressed so low; nor would we see such high prices. The operations of this single being, involving transactions into the tens of millions, are world wide in their influence and tremendous in their power. If this power was worked for the benefit of mankind, what a blessing it would be. But it is not; and in the following statements, carefully prepared from observations of thirty years, backed by cases cited, I shall prove that this is true. When a one man power can, by the use of various means at his command, depress prices ten (this means two billions) to thirty per cent, below normal, so that the producer can not secure a proper return for his labor, and thereby his family suffer; and from this point, this one man power can carry the market price from twenty to forty per cent, above normal, so that millions who buy, paying from one to four billions more than the product is really worth, suffer in their DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 51 endeavors to secure enough to live upon; is it possible at this time to call a halt and curtail this power that works harm to mankind? Now let us consider this matter impartially and impassionately. In the first place this country does not beheve in the one man power. The will of the people, our constitution, the very principles upon which our government was founded, is against one man rule, one man power. Therefore my argument is answered at the outset. Himian nature is weak, and one of the strongest weaknesses of our nature, is love of power, love of ruling, love of possession (which of course is power) to use how? In the higher order of our mental and moral nature — for the good of mankind; in our lower nature, for the ill of mankind. In the latter, by taking away the people's means of sustenance, bringing millions to grinding poverty, producing parasites, beggars and degenerates." Up to the present time the energies of the people, abetted by the Chicago Board of Trade, have been exerted against the Bucket Shops, called "Hell's Kitchen", or "Dick Canfields of marginal speculation", and with success. The Bucket Shop was made possible by the introduction of Marginal Trading, and while the keepers were honest in using the trading prices of the so-called "legitimate houses", the deals were more quickly and easily carried through without so much red tape, and required less margin. While the "regular" broker was anxious for you to gain, the bucket shop keeper was anxious to steal every dollar you possessed. At the present time, I hold that the Boards of Trade are now run by one person, who is waiting and planning to grab every dollar put up for margins, that he can roll into his coffers, and I am not alone in holding this thought. While you really buy and sell nothing in a bucket shop, but simply bet, over 95% of the traders do the same thing on the Boards of Trade, where marginal trading is allowed. The traders never intend to present or take the commodity. Again, what is the difference, at the end of the game? You lose in either place, if you play for any length of time. I will also say of Dragon, as Teague said of the bucket shop keeper, "He has no purpose other than to steal all the money you have or can beg, borrow or steal" (remember Harper and the Fidelity Bank) "and when he has done this, to steal the home that houses your family, to steal the dress your wife will wear next year, and to steal the food your baby will require as it grows." "Yet, because he simu- IS 52 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECUL ATION ^ ■ ; lates respectability, he is permitted to perpetrate his swindles with im- punity." (See Everybody's of June, 1916.) The broker you deal with may be a disinterested party, but Dragon who gets your money, is most deeply interested. Of that you may be sure. I class th fellow with "Al" Adams of New York, whom a Judge dubbed "the meanest man in New York." This swindler has use of the mails, tele- graph and telephone to carry on his debasing work. Teague said that bucket shops stole $100,000,000 yearly. What must the Chicago and other Boards of Trade take from the people? John Hill Jr., backed by the Chicago Board of Trade, relentlessly pursued several bucket shop keepers; and Wm. V. King, of the New York Cotton Exchange, aided to some extent. Why? Simply because these bucket shops were taking "business" away from them, the so-called "legitimate." Don't think for a moment, that any humanitarian instinct would stimulate such action. Let our Government pursue these "legiti- mates" just as relentlessly, until they quit marginal trading. Bar the mails, telegraph and telephone until they do quit. Take the case of Barrett Brothers. Their case is a specimen as to how reliable some of the great ones are, who bucket their deals: "Missing Brokers Leave $200,000 in Claims "Chicago, Saturday, Oct. 14. — Barrett Brothers, brokers with officers in New York, Chicago and Denver, whose affairs are under investigation by federal officials and for whom search is being made, left unsecured claims estimated at $200,000, according to officers en- gaged in an inquiry into the affairs of the brothers — Wallace and John F. Barrett, respectively manager of the Denver and Chicago offices. To meet the claims, federal officials said, there is about $5,000 deposited in local banking houses." The Bucket Shops are rooted out of many States. They have kindred establishments in several Eastern States. In Oregon, they get around the law by sending their orders to Colorado. Practically their day is over. A Bucket Shop can not stand a rising market. The people who patronize these affairs rarely play anything but the long side of the market. Their chances of profit might be considered about as follows: If prices go down, they lose. If prices go up, the house "Busts." Patton Thomas says of Bucket Shops: "A Pure (say Impure) Gambling Game, Because Its Only Profits Are The Losses Of Its Clients. Masquerading as a legitimate business, it induces men, women DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 53 and youths to gamble, in order to win their earnings." I hold that that is what this Juggernaut is to-day; being run by one person. It is evident that conditions from now on will see forces centered not only upon the bucket shop, but also the higher-up, the board of trade, which gambles in prices of commodities, thwarting the interest «ind will of the people who lose at both extremes of the forced rise and fall of prices. We remember what the Anti-Gambling League of Chicago tried to do with Patten. Patten was great as a surface man, but certainly not the power to create the great sweeps of values. I hold that the high cost of commodities held some six or seven years ago, were largely caused by manipulations upon the Board of Trade by one man and that other man, Patten. I further hold that a certain Board of Trade, as now run by one man power, is little more than a mammoth bucket shop. Why not? He makes the prices for the world. The largest share of the profits or swag or rake-offs, going into the pockets of one man. Emery says, "One man power in a market is extremely dangerous; for to whatever use it is put, it makes all conditions uncertain, and the trade nervous and uncertain." A mere operator has less thance of success, upon this Board of Trade, than a sordid bettor upon a race horse. The manipulation may not be quite as raw (for certainly we have as smooth a set of manipulators at Chicago as can be found anywhere) BUT THE END IS THE SAME, and at the close of the deal, THEY WILL HAVE YOUR MONEY, AND ONE MANIPULATOR WILL HAVE THE MOST OF IT. As Bear writes (which I have held for years) : "It is not even straightforward gambling. It is one in which trickery of the most unscrupulous kind is exalted into a science. Futures are not so fair a game as cards." An American produce broker of long study adds: "Some of their methods are as infamous and thievish as those of the lowest black- leg gamblers — no better than those gamblers who use marked cards on the greenhorn, and carry plenty of aces up their sleeves." (See Contemporary Review of 1894, pages .786-7.) Now here is a combination that at present can not be beaten. It is similar to a cancer which is well imbedded; and the only way to kill it, is to cut it out, or annihilate the corpus. Supposing this man should be allowed to go on indefinitely, what would be the result? 54 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION Would we not become as desperate as the oM Roman slaves? If this is bad or a wrong to our people, and I hold that it is, what is the remedy? "It is as a clearing house of opinion, that the Chicago Board of Trade becomes a national institution. The $400,000,000 of grain and provisions annually handled, are merely incidental." Agam note the power granted to wind markets. OLD-TIME SPECULATIVE GAMBLING Ji\ J i^^^^^R Hirij^H ^H prgg^B^'i^a ^^hHH HH ^'itplM ^Hr « f'^"**iE^ii'w ^^^^^^^^^v S bI|| *#iPrl m ■By H NEW ORLEANS COTTON AT NIGHT DOWN (AT GALLAGHER'S IN 1846 EXCHANGE Disreputable- and Dislntesratlng How I'ou Have Glnnerl the Cotton Planter N. Y. STOCK EXCHANGE IN 1857 Respectable But Dangerous SHOEfTS COVERING WIND STOCK IN 1881 The Devil Take the Hind- most "And the heasi Tvhich I saiv Tuas li^e unio a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a beast, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the Dragon gave him his potver, and his seat, and great auihoriiv."- — Rev. 15: 2. CHAPTER THREE The Juggernaut The Persons, Power, Senior and Junior Manipulator, Dragon, or whatever I may call him or them, whom I will discuss, have been and are looked up to as financiers; but who are gamblers and robbers of the rankest type, having every high card marked; and who deserve no emulation from us, in this special branch; and before I am through with you I feel sure that you will give a decided vote that speculating in the prices of our food products, should be relegated to the ash heap of burning wrongs, as should the saloon and white slave traffics. If, in the following pages, I shall be able to impress upon you how fatal to your well being, it is to enter speculative gambling; and if my book will prevent your conscience from becoming seared; and your families in a measure protected from suffering, hardship and misery; I shall feel amply repaid, in a spiritual way, for my labors. For the larger portion of my work, I shall call this one man power. Dragon, because he clutches and strangles home builders. He raises the price of their bread; he takes away their means of support. He is a robber and a ravager. The institution over which he presides, I name Juggernaut, because it crushes our people morally, mentally and financially, to powder. Bryan says, that "Some men are tpo busy to collect, because they are loo busy earning. Others are too busy to earn because they are too busy collecting." This Dragon is very busy collecting. I was informed, a short time ago, by a former broker, that the Standard Oil was back of many of the deals made at Chicago. That the Standard Oil employed Leiter to act for them, until they found that he was speculating; then they took the power away and went against him, and he was ruined. This is not my version, however. 58 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION The Gambling Section of the Boards of Trade have taken hundreds of miUions out of the pockets of the people; and while returning to some few a fortune, to others, barely a pittance, in return for their money; and thousands have been robbed right and left, and pushed off the board. Dr. David Starr Jordan says: "Every great wrong has money behind it." Newton Dent writes: "Every city [of note] has a grain ex- change; but where is there a "wheat pit" as terrible in its power to unsettle the world's bread as that which stands at the head of La Salle Street"? I have no personal retaliative feeling against the men at work upon the Board of Trade, except to warn and protect others from moral, mental and financial disaster. They are not wholly to blame for the System; they have grown up in it. It has become a part of their life. It is a jovial crowd, and the members brilliant and interesting; but so heartless for the wrongs committed through their efforts. I desire to prove that they are in the wrong business ; that of aiding and abetting in the emptying of the pockets of those who cannot ](eep aTPap from this power's influence. I hold that the curtailment of this business is especially vital to the economics of home life. A dollar a bushel for wheat and three dollars per barrel for flour, is the dream of the economic alchemist. The very opposite is what this master manipulator is carrying out. He is trying to extract the wheat from the growers at the lowest possible price; then to sell it to the bread makers, at the highest possible price. The Anti-Option Bills have been entered to try and stop this business. The Butterworth, Hatch and Washburn bills were before Congress, especially against short selling; but how impotent. These bills were opposed by bankers, merchants and manufacturers. But note this — the bills received strong popular support. I am not alone in saying that this section of the Board of Trade, as influenced by one-man power, is an enormous Bucket Shop. Why not a Bucket Shop? The boodle, for the larger part, goes into the hands of one man. However, unlike the proverbial bucket shop keeper, he does not fail every year or two, and skip the country. The United States Court of Appeals, several times stated that "Stock Gambling is not more pernicious when done on the floor of a DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 59 bucket shop, than when done on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade." (See Dodlinger, "The Book of Wheat", page 249.) I have it upon good authority that 95 or more per cent, of the business on the Chicago Board of Trade is rank speculation, or gambhng in the food prices; neither