I have spent a considerable portion of my time since I
arrived in England studying this matter, and this is the conclusion at
which I have arrived."
"My dear Mr. Wingate, one moment," Phipps intervened. "The magnitude of
our operations in wheat has been immensely exaggerated. We are not
abnormally large holders. There are a dozen firms in the market, buying."
"Those dozen firms," was the swift reply, "are agents of yours."
"That is a statement which you cannot possibly substantiate," Phipps
declared irritably. "It is simply Stock Exchange gossip."
"For once, then," Wingate went on, "Stock Exchange gossip is the truth."
"My dear Mr. Wingate," Phipps expostulated, "if you will discuss this
matter, I beg that you will do so as a business man and not as a
sentimentalist. Yon know perfectly well that as long as the principles of
barter exist, there must be a loser and a gainer."
"The ordinary principles of barter," Wingate contended, "do not apply to
material from which the people's food is made. I speak to you as man to
man. You have started an enterprise of which I and others declare
ourselves the avowed enemies. I am here to warn you, both of you," he
added, including Lord Dredlinton with a sweep of his hand, "directors of
the British and Imperial Granaries, that unless you release and compel
your agents to release such stocks of wheat as will bring bread down to a
reasonable price, you stand in personal danger.
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