ad in disapprobation and communing with herself upon the iniquities
of gambling.

"My, oh my! What won't men do for money! Jt-jt! Just look at 'em!
Fightin' like that for money they ain't earnt! An' that nice lookin'
young feller with the intelligent gold specs!--Dear me, it's enough to
make a body sad!"

She could not know that but comparatively few of the traders below were
representatives of brokerage firms which were trading on margins for
speculating clients--that most of the traders were negotiating
legitimate deals in futures for firms who actually had the grain for
sale, for exporters who would take delivery of the actual wheat for
shipment, for milling companies who would grind it into actual flour.

Because trading for delivery in future months affords opportunity for
speculation, it is not to be condemned necessarily. It is the balance
wheel which steadies the entire grain business. Even the speculating
element is not without its uses at times and the layman who ventures to
condemn This or That out of hand will do well to make sure he
understands what he is talking about; for the business of the grain
dealer is so subject to varying conditions and so involved in its
methods that it is one of the most difficult to be found in the
commercial world.

Trading in futures finds birth in the very natural disinclination of
Mr. Baker to buy his flour by the warehouseful. He does not want to
provide storage for a year's supply, even if he could stand such a
large bite out of his capital without losing his balance. So while the
bakery man is anxious to order his flour in large quantities for future
use, he is equally anxious to have it delivered only as he needs it,
paying for it only as it reaches him--say, every three months.

Before contracting for the delivery of the flour on this basis Mr.
Miller must look to his wheat supply on a similar basis of So-Much
every So-Often and he, too, has an eye on storage and, like his friend
the baker, he "needs the dough," as they say on the street, and he does
not want to part with any more hard-working money than he can help.
Accordingly he looks around for somebody who has wheat for sale and
will sell it right now at a fixed price but defer delivery and payment
to a future date. With the price of his wheat thus nailed down, Mr.
Miller can set the future price on his flour to his customers, taking
delivery and paying for the wheat as he requires it for filling his