side expecting to furnish nor receive a bushel of wheat, corn or oats, nor a barrel of pork or a tierce of lard. Here is a devastator of our homes, that quickly follows in destructiveness, the White Slave, Saloon and Dope traffics; and is far more insidious, for it is considered "Respectable Business." It strikes the homes of the well-to-do, and! in a day, they are brought to poverty. Yes, in an hour, half an hour; yes, in thirty seconds. Lawson says that 90% of the transactions upon the New York Stock Exchange are gambling. Untermeyer gives a higher figure. He certainly ought to know. In the Amalgamated Copper Robberies of some years ago, engineered by the two Rockefellers, Rogers, Stillman, with Lawson for the Goat, $100,000,000 were lost; thirty committed suicide, and twenty respectable citizens were made convicts. Would we not hate to have to answer for such financial atrocities ? Think how far that is from the Golden Rule. Did they "Love their brothers as themselves"? HISTORY Now for a little history: The mental machinery for speculation in produce, was developed from the practice of English and Dutch Importers, by the issue of warrants, which passed from hand to hand as negotiable paper. The last buyer could present the warrant for the commodity. You see how that which was created to meet necessity has been prostituted to base gambling. Take the history of the Chicago Board of Trade. It had its beginning in 1 848, and the members used to meet in one of the canal boats. Daily sessions were held in 1856. According to Mr. Delany, "The Chicago Board of Trade was organized in 1848 with 79 members. Reorganized in 1850, again in 1859, when it was incorporated. Quarters were rented until the First Exchange Building was erected in 1 865 at LaSalle and Wash- ington Streets. This was destroyed in I 871 in the Great Fire. Rebuilt in 1885." Not satisfied with the present building the Corporation is. 60 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION now planning for a greater structure. The Membership is now about 1 ,600." One late issue of a New York financial paper of authority gives the price of Chicago Board of Trade Membership at $7,550. If this is correct, it is far worse than I have quoted ; for with this small capital, a member is empowered to deal in millions. This is food for serious thought. This same issue gives Cotton Board Membership at $1 7,000 and New York Stock Exchange Memberships at $65,000 to $75,000. Late highest, $78,000. "Who "pays the piper" and the "dancing dervish"? Benj. P. Hutchinson, one of .my "Yankee Cousins", came into the game in 1857 and 1858, and worked many squeezes.. He intro- duced "Scalping" and "Milked the Market" upon as many occasions as he could. He had one successful corner in the sixties and another in 1888. Lyon tried to run many corners. The last one in, 1872, and the first one of importance, when he ran wheat from 90c to $2, in August. However, this one broke him. Bogus warrants and eiiormous wheat receipts, caused general selling and Lyon was ruined. Of Lyon's associates, Chisholm committed suicide; Diamond disappeared; Uren and Scott ended their days in obscure boarding houses. Philip D. Armour was brought to Chicago from Milwaukee by a Corn Deal. He lost a large sum of money. Corn sold at 30c, 25c, and even to 1 9c a bushel. Armour lost several sums before he assumed great power. One person made him hustle to secure wheat to cover his December shorts, in 1897. In the early stages there was no definite system of working deals; but after a certain brain, whom I will call Manipulator or Dragon Senior, entered the arena, there was a decided system; and has, to a greater or less degree, been successfully followed for over forty years. I have watched the maneuvers for thirty years. The same tricks, with a few changes, seem to befuddle the brains of our traders, and they were, and are, being led like sheep to the slaughter. The study of the devious ways that an option is carried out to perfection, is very interesting to one who understands the game; and incidentally to the sure destruction of the plumpness of the pocket- books of those who take a hand. I have many times begun upon the DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 61 study of some option, ten or eleven months before its consummation. All sorts of tricks were carried on, to rustle the tailers, or holders, off their perch, and their margins into the capracious maw of this financial Dragon. They witness these anomalous changes, and wonder why the markets, from day to day and year to year, should twist in such con- trary fashion, opposite to the natural sequence of a natural cause. It is no secret to me. These changes are arranged from day to day, week to week, month to month, year to year or a series of years, in an office in the heart of Chicago; and carried out by Dragon's henchmen upon the Board from day to day, and the poor dear public are helping him all the time, by falling for these deceiving manipulations. As many have wondered how the various cities of the United States could be connected with New York and Chicago; a broker of many years' experience has kindly handed in the following, showing how price quotations are carried to the outside world; and from that standpoint, is very instructive and interesting. For the benefit of those who are not familiar with the working and handling of the quotations and orders to these exchanges, we submit this article. A BROKER'S EXPLANATION "Generally speaking of the Stock Exchange, one refers to the great exchange of Wall Street, New York; and of the Board of Trade, as the grain exchange of Chicago; although there are several exchanges throughout the country in the principal cities, they are relatively min- nows in comparison to those great exchanges." "First, we might mention the diff'erence between the 'Bucket Shops' and the 'Commission House.' The former dealt from the quotations made by purchasers and sales worked on the Exchanges (not always correct quotations, however), with no intention of making a bona fide purchase or sale, but with merely the idea that the customer (if such a term is proper) is betting from the figures on a blackboard of the rise and fall of the market. "Now the Commission Broker is generally a member of some exchange and sends his order to the broker by wire for execution on the respective exchange, if being in grain, to Chicago; and if in stocks, to New York. In both cases — either bucket shop or commission house — private wires are rented from the different telegraph companies for connection with outside brokerage houses. "These have been great revenue sources for these companies for years, as the mileage charge is generally exorbitant. Each outside com- mission broker must have his connection or broker, in New York or 62 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION Chicago, execute their orders, as well as to send them the 'gossip' of the street, or what is expected to be done with this or that stock or grain option. These wire connections have been the source of bringing more money to New York and Chicago, than any other known means. They connect not only cities in close proximity with the exchanges, but stretch out over the whole United States, from Maine to California. The service is always fast, and as the wires are leased for no other purpose but the brokerage business, it can easily be seen how rapidly this class of matter could be handled. A wire running from San Francisco to New York, means not only one relay connection being made, that at Chicago and on to New York. It is possible to handle a message or order to a broker on the exchange in two or three minutes. It has been stated that Chicago is closer to Wall Street Exchange than "up-town", meaning that it takes less time to hand business from Chicago to the floor of the exchange, than it would to telephone from an up-town office right in the City of New York. The quotations of the New York Stock Exchange are sent out over what is termed the "ticker wire", which connects nearly all the large cities. No other business is handled on these wires and they are meant simply to handle the quotations as they are made on the floor of the exchange. One of these wires works North from New York City by way of Albany, Buffalo on to Chicago; while another works by the way of Washington, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati to Chicago. Both routes are connected as one and form a grand loop over the country, and is so arranged that if one circuit should become faulty, the other would carry the quotations without delay. Hardly ever would both routes be interrupted at one time, although such a condition has occurred. At Chicago, other Western cities are connected up to the same wires, by means of automatic repeaters, which means the supplying to the whole country over a great web of wire connections, a complete list of transactions of the exchange simul- taneously. The revenues derived from this source, is from the rentals of tickers at various points to stock exchange houses, saloons, hotels, etc. ; and is entirely separate from the leased wires which are made to individual brokers throughout the country. It has been stated on good authority, that neither Wall Street, meaning, of course, the Stock Exchange, nor the Chicago Board of Trade, could exist without the aid of the outside public; and this is only made possible by the connection by wire to those exchanges. The outside public is always a large factor when the markets are active; as there are very few cities throughout the country that are not "blessed" with a brokerage house or several of them." While bucket shops are places where they are carrying on the same kind of gambling, the Chicago Board of Trade says, and tries to prove and convince the people, that this business when carried on DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 63 in these bucket shops, is immoral; but the moment you enter their magnificent hall, it becomes moral. But reader, in either place, you lose your money; whether, ac- cording to the Chicago Board of Trade it is morally or immorally accomplished. I am not defending the Bucket Shops. I am showing that they use same gambling machinery. The Bucket Shops, where they are faithful in copying, use the same dope, scattered broadcast by Dragon, through wire and press; and this has the same effect upon the immoral lambs, as upon the moral lambs and goats. And the members of the Chicago Board of Trade are trying to crush out the immoral Bucket Shops. Why? Because the Bucket Shops are taking business away from them. Why don't they crush out the Open Board of Trade, right under- the eaves of their gambling hall? Because that is bringing them trade. That is different. In other words, if you bring them business, you are moral. If you take business away, you are immoral. The Price Current-Grain Reporter, an estimable paper, pub- lished in Chicago, in its issue of September 29, 1915, relative to the Chicago Board of Trade, reads as follows: "What is it? Why has it an existence? What are its functions? How can it justify itself" ? My Dear Mr. Editor: In its marginal-option gambling it can not justify itself; as millions of robbed homes can testify. Then, my dear sir, you go on and endeavor to show how ignorant the people are in regard "to this great market place." Now when you say that "the Chicago Board of Trade is nothing but an open market for the purchase and sale of grain and provisions", you deliberately falsify and you know it. Perhaps you personally do not know that from 98 to 99% of the so-called "bsuiness" carried on there, is "trading in wind", and that only from one to two per cent, is dealing in the real commodity. Perhaps you do not know that eighty-five per cent of the margins carted to this enormous American Monte Carlo and Bucket Shop, is lost by these "ignorant ones" you write of; and that 98% of these duped traders lose their money, and have been losing ever since "Old Hutch" started the scalping racket some sixty or seventy years ago. I agree with you that the "dear public" need, very 64 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION muchly, to be informed, and that is the purpose of this book. Stick to your work of reporting legitimate business, but don't, I beg you, try to bolster up the moth and canker department of the Chicago Board of Trade. The writer refers to "Misguided Writers." In the words of the Bowery Guy, "Misguided nothing." He endeavors to befog the issue. Our discussion is not upon the one to two per cent, legitimate business of the Board of Trade, but upon the gambling in the prices of our food products, which said Board has been allowed to carry on for lo, these many years. Ever since B. P. H. entered the arena. That is the issue and the only issue we are bringing up. WHERE THEY DO NOT REQUIRE MARGINAL GAMB- LING TO CARRY ON A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS CINCINNATI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE "Go Thou and Do Likewise" & jfAgMtrf-1-,-" - BUFFALO BOARD OF TRADE Encourage Righteous Work BALTTMORK BOARD OF TRADE An Honor to Any City "Ye are of Sour father Ihe devil, and the lusts of ^our father ye 'mill do. . . When he spealgelh a lie, he spealieth of his own: for he is a liar and the father of it." — John 8: 44. CHAPTER FOUR CORNEE^S AND MaNY OTHER DeVILISH ThINGS While the revered Joseph's Egyptian Corner was "constructive and helpful, the modern corner has often proved destructive, uneconomic, and often very tragic." Most corners are simply "Hold Ups, legiti- mized by speculation", the sole object being to embarrass or ruin the men who sold the grain short, or who bought "long wind." This Corner Gambling generally benefits no one but the successful manipulator, and successful hanger-on. The Grower, Miller and Con- sumer, are usually stung. There have been many Cotton Failures due to speculative gambling. The