114 TO PREVENT SALE OF COTTON AND GRAIN IN FUTURE MARKETS 
Senator FERRIS. He expects to receive a compensation though, 
does he not? 
Mr. VALIER. Very often. I know it took me fully 10 years, I 
being right in a collateral business, to really understand, when I 
was younger, what is known as put and call, and when I finally un- 
derstood it I had a good deal more respect for it than I did before, 
because I found many places where I could use it to advantage for 
my own business, and in fact we were much gratified to see the 
Supreme Court’s decision knocking out the exorbitant price which 
practically prohibited put and call insurance. Frankly, we would 
hate to see our industry thrown out in the open for its raw materials, 
where we could not buy this insurance to protect ourselves. 
So FERRIS. You have a system and you do not want to part 
with it. 
Business men as a rule are conservative, and if they have some- 
thing that they like, they are not going to take something that 
involves certain risks in exchanging? Is that it? 
Mr. VALIER. I think that is very true. We are like everybody 
else. We get set in our habits, if we are using a certain thing. Then 
I want to say this, Senator. This would be taking an about face in 
our business. With all the attacks of legislation, I have never been 
able to study out anything that has ever been offered that is equal 
to it. 
Senator FERRIS. Nothing in a cooperative line? 
Mr. VALIER. No, sir. Because I have seen the expenses of co- 
operation. I saw it in 1893 in Illinois. I know what it cost the 
farmer. I know what cooperative marketing to-day is costing the 
farmer in some sections. I am not familiar with other parts of the 
country. I do not think that anything ought to be destroyed until 
there is a better substitute for it, and I have never been able to read 
out of any of this proposed legislation, or any that has now been 
legislated, anything that is really better than our condition, except 
one thing. I do think that the Capper-Tincher bill and the arrange- 
ment made with the department for business conduct committees is 
an improvement. The history of trading is refinement down through 
more years than I have ever been in business, always changing the 
rules, trying to satisfy both sides, the seller and the buyer, which is a 
difficult thing. The trading is certainly safe, and that is a great 
deal that you can not say of a great many other commodities, like 
leather and wool and things of that kind, which are not handled in 
the same way. 
Senator RANSDELL. This future contracts system has been in 
existence since 1871, has it not? 
Mr. VALIER. Senator, I am not familiar with that. I think the 
Chicago Board of Trade was chartered in 1851. 
Senator RANSDELL. Perhaps that is so, but this system went into 
effect in 1871. That makes 55 years, does it not? 
Mr. VALIER. The exchange in our city was formed originally, not 
as a grain exchange alone, but it was really a merchants’ exchange 
vears and years ago—I think that was in the seventies—where 
people would come in in common and trade under rules that made 
them safe, and this is what we have grown to out of that theory, and 
I think it is certain if I trade with you and you trade with me we