Sport: The Pit Recuperates

Six months ago, the Chicago Board of Trade was not only “bearish” on wheat but on its own future. Legislators in Washington and in the State of Illinois vied with each other in proposing new legislation to cripple the “Pit.” Farm organizations were calmly planning to take over the grain business in its entirety. Grain traders could make no profits; grain brokers no commissions. Predictions that the world’s greatest grain exchange would shortly shut up shop were freely made.

The extraordinary spring and summer which followed have changed this situation altogether. As long as “bull” speculation rules in grain, legislators keep silent. The farmers are beginning to realize that running elevators and making prices are harder to perform in practice than on paper. Meanwhile, huge advances in grain values have yielded large profits to traders, and commission brokers are active, prosperous, optimistic.

One thing the Board of Trade’s grain market has undoubtedly succeeded in doing this year is to absorb without visible effort the large amounts of grain dumped on it this spring and summer. Leading Chicago grain brokers declare that any other system of grain marketing would under similar circumstances experience violent breaks in prices, and point to this year’s operations of the Pit as conclusive evidence that the Board of Trade markets are efficient and indispensable.