so-called "Patten Wheat Deal", I foretold ten months before consummation. Because Patten meddled, the price was carried up too soon to suit the Dragon. Not until I found that Patten was in the deal, did I find a valid excuse for the early rise. Dragon, in order to secure what he felt should be coming to him, carried the price to $1.35, which was an abnormal price for that time. The corners of the last two years were partially brought on by the war. The manipulator had his lines fixed for low prices May, 1915, but upon the startling and unexpected announcement of war, he quickly bought in his short wheat, and I presume at some loss, and went long of the market millions of bushels. He probably will clean up from fifteen to twenty millions. Four times out of five, I have been right in my prophesies. I believed he had been selling July, September and December options. (Later developments proved the correctness of my beliefs.) What is he doing now? Buying December and selling future May and July wheat options, "to beat the band." Don't try to "beat Dragon to it ", boys; for he will quickly knock you out of the race. His cards are fearfully marked and he has a multitude of aces up his sleeves. How- ever, fellows, if Dragon had been on the other side of September and DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 67 December options, you would not see such a great rise, until after those options were closed. After the short victims of December option have settled (privately with Dragon or otherwise) you will see a May or July option smash. "Stand from under", or be crushed. There is no just reason for wheat being $ 1 .94 and higher. Gross and base manipu- lation. He may make a record of over $2.00. The cruel brain of Dragon Senior did not get Hutchinson in 1 867, because it was not working at that time upon the Board. Dragon Senior began in 1872, and broke Lyon. Small corners in 1 880, 1 88 1 and 1 882 may, or may not, have been the work of destruction of this fellow. India began to be a bearish factor. Although Harper, of Cincinnati, put through a wheat deal in 1881, in 1887, this fellow broke him. Jack Sturgis cornered wheat in the seventies. Sturgis' partner quietly sold privately, while buying for the Company. When this be- came known, a bear raid was started, and Sturgis, who was worth at the start some five millions, died in poverty. No honor among thieves there. In 1879-80 (one gives this 1876) the Jim Keene Corner col- lapsed. Keene lost three million. "Old Hutch" helped in the general raid. I quote again from the Price Current, Grain Reporter of Sept. 29, 1915, page 22, in a review of "Corners." The section is headed with "A Little Pork Squeeze." I give it exact, word for word, so my readers may note how they glory in this sort of so-called "business" of trying to ruin one another: A Little Pork Squeeze "Philip D. Armour engineered a pork corner in 1877, largely be- cause he was forced into it. It seems to be a matter of authentic history that Mr. Armour conducted his pork corner in self-defense. There were a combination of bears who had sold to him, who wished to relieve him of some of his wealth; and as he had an immense stock of pork on hand they persistently kept the market down. However, Mr. Armour offered pork for shipment out of Chicago at a much lower price than he would sell it in the pits; and the rules then provided that there should not be more than seven or eight pieces to a barrel. [Trumped up by a Board Committee.] Mr. Armour was keen enough to open the barrels of pork which he had on hand and cut the pieces in two, thereby making them undeliverable on contract. The result was that the purchas- ers had to sell them for consumption and could not redeliver them to him. Mr. Armour made money out of the corner, and the bears who tried to force him into trouble paid the cost." 68 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION The E. L. Harper Corner of 1887, was smashed after wheat was advanced from 78 to 90 cents. June 1 4, wheat tumbled to 68 cents, and the Cincinnati Fidelity Bank was gutted. This was as raw \ a hold-up and robbery as ever occurred in speculative history in gambling I in Food Products. It should also be stated that some twenty Chicago firms went to the wall, and several very nearly. Marcossen said of this catastrophe: "Ruin and suicide haunted the unhappy depositors, and sorrow and despair were cast into many homes as a result of a wild attempt to corner this market." Harper languished in prison for several years, until pardoned by the President. He died soon afterward. Think of the old couples that had their slowly earned savings, laid up in this bank, to keep them in comfort for the remainder of their days, swept away by deceit of Dragon Senior. So long as Dragon Junior is allowed to deceive the public, our own savings banks are in danger from this same element of destruction. President Cleveland saw the difference between Hutchinson and Harper, in corner running, when they tried to have Harper pardoned. "Hutchinson used his own money and Harper used that of others." Speaking of Hutchinson, it is said that he had a marvelous memory. He could "trade all day in every market in the country and, without making notes, could name over the trades at the close of the day. The old buccaneer would not hesitate to jump the market 25 cents, from the close of one day to the opening of another. Another bank was nearly wrecked in California, by the manager of the Nevada Bank becoming crazed by speculation. Mackay came to the rescue and made good several millions. After he had paid the money out, Mackay said, "Let me hear no more of this." Even Russia tried to persuade the United States to enter into an agreement to corner wheat at the expense of the world. To the credit of "Uncle Sam", a courteous reply was returned that, "As a nation, 'Corner Gambling' was not the business of the Government." In 1888, Hutchinson squeezed a crowd in a "Corner" to the tune of a couple of million or more. After $2.00 wheat had been reached and the deal closed up, the brokers sang: "I see 'Old Hutch' start for the Club — Good-by, my money, good-by! He has given us all a pretty tough rub — Good-by, my money, good-by" ! DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 69 I gave Dragon Senior two years to crush Hutchinson. Senior took his scalp in one year and a half; and from being a millionaire, he was found running a junk or meat shop in New York City. His family brought him back to Chicago and set him up in a cigar store. He died almost in darkness and oblivion. Thus ended the earthly existence of a mortal who started "scalping" and "short selling", yes, and "long buying", in 1856. After the ruin of Hutchinson, in 1 89 1 , Pardridge, who had risen in power, arose in his might; and after making several millions, paid tribute of a million or so to Dragon Senior. Senior would sometimes allow little fish grow to a goodly size, then nab them. In August of 1 89 1 , Pardridge was short in the market and ran out of cash margin, although he had plenty of other security, and was bought in by his brokers. He lost $500,000. Dragon banked most of this, together with what Ream and others lost, say two or three million. However, much of Lyon's loss was taken from profits. Before this he made about $750,000 a year. He and his wife had assets of over four millions. Pardridge settled in full to the melody of a million, more or less. At the end of the deal he was a nervous wreck, and retired from fighting one stronger than he. Now Senior began to get his fangs well in. In I 893, he caused a lard corner to come to grief. In 1897-8, Joseph Leiter worked a corner which Dragon finally punctured, by the use of steel pointed tugs, breaking the ice and rushing wheat to Chicago and selling against the future May option. Leiter had Dragon in his clutches ; and if Leiter had limited his deals to July, September and December options, he would have beaten the giant, and cleaned up several millions of dollars. Leiter and his associate French were successful in July of 1898; and having tasted a little blood, tried the game for September, and again won out. Again they plunged into December. Here Senior Dragon was pitted against them, and about ten to twelve millions of cash wheat was dumped upon them. Leiter still continued to buy the next May option. Here is where he made his mistake, and our master manipulator had Leiter in ruins to the deficit of somewhere to $8,000,000, which his father paid to save family honor. I presume that these millions with several hundred more, are reposing safely in Europe, to the credit of Dragon Junior. However, in this Leiter Deal, the country profited to the extent of about $100,000,000; at that time a very unusual 70 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION performance upon the part of our country cousins, the farmers, for they sell when they ought not, and hold fast when they should release. They have had a good time during this war. Still I would advise them to sell all they have, for there will be a slaughter before the end of next May and July, unless Dragon changes his mind. In 1 892 the Coster-Martin Corn Corner was smashed from $ 1 to 49c, in a few minutes. The Bank of Montreal refusing to cash a cheque, started the rush. We can imagine who influenced the bank. Coster later committed suicide in New York City. TTie career of Phillips, in the later 90s, was spectacular. From a poor country boy and shucker of com, by dilligent study and careful preparation he and Daniel Hill, a farmer customer of Phillips', made nearly $200,000 on a corn deal. The next corn deal ruined him. Credit the Dragon. The greatest corn corner was in 1 902. Several millions were lost by Gates and Cudahy Brothers, and Dragon Senior again grabs the boodle. All this is a matter of history. Corners have been broken by Minneapolis Millers. They sold their elevator wheat at high prices, then bought it back at low figures before it left their elevators. The elevator men, big dealers and profes- sional traders in Chicago, are generally bears. The Peter McGoc lard corner of I 883 was broken by a low-down trick. Some speculators loaded the lard with cotton seed oil and dumped the product upon poor Pete as genuine. But that was not the worst trick. The largest lard deal was the Cudahy-Fairbanks of 1 892. They made a 1 Oc profit per pound. In the second deal Dragon Senior swept them from the Board. Cudahy lost $6,000,000 to him. Brokers to the right and left failed. Cudahy was trimmed several times by the Dragon Senior, in both wheat and lard; Dragon even going from bank to bank, bor- rowing their surplus money and leaving a bad word or two about Cudahy, so that he could not secure margin credit. This was one of the favorite tricks of Dragon Senior. One writer says that corners are a thing of the past. He is sadly mistaken. Since the European war began, we have had many corners and squeezes, but they were worked so smoothly the poor dear public did not realize it. After the abnormal pressure of the May option of wheat to $1,584 I noted a little skirmish among members of the Federal Trade Commission and that "there would be no Federal investigation." Then DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 71 "there would be", and "there wouldn't be", etc. This is about as wobbly as some political administrations. And at that time we had been cursed by four or five corners and squeezes since the European war began. How impotent is this "Glorious Government." London blames "Yankees" for the high price of bread, and rightly. And with all of this rise, our Walla Walla farmers are holding for more. My advice is. Don't hold it any further than December, if as far. I will speak of some of the large fish who have been feeding upon the smaller ones in other Juggernauts, and have at last landed in the jaws of the Dragon. I need only mention the Cotton Corner failures of Biddle. Sequel, bank ruined. Ranger, in 1879. Watts, in the early 80s. A German crowd later. Range, of Galveston. Inman, a sort of Armour in cotton. Labousse. Price, the Napoleon of Cotton, in 1 900, with liabilities $13,000,000, with fading assets. To the credit and honor of Price, it must be added that in a few years he cleared up the balance of debt, of one million. Dan Sully and Patten, were active. Again Lawson hits the mark, in reference to corners and panics, especially the "Amalgamated." "Look for the records of that dreadful day in the history of thousands of blasted corners and ruined lives. On the headstone of suicides' graves, on the tablets of felons' cells, it is typed in letters of blood and iron. But its deepest, saddest chronicle, is in the hearts of the mothers and wives, whose sons and husbands perished in that cruel clash of embattled millions." We note that even heavy operators have received it in the "Solar Plexis." There was Heinze, who might have sold his holdings for $12,000,000, passed on worth less than one and one-half millions. Heinze knew copper, but not the Wall Street brand. Cudahy with all of his talents, environment and backing, and should have passed out with $25,000,000, to his financial credit; lost at one time $6,000,000, besides many others to the Dragon ; left only about three. The article sayeth not which Cudahy. Many merchants could not stick to their lasts. And there are others. Lawson, in summing up "The Amalgamated", says: "Of my personal knowledge, Americans and Europeans were plundered of over $100,000,000, and there were thirty suicides directly caused by this and a large number, over twenty, of respectable citizens, were made convicts. By the modern dollar making, they were converted into beasts of prey. Who engineerd this? Henry H. Rogers, Wm. Rockefeller, John D. Rockefeller, The National City Bank, James 72 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION Stillman the head; Jos. O. Addicks, F. Augustus Heinze, Jas. R. Keene. These