Trials and Attempts

With sympathy and determination, Secretary of Agriculture William M. Jardine went to Chicago, turned his attention to the Chicago Board of Trade, the great market place of U. S. grain.

Words:

"Such an organization as the Board of Trade should not have anyone from the outside attempt to clean it up.

"When there is a 15-cent spread on the price of a commodity in one day, there is undoubtedly gambling going on. It has gotten so that a great many people believe that the Board of Trade is a nuisance from the way it has been running wild. The gambling should be eliminated.

"The Board has a place in this country, with its dealing in grain futures. But I think it should be cleaned up--and cleaned up from the inside. It has a lot of good men in it who want to clean it up and I see no reason why outsiders should butt in."

Actions:

1) Installed a new Federal Supervisor, John T. Caine, to do away with friction between the packers and the Eastern commission men.

2) Promised that, if any evidence of grain price manipulation were uncovered, he would prosecute to the limit, according to the Grain Futures Act ($10,000 fine and one year in prison).

3) Announced that he was looking forward to possible reorganization of the Grain Marketing Co. (Great Combination of grain-marketing companies--Armour Grain Co., Rosenbaum Grain Corporation, J. C. Schaffer & Co., Rosenbaum Bros., Davis-Noland-Merrill Grain Co.--organized, last year (TIME, July 28), to be taken over gradually as a cooperative organization by farmers) with the purpose of "retaining the confidence of the farmers," vital to the success of the Company.