Wheat

Veteran grain men are already declaring that the present "bull movement" in wheat is the most wonderful one in the history of the trade. Cash prices have been driven above $2.00--a figure reached only in the years 1864, 1866-9, 1888 and 1916-21. During the years 1884-87, 1892-96, 1899-1903 and 1906, the price of wheat did not even reach $1.00 per bushel. Its highest quotation was reached in 1919, at $3.50; while the lowest quotation was seen in 1895, at 48 cents.

The continued advance is attributed to unexpected purchases by Russia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Austria. The Orient has scrambled to buy the Australian wheat surplus, while that of Argentina has been scraped up by Portugal and other European countries. Most of the recent U.S. profits have accrued to speculators and traders rather than to the farmer who sold out freely between $1.25 and $1.50.

The soaring price of wheat, however gratifying to U.S. hollers and growers, is proportionally alarming to consumers. Labor in this country is prosperous enough not to feel the higher cost of bread unduly, but in Great Britain and the Continent--particularly perhaps in Austria -- the soaring cost of breadstuffs constitutes a serious economic, social and even political problem. With predictions of $2.50 wheat in the present movement, it is likely that this consumer situation may grow worse before it becomes better.

Arthur W. Cutten of Illinois, trader in grain, reputed to have made 15 million on paper in the present bull market, is celebrated for his efforts to avoid celebrity, to hide his light under a bushel.

Possibly it amuses Trader Cutten to see the agents of Russia, Bulgaria, Turkey and Austria anxiously watching their credit against the time when he decides to sell. A cartoon once depicted him -- a thin, awkward composed figure -- standing upon an elevation from which, with deprecating gesture, he tossed down handfuls of grain to grubby statesmen who scrambled for them at his feet. Ludicrously exaggerated as this depiction appeared, what it implied was, as a generality, correct; nor did it err in what it suggested as to the thinness, mildness, composure of Trader Cutten. Such a man he is. He lives on a dirt farm in La Grange, Ill. He always answers questions, though sometimes cryptically. He does not brag. Once he was a clerk in a hardware store. Now he is reported to have 10,000,000 bushels of wheat and rye at Great Lake ports.

"The world needs wheat and, as long as it does, prices will go up," says he.