have to answer for the evil they have worked." One could apply to Dragon Senior, the words of Lawson: "I have no hesitation in stating that experience has shown me that, provided there is a profit ahead, frenzied financiers, from the highest to the lowest, will commit any crime in the Decalogue, and that without the slightest twinge or buck of conscience." The "Industrial Commission stated that J. D. Rockefeller and J. D., Jr., were responsible for the murders committed lately in the Colorado Coal Fields." I merely mention this without comment. One Speculator answered, when asked in regard to his corner, "How far do you want to go in this matter"? "To any extent that will keep me out of the penitentiary." Many operators use wash sales, and are less honest than "Book- makers at horse races. They are like rascals who bet against horses, then bribe men to drug them, or 'Jockeys' to 'pull' them." Russell Sage is said to have lost in "Puts and Calls" in one day, in 1 888, about Seven Million Dollars. It is further stated that he "curtailed that branch of his business." There are times when for weeks the grain market would be kept within a range of two to five cents, and you might think that manipu- lators were dead, sleeping at their posts, or gone fishing. The fifres were simply smothered for a time; only to break into fury later, like some disturbed volcano. It takes time to create a new option. This master m.anipulator, Dragon, by means of correspondents scattered throughout the world, with hundreds of clerks, keeps tab upon crop prospects, true visible supply, how much the farmers are holding, etc., better than any one else in the world; also has a good record of where the Option purchases and sales come fro(m ; when and at what price to shake out the holders; when to turn the market, after they are shaken out. This requires great subtlety. Of Dragon we might well say, as Keene said of himself: The whole world is my spy." The habitues of the "Pit" are afraid of Dragon as they are of the "Evil One." They watch his brokers hke hawks. Suppose he should jump into the pit as butten-headed Senior used to; you cer- tainly would think that "Hades" had broken loose. And yet, the old game of "credit given for saving the market" can not be worked upon the public any more. We will look for something new from DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 73 now on. Why should one put himself up against such a confidence game? Here is the position taken by a former commission broker, more in the legitimate line. He argued that because a manipulator had the data, means and power [and collected gambling parapheirnalia] he was justified in getting his brothers into corners and squeezes; causing other millions to suffer. The same old effete argument of "Divine right of Kings", royal or monied. The "Divine right" should "kick out" and the United States "kick in" and correct this. The "London Spectator" of June 18, 1898, says: "A good man may hold a share in a Diamond or Silk Trust; but could not, without violence to his conscience, hold one in a Corn, Salt or Fuel Trust. A monopoly of a thing not particularly needed, does not seem bad; but a monopoly of a necessity, is bad, both from the view of a moralist and that of a politician." Dragon Senior, besides running corners and smashing others for his own profit, was so mean and selfish, that he ruined even his own brokers, where he found them following in his wake. He should have joined the fraternity of that fellow who was so close that he would'nt even "spend the evening, he'd pass it" — with apologies to "Tad." He would give no one a chance, whatever. He kept his eye upon every one in any way associated with him. Being among the sharpest set of speculators we have, he had to. If any one crossed his path, woe be unto him. It would have been better for him, if he had never entered this mortal existence. What were the last days of Dragon Senior; this one-sided, crafty, vindictive, cruel robber? He had paresis of the ibraiii, and !had to be led around as you would pilot an imbecile. When this man appeared (or appears) before the Divine Judge, what could he say when asked: — "Did you love and cherish your brother as yourself"? What will the Son say, if he continues in the present line of conduct, when he appears before the Divine Bar of Justice? "Did you love and cherish your brother as yourself"? Would you not think that his son would want to change his tactics, and do some good during his life; and not continue the course of his father? We would naturally say, yes. However, we can not appre- ciate the tremendous temptation, superinduced by possessing this enor- mous power. Think of ruling the food prices of the world.. Could we withstand the temptation of such power? I think not. This man 74 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION should be protected from himself. I am not delivering an eulogy- >■ and giving facts, not fancies; warnings, not foibles; protection, not pitfalls; and appealing to your highest ideals, not catering to base desires; and the desire to get something for nothing. Marcossen says: "Food and Clothes are the essentials of life. The men who attempt to corner the staples that provide them, m order to extort extravagant graft, and to put his competitor at a disadvantage serves no economic purpose; and by some mystic rule of retribution, always comes to grief." Marcossen! My dear sir! You have not taken into considera- tion, one Dragon and his progeny to whom this "Mystic Rule", for the last forty years, could not be applied. No power but the Government can stop him from continuance in making and smashing "Comers." "Her prophets are light and treacherous persons; her priests have pol- luted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the /aiu." — Zeph. 3: 4. "Even as ije also outivardl^ appear righteous unto men, hut within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." — Matt. 23: 28. CHAPTER FIVE The Powerful System Now reader, I will show, and I hope prove to you.i that there is a system employed upon the Chicago, and other Boards of Trade; a System pernicious and blighting in its finish of the individual; and it is followed to the ruin of nearly all who trade upon said boards. I will not take time to show you how to trade upon the board, although I could do so; for many of my readers are undoubtedly pastmasters in that art. I will, however, give you some examples. A spotter, or worker up of business, or some one who has been successful for a few months upon the board, confides in a friend and shows how easy it is to crop a few dollars without working. He finally influences this friend to invest two or three hundred or thousand dollars. The market goes against him and he has to put up two or three hundred, or thousand more to protect his deal. This also disap- pears in like manner, and he loses $500, or $5,000, which is not unusual. I remember of one fat lubber, a remittance man who lost several thousands, many of them against my advice. Now if this one who lost $5,000 had a tendency to gamble in this way, if he did but realize it and becomes wise; it was the best investment he could make in this line; for ten to one he will quit right there and nevej touch another option. This victim might well appreciate the old fashioned epitaph placed over a baby's grave: "I was so quickly done for, I wonder why I [was] begun for." You might say, if he were wise, he never would have touched one in the first place. Many of us ha\'e to learn wisdom by experience and expense. The author of this book made a little pot of $ 1 ,000 in one fine day, and was spoiled. He became crazy as any loon that ever flew over hill and dale. He soon had 1 00,000 bushels of wind wheat bought, and in a short time, was a real shorn Iamb, 76 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION with no more fleece left than the proverbial one. No remarks please! I often remember what Lewis said: "Goin' forth to shear, he was shorn." Let us take another subject not quite so personal. One is led to invest, and unfortunately the market goes with him. He feels some- what like the man who was going on a journey; and before starting invested in Pork. After a few days, a letter came to his wife,i in which he wrote, "Pork is up, God is good." (As if the Supreme Being would entertain such a thought.) A week later, another letter read, "Pork is down. Good God." Now if this second victim was a practical speculator or a room trader, he would have taken a nice little profit and stayed away from the market for a while, and let the other fellow have some profit, if he could get jt. By staying around the board where quotations are put up, you become hypnotized. But no, the usual person wants a little more and overstays the market. He is one who wants it all, and there are others. This is unfortunate, for he is being spoiled for sane work. He simply can not get out of the market and he is now well in the toils of the power, and goes from bad to worse. The market ascends for a day, and he sees visions of many thousands; a palace, yacht, and trips to Europe and around the world. The next day, the market goes down with a slump. Curses upon the luck! What can he sell or mortgage in order to secure more margin. He is totally unfit for business or social pleasures. If he has a family, the Lord help the members. The poor fellow is twisted and turned and maltreated, until his days are full of misery, and in many cases there are added poverty, ruin, dope, suicide and a potter's field. Many traders are like bull dogs who won't let go, or wrestlers and warring nations, who would be glad to quit, but who are afraid to. Of many of these it might be said, as was reported of a bank cHent. The Bank Examiner said: "I have to report that this debtor has no property, either real or personal; no credit, either actual or potential; no prospects, present or future, and no hope, either here or hereafter." While there have been some lucky ones (and such ones rarely hang around the market or quotation board) there have been thousands of such wrecks strewn over our land during the last forty years' reign of this Juggernaut. These you do not hear of. The ghosts of Wall and LaSalle Streets would fill thousands of haunted castles. Do you DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 77 want this sort of company? Then enlist. If not; then consider this as you would rank poison; and also remember that 95 to 98 per cent, of these traders, or suckers, lose. Lawson says that "the 'Amalgamated' begotten in 1 898 and born in 1 899, had, up to 1 904, been responsible for more Hell than any other trust or financial body since the world began. " That was for about five years, and $100,000,000 the toll. This at Chicago, has been going on for over sixty years, and I know not how many hundred millions have been lost. What kind of a Hell is that? I will now give you another example of how a man becomes interested in speculation; how he is twisted and turned; raised to the heaven of financial bliss; now carried as far away from this point as possible, until by various tricks, he is bruised, hammered, racked and torn, until we have a wretched apology for a man, if not a crazy one. What do you think of a power that is trying, by means of all the tricks that the manipulator is provided with, to get you to invest your money in such a manner that you are sure to lose it? Is there any difference between this mode and that of a confidence man? Most asuredly not, except in the size of the wallet. Sometimes a poor victim is short on the market to the Power, and not wanting to buy in at a loss, buys a future month option hoping to even up. Now it often happens that this is just what the manipulator desires him to do; as that is the month he is selling. For example, in January, 1915, — May wheat was about three cents away from July. Week by week they parted company. I knew very well what game was being played. In time they were nearly 40 cents apart The poor lambs were sheared upon both sides, at the same time. That was the worst example I ever witnessed for thirty years. This was during the late European war, and is called a "Spread", or "Straddle." Sometimes in a spread of this kind, too much will occur during one or two days, and it is noticed by the regular traders. Then how quickly he changes his tactics for a few days. Sometimes he will close the spread for a week or two. Sometimes he will lure his victims on to follow him by continuing the spread, and one fine day he snaps it together like a mouse trap, and there you are caught. Whenever you feel that you are solidly on the road to financial success, then you are in the midst of danger. We do not say much about this manipulator's putting many firms out of business, by underselling (that used to be a favorite dodge with Dragon Senior) for here he gives the public something for their money. 