Commodity Square

Not far from Wall Street is Hanover Square whose name and history date back to George I of Britain. Before the island of Manhattan was extended two blocks into the harbor, ships from all the seven seas poked their bowsprits out over its cobbled quay. In Revolutionary times it was Manhattan's smart shopping district. But since the New York Cotton Exchange was founded on this dingy triangle (1872), Hanover Square has meant one thing only --Commodities. In this area today is bought & sold most of the world's cotton, rubber, cocoa, coffee, sugar; a goodly chunk of its tin. silk, silver, hides. With the exception of coffee, whose roasting fumes drift even into Wall Street's tall towers, only a small percentage of these primary goods ever reach the Square, for the trading is largely in future contracts. Last week while trading continued at the boom pace of the last month the four youngest products of Hanover Square, the Rubber, Silk, Metals and Hide Exchanges, were merged as Commodity Exchange Inc. All four were founded since 1925, all by the same group of commodity traders--Francis Robinson Henderson, who made and lost several fortunes in rubber (last week he had no Rubber Exchange seat to turn in for one on the new Commodity Exchange); Lawyer Julius B. Baer; J. Chester Cuppia. E. A. Pierce & Co. partner; Jerome Lewine, H. Hentz & Co.. partner and president of the new exchange. To other commodities they successively and, with one exception, successfully applied the same principles that they evolved in forming the Rubber Exchange. Their Burlap & Jute Exchange was a failure. The Commodity Exchange's 1,031 brokers will continue to yell, jostle and wildly wave their arms on the same old floors until June when all departments will be moved to the International Telephone & Telegraph Building a few doors west of old Hanover Square. Their new seats. valued at $900 for merger purposes, opened at $2,000, quickly jumped to $2,500.

Comparative commodity prices: Last Last week month 1926 Rubber, Ib $.04 3/4 $ .04 $ .48 Tin, lb. .34 3/4 .25 .65 Silver, oz. . .37 .27 .62 Copper, lb . .06 3/4 .05 .14 Wheat, bu. . .74 .55 1.54 Hogs, cwt . . 4.00 3.79 12.36 Cotton, Ib . .08 1/2 .06 1/2 .17 Silk, Ib 1.62 1.16 6.37 Coffee, Ib. . .08 1/4 .07 3/4 .18 Sugar, Ib. . .03 1/4 .03 .04

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