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exchanges, and was duly assured that they didn't make prices. They talked much about supply and demand, and would have had their inquisitor believe that nobody made the price of wheat, but that it was mysteriously precipitated out of the atmosphere, like rain. That was rather too penumbral for the man who simply wanted to know:

"Why is my wheat only worth sixty-seven cents in San Francisco? Why does the man who produces plows and shoes and shirts make his own price, while the man who produces wheat takes the price somebody else makes?"

The Liverpool people said they received crop reports from all the world; and they didn't attempt to pass him along to somebody else, as San Francisco and Chicago and New York had done. Wherefore Lubin became convinced that his answer was right here in Liverpool, and set about to find it.

THE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE WHERE LUBIN COULD NOT LEARN "WHAT MAKES THE PRICE OF WHEAT?"

"Can't tell you; we don't fix the price of wheat in Chicago," they explained.

"Then who does fix it? When a man makes a plow or a pair of shoes, he makes the price, and I pay it. But when I make wheat, I don't fix the price, and I can't even find out who does. Who decided that my wheat was worth sixtyseven cents in San Francisco?"

The Board of Trade officials weren't sure; Chicago got its quotations from the New York Produce Exchange. "You'd better go and see the Produce Exchange," they advised him.

In half an hour, Lubin was on train for New York. There his experience was a repetition of what had befallen in San Francisco and Chicago. The big men of the Produce Exchange didn't fix the price, and couldn't tell who did. They hadn't thought much about it. But every day they got quotations from Liverpool, and perhaps in Liverpool Mr. Lubin could learn what he wanted.

The first steamship had Lubin on its list. He saw the officers of the Liverpool

The story of his inquiries is not important to us; their result is. He found that in Liverpool a small group of men controlled private systems for gathering crop information from the whole world. These called themselves dealers; other people called them speculators; Lubin decided they were gamblers. The information was carefully guarded, and the public received only such condensations and synopses as they chose to give out. For the greater part, the crop information trust didn't take the world into its confidence. It made the primary quotations which became the basis for San Francisco's, Chicago's, New York's, and every other market's price.

Having the original information before anybody else, these men enjoyed especial advantages. Having first information, they made others pay tribute to them. They knew when to buy, when to sell; they gave the public as much or as little of their precious information as they

THE BROTHERHOOD OF BREAD

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chose or as would serve their purpose. Their power of exclusive knowledge enabled them not only to make the world's market, but constantly to manipulate it to their profit, and to the cost of the grower and consumer alike. Though they could not repeal the law of supply and demand, they frequently bent it sadly.

Studying carefully their operations, Lubin saw that these men made the Price, and were the Market.

"I have found it," he decided. "A few men with knowledge rule the world, and the world, without knowledge is their victim. They make the producer sell as low as possible, and the consumer buy as high as possible."

FRANK M. BUNCH, PRESIDENT OF THE CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. THE CENTER OF THE WORLD'S

So Lubin decided that what those speculators did for their own profit, the world ought to do for all its people. He developed the idea of a world's clearing house of crop information, bringing all the nations to a council board on which should be charted, day by day, visible supplies and prospective yields. With no distortion, no suppression, no manipu

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prices, and shake itself free from the golden grip of the information trust.

"It is good," decided Lubin. "I will go to the President, and get him to initiate a movement for an international crop reporting service." But on reflection he saw that the United States could not lead, because it was the greatest seller, and buying nations would suspect a plan to force higher prices.

No more could England lead, for England was the great buyer, and controlled the market. Producing nations would fear that these market-making Englishmen wanted to depress prices, while consuming nations would fear a plan to raise them.

At last Lubin decided to take his case to France, and set off for Paris. There, leaders of economic thought gave encouragement, but France was on the verge of its contest between church and state, and the statesmen had no time for other things.