78 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION The Government is attending to this business. What we do strenuously object to, is his going on to the Chicago Board of Trade and manipu- lating the markets, using his legitimate business in getting you interested to plank down your money, only to lose it, without your receiving any material benefit. In this, we leave out the moral side, you note. Dragon tries to vary the program from day to day, as to opening, also closing and general manipulation of the market. Must make it interesting, you know, or the gamblers won't play. He must keep his fish interested by wigwagging the bait. As far as the day-to-day pro- gram goes, your might just as well have some one put figures on the board, you guessing whether the next figure will be higher or lower. Suppose he has thousands of barrels of pork contracts bought and he thinks it is about time to raise the price. He gently moves the price to and fro for a few weeks, quietly boosting the price; and after a while, will have some of his numerous correspondents wire re- ports of Hog Cholera in Paudonck or Trichinosis in Ballatava; and those short to him will rush to cover, and up goes the price of pork with- out any effort upon his part; until he stops the mad buying by selling out his long options, or selling short. Many a time has he fooled Cudahy, Morris, Swift, Hammond and others, and taken their money. Like the Opium Gang, when one plan of operation is fathomed, another is quickly invented. But where the opium smugglers have $ 1 00 to back them, this fellow has $1,000,000 at his beck and call. And still another trick. Sometimes he will wigwag the market so fast and wide, that the brokers become frightened and call for ex- cessive margins; and not having it handy, the traders are simply sold out in the pit; and our manipulator, happy in the haul he has made, raises the market to heights sublime, and the victim's eyes glisten with tears as the price mounts. Isn't he surely the emissary of the Devil? This talk about Rockefeller, Rogers, Stillman, et al. ; why in Chicago, as I have said, we have the craftiest robber of them all. He is always glad to have some Goat like McGeoch, Pardridge, Leiter or Patten to throw credit upon as a cause of these great sweeps of val- ues. How to get evidence against him, is the study of our Govern- ment. They do not go about it in the right way. How foolish to subpoena Patten, Leiter, Armour, Swift, or any other Chicago man to secure evidence against the Chicago Board of Trade. Will they give incriminating evidence? Not on their lives. That is a matter for DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 79 the Secret Service, and would cost many hundreds of thousands, to carry it out to perfection. During my sojourn of a week up)on the Board of Trade, securing information at first hand — when the poor lambs on the outside, who were being shorn ; were bleating so hard that the heart of the most calloused sinner should have been touched; what were the shearing brokers doing? Dancing like Dervishes, jostling and bantering one another, knocking off hats, swaying and bellowing the latest popular song, full of mocking ribaldry, while waiting (for the pit to boil, Sn order to scalp a few more commissions of eighths and sixteenths. But you may ask, should we disband the Board of Trade? No! But the Government, in every way possible, should hamper this gambling in the PRICE of food products. Let the members be satisfied v\ath legitimate dealings and a fair profit, giving the traders a fair show. We need the Board of Trade, but we do not need this wind wheat specula- tion. I presume that a fair amount of speculation is the life of trade, but this abnormal gambling should be forever cut off. No one wants to prevent an actual owner from selling his goods for a fixed price for a future delivery. That is different. He is not short selling something he does not own, and trying to depress the value of others' property. You say you have a lot of wheat, which can be protected by sell- ing an option on the Board. That is different, as far as you are con- cerned. The manipulator, however, does not want your wheat, for as Hutchinson would say, "It is difficult to get rid of the corpse." He would much prefer that you sell against him at times, when you do not have any wheat to furnish in settlement of your losses. I have positive proof from one who lives in the city where I now reside. He said he had sold his wheat and oats over and over again, from 30 to 35 times. They would send him the cash difference. They did not want his wheat or oats. He also reported that a friend of his had carried on a similar business for a time. Frank G. Delany writes interestingly, in the "Price Current-Grain- Reporter" of September 29, 1915, of the Chicago Board of Trade, but complaining that — "Newspapers and magazines had been during the era of muck- raking displaying a persistency that was remarkable in printing articles that, however speciously written, were born of ignorance, all tending to convince the reader that exchanges were an unmixed evil." "Most people being somewhat disposed to believe the sensational they were gradually coming to the view that boards of trade and com- DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION mercial exchanges in general were dens of iniquity, were simply organ- ized blood-suckers, preying on producer and consumer without dis- tinction as opportunity offered." We have heard here in Chicago men whose attainments should have promised a better knowledge, expressing the opinions that exchanges were gambling institutions and an evil too long tolerated." How about Judges Grosscup, Anderson and Mulky and Attorney Fullen? Their judgment can certainly be relied upon. "We have heard every sharper who has been caught in the toils of the law defending the operations of his 'get-rich-quick' scheme by comparing it to the Board of Trade. We heard only recently a scheme for race track betting described as being designed by capable attorneys to be 'just as legal as the operations on the Board of Trade.' And so it is small wonder that many men who should know better have allowed themselves to absorb the impression that the Chicago Board of Trade is nothing more than a high-toned institution in which gambling is carried on as a business, with grain and provisions used as the cur- rency in the game. Nothing could be farther from the truth." I can honestly say that nothing can be nearer the truth. "At the present time its membership numbers over 1,600, and its members are scattered from Liverpool, England, to San Francisco. About 1 ,200 of its members are actively engaged in business here in Chicago." ' The Board maintains statistical bureaus, the honesty and accuracy of whose worK have never been questioned. The resultant mass of in- formation is distributed gratuitously, of course, although its collection involves enormous continuous labor and expense. It brings to the exchange floor the market news of all the world. All of the daily newspapers are represented on the Board, and the information is through newspapers given to the waiting outside world." Put to right use, what a valuable aggregation of force. Put to illegitimate use by a monster, who rules the Board of Trade with an iron hand, what a power for evil and home destruction and "distributed gratuitously," Holy Moses! In describing the "wheat pit",, he quotes a novelist who described it as being, "only thirty feet wide, but which leads straight to hell." That author told an alarming truth. One person remarked that the wheat pit looked like "a lunatic asylum going on a spree." "The Board handled approximately 362,000 cars, or nearly 656 million bushels of grain. This turned into dollars on the basis of 1914 values would represent perhaps a turnover of approximately a milhon dollars a day for every business day." Where does he get away with the billion gambled in. Delany refers to traders from "Vladivostock, Tokio, Hongkong DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 81 or Calcutta; Constantinople, Naples, Paris or Cape Town; Sydney, Australia, or Buenos Aires; Stockholm, Vienna, Liverpool or Winni- peg; San Francisco or Berlin; London or Rio de Janeiro, on reaching his office turns invariably to ascertain the Chicago quotations on wheat ; for though he may not trade in Chicago wheat directly (although it would be surprising to tabulate the amount of business that comes to the Chicago pits from these foreign lands, in the way of 'hedging.' " Please refer to my "Chart" on page 82. "Every bushel of grain which is bought or sold on the Board of Trade is actually delivered when the contract matures." Oh, Delany how can you make such a statement? You know it can't be true. The reader is referred to Chapter XIL, where Attorney Chas. D. Fullen and other legal lights expatiate a little upon this. He does not tell of the "Round Turn" and the "Ring Method." Of course not. The following is pretty near the truth: "It is true that one of you here may instruct me to buy 5,000 bushels of May wheat today (5,000 bushels of May wheat means 5,000 bushels of No. 2 wheat delivered in public elevator in Chicago by the seller some day during the month of May — the seller may determine the day, unless specifically stipulated otherwise). I buy this 5,000 bushels of wheat. A month from now you conclude that you don't want to carry this wheat trade any longer, so you instruct me to sell out your wheat. I do so. In order to do so I must find a buyer. I go into the pit and find a buyer and make sale for your account. So you see that 5,000 bushels of wheat might be sold 1,000 times and no commodity passed. He agrees that " a warehouse receipt may in a month pass through a dozen deliveries ", and yet no commodity passed. He continues: "Trading in future deliveries is the feature of Board of Trade activities" [about 99 per cent.] "that is most roundly condemned by those who are 'apt makers of phrases.' They style it 'wind wheat"; they call it 'gambling in the people's breadstuffs.' " On page 1 8 of the same issue, Delany endeavors to gloss over the ravings of the action of the wheat pit, calling it "competition raised to the nth power, whatever that may be. Of course he ignored the miquitous underhanded power, that was mysteriously moving the market toward dangerous cataracts and whirlpools of loss, poverty, family destruction and suicide. He closes with a few high sounding phrases: "We have been put to the test; we have been tried, and we have not been found wanting and so, as I have stated in my opening para- graphs, the American public, with the object lesson so recent, to its eternal credit, has changed its mind, and I believe that we as a part of it 82 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SP ECULATION ^___ will not forget the experience of 1914 and 1915. The Board of Trade fears not its record. It asks nothing more from the American people than to be judged by its work, according to American standards of fairness, by those intelligently composed to judge and to continue the gradual but sure development of nearly seventy years to a point where it will serve the interests of us all better each year as the years pass on." I only need to call attention to pages 22 and 24 of the above named issue to recall to the reader the wrecks caused by corners. The writer stated: "Trading in grain for future delivery is now entirely on a commercial basis. During the past forty years, however, there have been a number of spectacular corners which have achieved much pub- licity through the press and which have materially influenced the public in believing that the Chicago Board of Trade is an immense 'gambling institution.' However, this belief is being dissipated fast as the public generally gives its attention to economic subjects." "Corners are now a thing of the past." What a misstatement. We have had four or more corners and squeezes in the last two years, or so. "Corners in the grain business have been largely matters of acci- dent." Good Lord! "For the benefit of those who do not understand just what a corner is, we can best illustrate it by saying that grain is traded in for future delivery for certain months. This is the month of September. Those who have sold grain and cannot secure it to deliver on contracts are 'short.' " That is the evil that should be eradicated. "Under conditions prevailing on the Board a few years ago, the man who had bought could 'corner the market' and exact from the man who had sold to him but could not deliver this month, every cent that he could squeeze out of him." Lovely business, isn't it? "However, under the rules of the Board, as they have since been formulated, a corner is now practically impossible." How about the above four? But why go on. The people will awake from their dream some time, I hope. Napoleon in speaking with his master of finance, Mollien, strenu- ously argued that those who speculated in the national securities with the anticipation that the prices at a future time would be lower were no less than traitors to France. DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 83 I agree with Nalopeon, and will state further that he who sells short the food products of the world, thereby defrauding the farmer and provision packer, is a traitor to his brothers, and to his country. John F. C. Merrill in an able article tries to bolster up speculation in wheat, etc.: "Tested by these alone, I submit that unlike gambling and similai to the operation of insurance, speculation in the grain and produce trade of the world is amply justified by its economic contributions to the public good." Mr. Merrill, do blasted homes scattered all over our land properly justify this? Then he proceeds to "pass the buck": "If it is illegal, or immoral, to sell something, the title of which you do not at the present time possess, or, to buy something which you do not expect to use, but only to result as you hope at a profit, then whatever its economic benefits, speculation in the produce trade or in any other has no reason for existence." If the majority of this nation consider it moral to depress the value of another man's goods, and by deceit and chicanery rob him and take away the means of properly bringing up a family ; our nation should be pitied. No, Mr. Merrill, the majority is growing very fast, that condemns this option farce not only as immoral but also as a swindling robbery. SPECULATIVE GAMBLING OF THE MOST RABID SORT GEANT AND WARD FAILURE IN WALL STREET IN 1S84 The Shame and Pity of It CA IJGHT Like Fish in a Net WMEKE T.I-lEY ARK HYi-'NOTlZED Like a Leopard's Tail, Rooted to the Spot and, Spotted to the Root "And I saiv three unclean spirits lil^e frogs come out of the mouih of the Dragon, and out of the mouih of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet." — Rev. 16: 13. CHAPTER SIX Short Selling and Other Errors Here is one explanation of short