TO PREVENT SALE OF COTTON AND GRAIN IN FUTURE MARKETS 113 
in, and we had no place to put it. One morning we woke up and 
found there was no export market. 
Senator RANSDELL. I understand in North Dakota that year 
there was a range during that period of 75 cents a bushel on wheat 
when normally the range is only about 5 cents. 
Mr. VALIER. I could not answer that, Senator, definitely. These 
other gentlemen can. But I do not think there is any doubt about 
that being true. 
Senator RANSDELL. With the future market prevailing there is a 
very small range? 
Mr. VALIER. Yes, sir; we buy very close in the country from the 
producer on the basis of the cash market. Those margins are So 
close that it is unbelievable to a man not in that line of business. 
Senator SMITH. Has any member of the committee any questions 
to ask? 
Senator FERRIS. I would like to ask if you can imagine what you 
would do if this bill were to pass? You would not go out of business, 
would you? 
Mr. VALIER. I think the first thing I would do, I would stay off 
of the raw material until it came to a basis where I was 100 percent 
sure that it was safe. 
Senator FERRIS. The thing that puzzles me is this. I am just a 
common, ordinary man, with very little experience along these lines. 
As near as I can understand it, you now have a vast number of 
speculators, and those speculators have to live and must make a 
profit on the whole or else they would get out of business, and I am 
puzzled a little to know what effect that has on the producer. I am 
a little puzzled to know how there can be a large number of specu- 
lators who are living and some of them getting rich, and the con- 
sumer be benefited. That puzzles me a little bit, as a common ordi- 
nary man. : 
Mr. VALIER. My personal opinion, Senator, is this. Of course, 
this is getting off my beat. I am in the milling business and all I 
do is to utilize the facilities to protect myself as an insurance feature. 
I do not think that the money is made in speculation that lots of 
people think there is. You must remember that for every long there 
is a short, and for every short there is a 1ohg. 
Senator FERRIS. Still they continue in business. 
Mr. VALIER. No, sir. 
Senator FERRIS. There are some new fellows come in, then? 
Mr. VALIER. That is it. I have seen men come with fortunes, 
men who have retired from other businesses, and go broke even on 
our exchange, which is a small exchange compared with others. 
Senator FERRIS. Then they are doing a benevolent business? 
Mr. VALIER. They do not intend to. 
Senator FERRIS. No; but that is what it amounts to. They are 
making great sacrifices in order that the producer may live. That 
is certainly commendable. 
Mr. VALIER. It is a fact that the future trading is not understood 
by 1 percent of the population of the United States. That applies 
to cotton, and any of these other commodities, sugar, and all the 
rest of them.