People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 August 1894 — CORN SOARS. [ARTICLE]

CORN SOARS.

Its Price Suddenly Rises 7 Cents on the Bushel at Chicago. It Reaches 60 Cents a Bushel, 3 Cents More Than Is Paid for Wheat — Great Excitement on ’Change — Country Dealers Making Big Profits. FORCED WHEAT INTO A BACK SEAT. CHICAGO, Aug. 8.—There was a panic in the corn pit on the board of trade Tuesday morning. A week of excited corn markets reached a climax when there was an advance in September options of 7 cents a bushel inside of the first fifteen minutes of the session. Monday that delivery closed at 58 1/8c per bushel and within a quarter of an hour after the ringing of the bell declaring the board open it had sold at 60 cents. The closing price was 59½. At the same time wheat, which closed for September delivery at 54 7/8, had advanced to 56 7/8. Thus the unusual spectacle was presented of corn selling at 3 cents more per bushel of fifty-six pounds than sixty pounds of wheat would bring. The peculiarity of the present tremendous accretion of price is that the shrewd board of trade operators, or at least a majority of them, are losing money by it, while the hundreds of country operators are raking in the profits. One short month ago corn for delivery in May, 1895, was selling at 37 cents per bushel. This advance, therefore, means a loss to anyone who had sold it short thirty days ago at 37 cents of 16¾ cents per bushel. If the quantity sold short was only 100,000 bushels, that would present a net loss to the seller, and, of course, a similar profit to the buyer of $16,750, and there are hundreds of countrymen who are each carrying more than 100,000 bushels. There is no doubt as to the cause of the rise in the value of corn. The continuous drought, accompanied, as it has been, by a phenomenally high temperature, has resulted in such a damage to the crop that instead of 2,500,000,000 bushels of corn, which was at one time promised, not even half of that quantity is now likely to be gathered. This, at least, was the general feeling which produced the panicky condition that ruled in the corn pit. Three and three-quarters cents was added to the price during the previous week’s operations. Almost as much more was added Monday, so that the bulge in tht first fifteen minutes of the session equaled the advance of the previous eight days.