selling, which is perhaps some- what paradoxical. It is sometimes difficult to try to sell wheat which you do not own, to some one who does not want it; and after he gets this mess of wind pottage, wishes he hadn't it; so he sells what he hasn't to some one who does not particularly desire it, and thus repeats the process of elimination. You can easily see where we are at. It reminds me of a "Round" in music, that we used to sing in "Ye olden tymes" ; and also reminds me of a song a dear brother of mine used to sing, in "Yankee Land"; one in the lighter vein. The text dilates upon the adverse charms of an affinity, as having "a mole on her cheek as red as a beet, it looked like a big cod fish ball", and "Her mouth when it opened looked like a mouse trap, it worked on a spring I suppose." "But then she's a beauty long side of my wife, and to-morrow I'll get a divorce, and the secret it, I don't mind telling you, I'll marry this young girl of course." The Chorus is the point in question, and runs as follows: "Now you know what I know, and what my wife don't know. She don't know what I know, but what I know you know; If you tell her what you know and also what I know. Then she'll know what I know, what you know, also." And there you are. It is the short selling manipulators at Chicago, that get you. They are willing to sell you wind, which they do not even own, any day 'of the week, and on Sundays, if they could. You try to sell Short a few bank shares, that you do not own, and see where you would land. But why is a bank more sacred than the proprietor of a wheat and corn field. Is he not just as worthy of protection? Think of the graft and drain upon the people, besides the robbings. The commissions to brokers besides the tribute to the manipulator, 86 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION amount to millions. Seats upon the New York Stock Exchange, have sold from $25,000 to $1 00,000. The latest price I believe was about $75,000. That of the Chicago Board of Trade is from $25,000 to $27,000. Remember that the victims pay for most of this. The manipulator has his work done for him at a special discount rate. Davis says that more wheat has been sold upon the New York Stock Exchange in one day than could be delivered in twelve months. At that rate some day's work of the Chicago Board, would take several years to deliver. Take Cotton Gambling. Not one bale in a 1 ,000, is delivered. One man declared in 1 894, "that for the last twenty years, the South has been defrauded of $500,000,000." To return to wheat. It is interesting to note how ingeniously Dragon Junior starts a future option, say from six to eleven months before the option has to be settled. One day you will notice there was a call for some month not quoted before. This may be the only call for a week, or there may be a call for this option for several days and then a respite. This mode is carried on for a time, until a regular trade is set up in this option month. Wash sales are used to create a new option. As previously remarked, the person who hangs around the Board Quotations, becomes h}TDnotized and soon is lost in the confusion of figures and changes. When he does act, he acts about as the manipu- lator desires him to; that is, on the opposite side from what the manipu- lator is working. How often have I noticed this. Remember that you are hypnotized into a state of believing that the market is going higher, when the trend of the market is all the time going lower. This trend you have lost sight of, if you ever had a vision of it at first. It was useless to try to convince those hypnots, as I call them. The Dragon's power was uppermost. You become bound hand and foot. By what means? By con- summate deceit and chicanery. You become abject slaves. Well did Burke utter these words: "The people never give up their liberties, but under some delusion." We have here one of the most pernicious of delusions and snares. Much of the telegraph advice sent out from Chicago and New York, should, if absorbed, be taken with large grains of salt. Also take little stock in the advice that is spirited over the wires to the papers, as valuable. Our Manipulator has had much of this news DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 87 for so long a time before you read it, that it has grown an extended beard. He has the best bureau of statistics in the world, and makes use of this valuable (?) news, days and weeks before it reaches you. Has "cooked news" sent by high salaried "bright sparks" from Argentine, India or Paducah; as they used to start "bunk" news from St. Peters- burg to Germany ; thence to reputable banks in London ; thence to the world, in order to fool them. This Dragon takes advantage of war, various calamities, fire, flood, disease, wrong reports by our Government, and leaks from the same source, disseminates wrong crop grossip and telegram dope. Pulls out Green Bugs, Hessian Flies, Chinch Bugs, Rust, Drouth, Smut and "Bob" Weavil. Creates wash sales. That is, appear to be buying, when he was selling ten times as much through other brokers. Closing the market one day, leaving the appearance as if when the market would open the next morning, it might go to perdition, getting as many traders short as possible; and when the market does open next morn- ing, you will find that it is from one to three, ten or twenty cents higher. Thus you are ham-strung, and vice versa, high closing and a smash at the opening. You might as well throw your gold into the middle of the ocean as to expect to ultimately see your money again. Here are how the farmers are fooled. In June and July a farmer sees the September option at a premium and concludes to wait to sell, but as September comes nearer, down comes the price of wheat, cash being depressed and futures exalted, the elevator man taking the dif- ference in profit. Then again, in low priced times the farmer raises small crops, and manipulator takes advantage of this, and vice versa, in high-price times. They will stoop to anything to gain their ends. Once a Keene Broker received an order from New York to sell three million wheat; and after the market closed, found that a bear clique at Chicago had forged the order. Some years ago, farmers of the Central West, asked some manipu- lators at Chicago to start a corner, and furnished money to help them. They received a present help. BUT ! they placed a noose around their necks, and it has been there ever since. I hear you say, some gain and have success. Yes, but such a small per cent. You hear of these, but how few of the thousands that lose. Do you wish to take your chances with 98 per cent, losers 88 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULA TION and 2 per cent, gainers? Like Wall Street, a list of the Shorn Lambs are never published. I am one of the tens of thousands of unlisted, that have been fleeced during the last fifty years, and I am not ashamed to stand up and say so. However, I would feel ashamed if I should be so fooHsh as to don the noose again. As some hyphenate might say, "It vas de phools ve vish to zave, don'd it" ? Young gentlemen, if error ever suggests to you, that you might be One of the 2 per cent, immediately say, "Get thee behind me Satan." And don't stop there, but administer a good swift kick, for good measure. After what I have shown you; how you have no chance at all in this business of wind and water ; how every move is made to fool you and, practically every card is marked; how, when you try to save yourself, you are balked at every turn, until your margins are pared here, hewn there, and in despair you collapse into utter confusion. Do you want to engage in battle with this ferocious beast? If, with this knowledge, gained by practical experience, you do ; you will deserve whatever you receive. Anyone who has read articles written by Thomas Lawson for the last seven or eight years, and then grapples with the New York Stock Exchange, deserves whatever treatment he may receive there. Along with you own mistakes, there may be an accident (some- times made on paper) that will occur. The members of the firm that has your rnargins in hock, may disappear like schooners that enter a fog. In case of Bucket Shops, they often disappear like manna before the rising sun. You rarely have any recourse. The Government can't seem to issue any power to return lost margins. The Government should be made to pay these losses for having licensed such institutions. The Bucket Shops are disappearing like the Red Men, and likewise speculative gambling at Chicago and other cities must get into the procession. It is only a matter of time. But we should hasten the time and save our misguided people. As Rogers was the wire puller and master of Standard Oil, and at the receiving end of the greatest Information Bureau in the world; so is Dragon the master of the Chicago Board of Trade, and at the receiving end of the greatest Crop Information Bureau of the world. DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 89 Some time ago, a broker of some fifteen years' experience, said: "Speculation as carried on now, is devilish business, and will be stopped by the Government in time, at most, a few years." But he further said, "What can I do, that business is about all that I know, and I must care for my family." (See Appendix II., No. 1). A former broker declares that the option business is "injurious and in- iquitous." What better evidence can you have. Generally at this epoch. Dragon is securing his profits by smaller ranges of prices; and enormous deals of speculative holdings. War or famine gives an excuse for a wider range of prices, as in the present war. You may ask why, after all this knowledge was gained, I did not speculate and become wealthy. This is easily answered. For the special reason, if for no other: I never had the requisite capital. I very well know of the various pitfalls that beset one, requiring capital to bridge. One must be prepared for bear raids, washes, matched orders, stop loss orders, stop-hedging offsets, cross orders, kickbacks, shake-outs, trailer knockouts, over-night freeze-outs, snuffouts, the last one to five minute squeezes at the end of an option, which might be called the Devil-and-all-outs ; and other surprises too numerous to mention. Any way you get out after your margins have been wiped out. This situation reminds me of a Scotch story, which space forbids -my giving. I have been asked why, with all this information, I did not head a syndicate. I could probably make fortunes for those who had $100,000 to back deals. I probably could teach them to be a little more sane in their rabid speculation. But of what use would it be to them outside of proving that there is a system to the gambling at Chicago, and to beware of it. Would they stop after they had tasted a little of suc- cess? I think not. Aside from the moral aspect of being a partner with the robber; suppose I should, and make a few tens of thousands for them; in a short time they would feel that they could go it alone, and I am positive they would come to grief, and become unfitted for sane duties of life. They would not be able to stop. It really becomes a disease, and continuous gambling is sure to financially wreck them, if they do not become mental wrecks. In proof of my statement that they can not keep away, I give the following: A well-to-do bondholder in Iowa cleared up $2,000,- 000 in cornering pork during the Franco-Prussian War. After this success, he traveled right back, and soon lost it all. The wife said 90 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION that "all she ever got out of the Two Million, was a Hall Carpet." You can credit Dragon with the remainder. A sign of moral improvement, well, well! is the following: A few brokers in New York City are refusing to do a margin business. Others may follow London in requiring settlements every fifteen days. It is the "Lure Of Easy Money." But how low the wage and how hard to cash in; and how much sorrow engendered. Here is what Steele says of women gamblers; he calls them "female gamesters." "Hollow eyes, haggard looks and pale com- plexions are the natural indications of the female gamsters. In short, I never knew a thorough paced female gamester to hold her beauty two minters together." Ladies, beware! Lost 5W.cp 15^4 Lamb^ %^ Drho can I^noto it" — Jer. 17: 9. CHAPTER EIGHT And Yet More Tricks Played Upon the Lambs Bear says: "Ninety-nine cases out of one hundred are simply betting on 'futures', or 'options', or 'forward sales'"; and this, mind you, is carried on, at Chicago, in the name of "business." It is said that delivery is contemplated. At first, deliveries were made. That now is the farcial side. The losses are the real and serious side. The day of the Plunger may be past; but the greatest of all produce gamblers, will go on until the Government stops him. No combination outside of the Government can stop him. Mark these words which I utter, after having carefully followed his manipulations for thirty years. Lately, a Broker of wide experience, slated that 85 per cent, of money put up as margins, is lost. Another broker of enormous deals, said, in confidence, although such matters were secrets of the profession; that "out of the hundreds of thousands placed with him by confident 'investors', only 10 per cent. (10^) ever re-entered their pockets." If that is not swindling, I do not know what swindling is. In answer to my question, if $5,000,000 were lost during some excit- ing day upon the Chicago Board of Trade, the first broker replied, that $10,000,000 would be nearer the truth. Think of this, friends, paying $10,000,000 for the privilege (?) of trading in r»ind. What can our Government say for itself, to allow this enormous loss while nothing substantial is given in return; but on the contrary, suffering and ruin. He also stated that in good speculative times, "an average of $100,000 to $200,000, depending upon conditions and stimulant in front, are yearly taken out of each Middle West and Western State. — Put it millions from Illinois and New York. Here are some of the many tricks of daily or weekly occurrence. Bear in mind that the main idea of Dragon is to fool you, and he may DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 101 play the same game for two or three days, and then ring in another change. At other times he will ring a change every day. Whatever he or his henchmen believe will fool you the easiest at that special time, will be worked. Take pork, for example, if he wants to run in a lot of shorts that are out (he knows at what figure they are short, and what States they are from) he gradually runs up the price, then one fine morning, he buys up all the hogs at the stock yards and at advanced prices, and perhaps opens wheat high for an additional scare, and the fright- ened shorts rush to cover, of course at a loss, and when he has run in most of them, he will ease the market. Following this, he will whiffle the market back and forth, until he gets in a parcel of longs, and gives them a run for their money, pursuing the opposite course as to the rise and fall of daily prices. Here is another. Suppose that by sending out a raft of enterpris- ing "dope", he has influenced a lot of people to "go long" on pork, or he may be long and they have "caught on" that he is long. How will he shake them out and into his hands? Very easy. He will stay away from the hog market, and there being no call for piggy, down goes his price. There may be circulated a rumor that there is no "foreign demand", or France or Germany are going to place an embargo, or there are tremendous "stocks on hand." The hog price is held down so purchasers will sell their product to Dragon. You see the trick is, when you wish to buy pork, stay away from the hog market; and if you wish to sell, carry the price of hogs to a top notch. There are so many statements and actions of this nature that can be wired in all directions. Then he will force wheat down on "curb", so as to have some influence from that quarter; and as a last crack at opening, his henchmen will sell a lot of short wind pork, so as to start the ball "a rolling" ; and away she tumbles, one or two dollars. At this state of the game he buys back the short wind he has sold and takes all that is offered, and quickly rushes the price up if not out of sight, well beyond the price that any one desires to pay. Or, he may take all the pork offered at opening, perhaps thousands of barrels, if the longs have a fit or a fright, and throw over; and then let the market remain steady for a time. There are so many elements of varied nature that a manipulator can trump up. Unless you are a mind reader, you are at sea. Apparitions, which he throws upon the 102 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION screen, get you nearly every time. Is there any protection against such a thief? Certainly there is. Keep away from him. Whether it is easy or not for you to keep away, depends upon your reasoning powers and force of character. The general run of traders do not seem to realize that Dragon can be long and short of the market at the same time. For example, he was short of December Wheat all the way down and at the de- cline was buying at the same time through other brokers. At the open- ing of December month he ordered his shorts settled up and increased his long side, and "up she rises" for 20 or more cents. Then he sold short blocks of "wind" to prevent the market from going much higher, and at the proper (?) time he will order these settled or perhaps let them run until the end of the month, when all deals for that month must be settled. What becomes of his long options? Well, the "big shorts" will be delighted to come around and have a heart-to-heart talk and private settlement with him; that is, if they agree to "pay the price" and have a good bank balance to assist them. Three Schedule of Tricks Here is a Schedule of Tricks, played for two weeks, during a quiet market, giving the general trend for each day, an irregular checker- board. Here is where the general trader gets mixed up and completely loses the trend (wide sweeps of values) of all the markets; and that is just what Dragon is after. Day — Wheat Corn Hogs Pork Monday Up Up Up Down Tuesday ..Up Up Steady Up Wednesday ....Down Steady Down Down Thursday Up Up Down Down Friday Down Up Steady Down Saturday Down Up Steady Steady Second Week Monday Down Down Down Up Tuesday Down Up Down Down Wednesday ..Up Up Down Down Thursday Steady Down Up Steady Friday Up Up Up Up Saturday Up Up Up Steady Etc. Sometimes Dragon will allow the market to go as it naturally will; and all of a sudden, will quickly snap the traders like a whip. DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 103 The market will be worked, or allowed to go untrammelled, in accord- ance with his idea of deceiving the public and incident collection of graft. The following chart, shows the workings during a stirring time in wheat for a week during the "war corner" of 1915. Wheat went to $1.67 and Pork to $20.02: Day — Wheat Hogs Pork Monday Up Down Up Tuesday Up Up Up Wednesday Down Up Down Thursday Up Up Up Friday Up Down Down Wheat $1.67 Saturday ._ Down Down Down Pork $20.08 From this, wheat was smashed by Dragon to 891/2 cents; pork to $13.02, and millions were extracted from thousands of the duped. The following is for the week when he finished pulling down pork for $7 a barrel, from $20.02 to $13.02: Day — Wheat Corn Hogs Pork Monday Down Down Down Down Tuesday ...Up Up Up Up Wednesday Down Down Steady Down ($13.02) Thursday .Down Down Down Up Friday Up Up Up Up Saturday ...Up Down Up Down Now Mr. "Easy Mark", can you get the best of these speculative labyrinths? If you can, you can "pick a winner" in most any bunco game. I will not further pursue this roulette phase of the gamble ( ? ) . You can carry this on as long as you please. The pickerel have been caught, the bipeds milked and the lambs shorn, and the play is over for the week. Piggy has been slaughtered and sold for an hundred times, "all of him but his squeal", and that is still echoing "O'er the lea." To-morrow comes "dull Sunday", for the unhappy stripped, or yet dangling, victims of cruel Dragon and his Juggernaut; and "the mourners go about the streets." We will, however, follow these with one concrete example. Here is what Dragon accomplished on Monday and Tuesday, December 6 and 7, 1915: He had been quietly laying in a stock of long January Option pork, and saw a good chance to get packers and speculators to sell against him. 104 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION Monday, the 6th, he worked it so that 80,000 hogs were shipped in to Chicago and thousands in to other places. Down went the price of porkers. Did he let pork down? Not but a fraction of a dollar, and bought all that was offered. He easily pulled wheat up to $1.20. Now the trap is set, and we will see what happened on Tuesday. Forty- five thousand more hogs for Chicago. Piggy thought still less of him- self on Tuesday than he did on Monday, although he was just as fat and full of squeal. Dragon smashes wheat four cents. With this deluge of depressing facts thrown in their eyes — packer, pork speculator and hedge seller rushed to sell what they had and what they hadn't, and Dragon buys all that is offered (either kind, wind or real, don't matter to him, in pork and lard) and at the same time rushes the price up a dollar, so that only those that are forced to buy to save themselves will trail after him. The shorts who were trudging after were obliged to pay from one to three dollars a barrel more for wind which they had originally sold at a much lower price ; which is, of course, a loss to them and a gain to the master manip- ulator. And there you are. You would play the same game yourself, wouldn't you? That is, if you were a gambler and were running the deal, and had all the trump cards in your own hands. How easy. Dragon is simply repeat- ing history. Dragon Senior played this same old game 30 and 40 years ago. Some confidence game, eh? Works just as well now as it did then. Of course it will, you dupes. "Oh Lord, how long?" My dear pork speculator. If you had in stock thousands of bar- rels of mess pork, and probably several thousands of the wind kind, and you saw 60,000 to 80,000 "root hog or dies" sweeping into the stock yards, squealing "to beat the band," and wheat marking the toboggan, you would sell out P. D. Q. or wire an S. O. S., wouldn't you? Re- member Dragon would be disappointed if you didn't; and, of course, you wouldn't disappoint him for the world. No, of course, you wouldn't. I'll bet you wouldn't, because your wobbly and agitated cerebellum would never allow you to be so wise. You poor fishes, how I pity you. The following is the paper dope as to causes, etc., that was pub- lished the morning of the 8th. "WHEAT RELAPSING FROM HIGH POINT. First Break in Upward Tendency Caused by Mill- ing Estimates. MARKET GROWS GROGGY. Prices Weak and Strong in Turn and Supply Only Bull Factor. No head lines for pork and lard, which was the main issue in the pits for that day. In the DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 105 fine print we read: "Provisions were sharply affected by reports that Germany (deceived Germany, now the butt of nearly every one) was buying lard and pork. Big receipts of hogs were ignored (?) and the market ascended to about the highest prices yet this season." And the fat is smeared over our (?) eyes. You see what a farce it is to one who knows the game. What was said on Saturday following: "Pork higher, traders paid no attention to the fact that hog receipts for the same period were the largest on record." Dragon knew that big receipts would be the order of the day, and that it would be a good time in December to buy January Option and force them upon the shorts. What happened to wheat at the end of December? The last day the price of December Option went to $1.2 7 J, and the belated shorts (whom the daily papers wrongly dubbed "belated longs") settled, after which the price dipped that same day to about $1.20^ at the close of the Board. Pork meanwhile was steady and on Monday, with the heavy receipts of 80,000 hogs, the public sold, expecting a decline, but Dragon said: "Not so, I will raise it up on them"; and he did. They rushed to cover and he sold to them. Now having plenty of "longs in the market," on Tuesday he let prices off. This is called "milking the market." Can not one gain anything? You might secure a "scalp" once in a while, but being prone to "let your losses run," you would soon be "wiped out." "Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall." Old Dragon Senior was a rough old cur. It used to be the game to rush the market up or down, until several failures occurred; then a cessation would be ordered, so that firms could adjust their accounts and settle partially or fully. Following this, the campaign for boodle would begin again. The deals are now carried on more smoothly, and the money taken from the people with less incidents of failures. These excerpts, from thousands, are enough to show one phase of the workings of the hypnot factory, known as the Board of Trade. Hypnots, do you recognize these cellular effusions from the prolific gray matter of our versatile Dragon? I do not seem to hear a "Hip, hip, hoorah" from you. Now while senior manipulator was pilfering millions upon the one hand, was he using any of these to better the condition of those who slaved for him for pittances? It seems not. Hear what Prof. Kennedy 106 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION of the Chicago University, formerly of Cornell, a practical sociologist, says of him: "The low wages, granted by this manipulator, carry in their train insanitary housing conditions, child labor and high mortality rate. Of the deaths in the stock yards district, he said 30 per cent were due to tuberculosis. The expenses of the average unskilled worker's family, he asserted, were shown by investigation to run $200 a year beyond absolute requirements. Thus children and wives were sent out to make up the deficit, or boarders taken in to further befoul the air of already crowded cottages." Mr. Kennedy declared, "The committee refused to publish these facts." In this Mr. Kennedy "thought they erred." [How mild!] Look upon this and then upon the delightful "Pullman Tenements," a little way out of Chicago. In Pullman we had a man and not a boodling buccaneer. I understand that, forced by public opinion, this boodler's son has improved conditions. Here is an immense fortune built up from piratical robbings : and should it not go back to the people ? Did the Chicago Board of Trade subscribe to the elevating ideas put forth for the betterment of mankind by the Christian Endeavorers at their last meeting at Chicago? Not so. They even tore down the decorations which had been erected in their honor. We do not need the gambling section of this institution, nor the branch offices in our midst. Most of the work is gambling, impure and complex. I'll warrant that the option or marginal trading, as far as Chicago is concerned, in many branch offices is 1 00 per cent to no per cent of passing the commodity. And as far as their relation to Chicago is concerned, they are Branch Bucket Shops, for I hold that the Chicago Board of Trade is now run by one person. And if it was not, the mem- bers accomplish collectively, what the bucket shop does singly. Leave aside all arguments as to this phase ; the point we as citizens of the United States wish to know, is this: Are we treated fairly and squarely in this so-called "business"? Considering the fact that we secure no profit, and considering the fact that we are robbed of 85 per cent of the funds sent on to Chicago as backing for our misguided opinions, you will agree that it is a mighty poor business proposition. And further, I ask you fairly and squarely, if there can be a Tvorse one foisted upon us? Should we not banish it from our midst at the earliest opportunity? A suitable bill should be prepared for Congress to consider at an early date. DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 107 We are making a hue and cry of promiscuous gambling in our midst, and hauling scores of victims up to the docket. Are these re- spectable "sub-hoppers" of Dragon's throughout the States disturbed in their genteel occupation of seducing our hypnots? Not on your tintype. We should not allow Marginal Trading in our country. We are simply sending money to Chicago to be grabbed by Dragon, and to feed these roistering renegades. Before closing this chapter, I am going to refer to the migrations of a star in another constellation of this wind and water firmament, which should have been noted in Chapter VII. Many of my readers will remember the artful Cassie Chadwick, who, among other trump cards, played Andrew Carnegie as her trustee, godfather and even father; "the most colossal female swindler in the annals of crime in the U. S." A criminal with excess of aliases and de- ceits, from Bigley to Mme. DeVere and other French names, through Layliss, Hoover and a host of other names, until she settled upon Chad- wick, poor fellow; playing the hypnotic role with comet brilliancy. It took a Boston Yankee to ferret her out. She had a penchant for diamonds, pearls and grand pianofortes; buying eight of the latter on one order. Her chiefest joy was in deceiv- ing the heavy weights of the financial arena, especially bank presidents [aping Dragon Senior] and she succeeded admirably. So much for Cassie. Peace to her ashes, now inclosed in a portion of the Canadian home plot, seven by three. Mr. Carnegie, with a merry twinkle, said that "Mrs. Chadwick had demonstrated one thing. His own credit must be good, when his name signed to a paper, even by somebody else, could conjure a million and a half out of bank vaults." Now the bipeds I am exposing, are, and have been for forty years, engaging in this arena both heavy and light weights; working the same sort of slick game; with this difference. He and his dad have done their work a little smoother and saved the boodle to back their swindles ; while Cassie spent her capital injudiciously, and incidentally came to grief in prison, where our Government should incarcerate the present Dragon. ONE OF DRAGON'S SUB HOPPERS Thou Hast aided Dragon in the Financial 8Iaushtei- of Hundreds of Thousands SEATTLE IIYl'NOT BOARDS HOW THE STATE OF WASHINGTON HAS SUFFERED AT THY HANDS "Beloved, believe not ever^ spirit, but try the spirits whether the^ are of Cod; because man}^ false prophets are gone out into the world."- — ■ Ut John 4: 1. "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, malting the wise simple." — Ps. 19: 7. CHAPTER NINE Remedies Proposed by the Author Some have asked what should be done? There are ways to get at the Dragon; some being very costly. One way would be, the educa- tional system, as adopted for the stamping out of the saloon. Lecturers sent throughout our land would be helpful, showing how impossible it is to make money at this game. My readers, when you legislate an act that no person shall sell for future delivery what he does not own, nor has any immediate prospect of owning, and make it a felony if, under these conditions, one does sell short; the Spider Webs, so craftily woven at Chicago and New York, will be blown to the far corners of the Earth. How foolish it is to waste time and money in order to add millions to one person's pockets already bulging with filched lucre. He does not need it; and we do need this money in our homes to bring cheer, joy, progress in every line. To secure proper evidence would require traders upon the Board, secret service men, and would cost many hundred thousands perhaps: but think of the millions saved to our people. I know how it can be done, but I doubt if the Government will assist. Every million dollars placed in this man's pocket, means so much more hardship and slaving by our working people; so much less for our family running expenses. Most any speculator, trader or broker, if he will be honest with you, will say that I am right in warning you against this Juggernaut and Dragon. My dear fellows, you of Boston, St. Louis, Galveston, San Fran- cisco, Seattle, or any other city of the United States, or of the world, 1 10 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION why do you send good money to Chicago? Can't you lose money enough at home, where it might at least do your city some good? Why give it to a Juggernaut and receive nothing in return? "What's the idea"? Year after year have I witnessed these depredations, powerless to warn the people. As a last resort, I appealed twice to the President, early in 1915. I wrote two letters to President Wilson, which I will not take time to read to you at this point, giving him in a condensed form my views, and showing how this manipulator could be reached. His secretary wrote that he would present the matter at the earliest oppor- tunity to the President. I now doubt that he ever received the letters. If he did, I suppose he preferred to send his secret service men out after more counterfeiters (which, of course, must be done) who were making a few bogus dollars, rather than send some one to get evidence about this multi-millionaire robber who thinks it good picking to "rake in" from ten to twenty-five millions per year out of gambling in wheat, corn, oats, pork, lard and ribs. If with $5,000 on paper, and wig-wagging the market in a little over one year, I could show a credit of about one million and a half by following Dragon; what can Dragon do, backed by $500,000,000, milking the market just as he pleases and no combination strong enough to prevent him? Even our Government is a weak and impotent equation. I presume that this master robber will continue his piracy for some years yet. It is a long road that has no turning. I also wrote to a leader in Progressive Economics Society, which met at the Panama Fair, but received no reply. I wrote again. He answered that he had nothing to communicate. He added that he "Hoped that I was waging a sane and constructive campaign for better social justice." How lovely ! Dragon is so well intrenched that no one desires to tackle him. Of course, the quickest way to stop his piling up ill-gotten gains, is for the public to quit trading in options. That is the prime object of this book. Success attained, then would the fangs of this Dragon be drawn. You know how difficult it is for some men and women to stop betting on horse races, poker and bridge whist, after acquiring the habit, and for men to quit entering the saloon and other questionable places. It will be more difficult to stop gambling in the prices of our food products, as it seems to be quite the proper caper for his lordship, unless the Government steps in and roots it out. If this money was distributed equably among our DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 1 1 1 people, it would be less damnable, but it is not. The most of it goes into the hands of one man, and millions of it carted off to Europe. Thus is the prospect of the old game of master and slave being brought us: a game we are trying to abolish. On this late rise in wheat, from 88f cents to $1.67, although he lost at the beginning, he has made many millions beyond his losses. He will probably clean up from fifteen to twenty millions at the close of the May, July, September and December deals; and from forty to fifty before the close of the European war. How about the income tax and other taxes he has kept from the Government? I wonder where the inheritance tax alighted? In the letter to the President I spoke of the May Wheat Deal, and it was carried out as I prophesied; also the July, September and De- cember Options. When July and September came, and farmers had their wheat ready for the market, the price was from 30 to 40 cents lower. Judging from my past experience, I have these deals mapped out for the next six or eight months, and believe that I know the trend of the market, as it will be forced by this fellow. Why after all these years, have they not ferreted out this fellow's game? Because of the ever-changing herds of innocent lambs. The brokers will not expose him. His continuance means their material support. Thousands of our young men do not know that it is gambling, because it is carried on under the cloak of "Business." Boys who have been left considerable property are drawn in. They are the easiest gulls to manipulate. What does the Dragon care for the farmer whom he induces, by crafty bulletins circulated throughout the Slates, with other subtle manipulations, to sell his wheat, corn, oats and hogs at the wrong times* and at poor prices. He is in it for the boodle, and as long as the Gov- ernment allows him and his associates to rob the people, he will continue. The habit has become chronic for many, many years. As to the eco- nomic side of this speculative drama, it certainly is dark and full of devastating terror for the Iambs who are yet to be shorn. The citizen who enters these portals is sheared singly, and that not being enough to satisfy his kingship, all of us are sheared collectively. Why pay a double tribute to him from whom we receive nothing in 112 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION return. Our bleatings should ascend straight to the halls of our great and glorious Government." Why did the Anti-Option Bills of Butterworth, Hatch and Wash- burn fail in the Fifty-first, Fifty-second and Fifty-third Congresses? The leading bankers, merchants and manufacturers opposed them, which more than offset the popular support. It seems strange that a government that we believe is the nearest perfect of any, should license such a stupendous evil, cloaked under the title of business. The older I grew, the more I desired to uncover this evil and to protect our people, if they will allow me to protect them, and to urge the repeal of such an abominable license. The outcome of this form of gambling, where one gains and the other necessarily loses, although garbed under the deceitful cloak of business, is a curse to both parties thereto, and a curse to our country. Is it not deplorable for one to be allowed to deceive and rob us? As Bryan says: "So popular has it become for a few to act for a large number that we see some men collecting enormous sums from them. How much can a man rightfully collect from society"? He certainly is not entitled to collect from us hundreds of millions, giving wind in return. A few citizens should not be allowed to harm society. Neither should one person be allowed to destroy thousands of homes for his own selfish interests and additions to his fortunes. It is asked: "Why will they play with him"? I also ask: Why will people drink and patronize the saloon, when 2,000 a day are murdered in this way? It is the appetite (inherited and natural) for drink. It is the appetite for gambling. A disease, you may call it. Take away the means of grati- fying those appetites (change the thought) and the appetite gradually disappears. Take the Liquor Traffic. Capital, $1 ,000,000,000. A business 'of $2,500,000,000. Two thousand bodies a day are destroyed by drink, drawn from 5,000,000 drunkards, recruited from 20,000,000 moderate drinkers. And these, think of it, recruited from our boys. Eight billion dollars loss of efficiency. No wonder we want to get rid of the saloon. If we could eliminate the Saloon, Dope, White Slavery, and Food Product Gambling, what a happy country ours would be. And when our people are as well informed upon Speculative Gambling, it will be a wonder if they don't demand a repeal of this evil. DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 113 Yesterday, Dragon smashed the market 9c and to-day 1 4c more, why? Either to shake out the "tailers" which the bunk talk of "em- bargo," then "submarine," etc., gave him an excuse to carry out before our people; or, he was afraid that the boycott might lead to a rigid investigation of him and his servant, the Chicago Board of Trade. Four sets of margins were swept into his hoppers and several hundred thou- sands the "cleanup." He had been gradually preparing for this for seevral days. Watch him for the next eight months as he will shake many millions out of our hypnots. Here is a gross error that is carried on with malice and forethought, especially designed to swindle first the producer and then the consumer; and these swindles are deliberately and supinely licensd by our own Government. When our Senators and Representatives can sit in the cushioned chairs of the halls of Congress, as god-fathers of these enormous swindles, without batting an eye, there must be something "rotten in Denmark." WHERE WE SHOULD EXPECT RELIEF A FEW VICTIMS (CELEBRATED: AND OTHERWISE) OF RABID SPECULATION His LasL Wheat Deal "Bluwn Busted and Blighted Out", Dreaming ot £"^ J-"*^! '^SP^ S""^"^ t— 1 en a; 2 1— ( a H A: Gambl r Goveri ears, an .tal; can X t-H Q z Z u W t« >> >, 05 z, o ca D s'^-a •s:s ^-■^ < tn Id J < O < F A Spec nsed 5r Si to t 1.° O P United States lore that a Form of "Options," and Lice has continued for ovi g Millions each year 11 < en z 1—1 < e. st this ort Sel -6 the Hom ngly again sm of "Sh "2 "0 < uJ ID H O THE Dep eof ling ddin ^ it an [jJ ct; , .:53 « Q « — B 2 CL, "1^ §--^ 00 3 X ,— 1 z c '"m- S S . u -£ tn ril cj 1-. n C J- _c J Presid: the uni st, unde Form t People, and A herewit under t § c« n3 rfi d - ii WJ >t3 O to HI To THE We in our mi Thi from our Disruptio We carried 01 C ta lU 43 o -I en OLIN LIBRARY - CIRCULATION i DATE DUE JOL S ''Qi^ lA ^^ »,«H«H«t';«W-«*-'*^"'' ,^>^^m- ''. m^ l^Ji^Ji^ ^W - JUiH Z 3 2003 1 1 1 1 1 ~ ■t i |j r i:' \ t i X * GAVLORO PHINTEDINU.S.A.