Sadly disappointed, Lubin determined to try Rome. Of all the world's capitals, it could most appropriately underwrite

GRAND RECEPTION HALL IN THE PALACE AT ROME, HEADQUARTERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL INSTIENTERPRISE OF

his enterprise. The new Italy, fighting to establish a better civilization on ruins which everywhere testified to the failure of an older, would understand. He would show that the old order, founded in selfishness and greed, had passed, because it had been found wanting. The new order, if it would endure, must be grounded in fraternity, brotherhood and co-operation.

"If I could only get to the King," he thought, "and have the Power of the Tongues upon me!"

In Rome, Lubin met Professor Pentaleoni, of the Chair of Political Economy in one of the universities. The fates seemed determined to make our Jewish immigrant at last the servant rather than the jester. Professor Pentaleoni granted a long interview. Lubin was received in a room in one corner of which sat a simply, almost roughly clad man. He was not presented, and took no part in the discussion.

That was one of Lubin's good days. The power of the tongues was upon him.

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GIVEN BY KING VICTOR EMMANUEL. AS PERMANENT
TUTE OF AGRICULTURE, FOUNDED BY THE
DAVID LUBIN.

Pentaleoni heard his plan, and presented every conceivable weakness. Lubin smashed all objections; explained every uncertainty; brushed aside every quibble. Lubin won Pentaleoni, and forgot the insignificant person in the corner.

But the mysterious stranger was none other than Guglielmo Ferrero, greatest of contemporary historians, the most popular and the most profound latter-day student of ancient and mediaeval Italy, as Lubin learned when, a few days later, Dr. Ferrero published a dramatic story of that interview. The man who had studied most carefully that greatest problem of Imperial Rome-the problem of finding and bringing daily bread for the city which styled herself mistress of the world-not only gave indorsement to Lubin, but reinforced his argument with a richness of analogy and historic citations that set all Italy talking.

The shop-keeper of Sacramento became the lion of the hour. The government sent for him. Signor Tittoni, afterward Premier, and Signor Luzzatti, minister

ENTRANCE AND CENTRAL FACADE, PALACE OF
THE INSTITUTE.

of finance, interested themselves. Providentially, Luzzatti was a Jew. Lubin was told that the government was ready to initiate an International Conference, to work out the plan. But only the King could invite other sovereigns to send delegates. Mr. Lubin must get King Victor Emmanuel's indorsement! And in due time an interview was arranged with that monarch. It marked a great event in Lubin's life.

There may be less conventional people in this world than David Lubin; but not many. Panic seized him when he was told that he must wear a silk hat, and accommodate himself to court etiquette. He was duly drilled in the tremendously important art of carrying his silk hat hanging over his thumb; in the ceremony of entering the royal presence; learned that under no circumstances must he turn his back on the King; and was assured that to sit in the royal presence would be an international scandal. His audience was to last five minutes; and to overstay it would surely cause an ejectment whose horrors he was permitted to imagine.

"Cinque minute; cinque minute"; they kept impressing upon him; and when he

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KING VICTOR EMMANUEL OF ITALY, WHO GAVE THE INCOME FROM TWO OF HIS PRIVATE ESTATES TO FURTHER LUBIN'S

PLAN TO SOLVE THE GREAT WHEAT PROBLEM.

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Another minute, and the king entered. Lubin, scared almost to death, looked up into the grave and kindly face of Victor Emmanuel, forgot in that instant all his etiquette, thrust the silk hat under a table, and strode forward with outstretched hand.

"How do you do, your Majesty? My name is David Lubin, from Sacramento, California, and I have business that is very important to you."

A Á smile crossed the face of the king, and there was a twinkle in his eye as he replied, in excellent English:

"I am glad to see you, Mr. Lubin. Sit down and tell me about this business."

But Lubin did not sit down. Instead, the shopkeeper from the States led the king to a window, and waved his hand

to call attention to the panorama of the Imperial City.

"Your Majesty," he said, "these ruins tell of that which has passed because it was not good. Will you have your new Italy, your new Rome, to be great and enduring, or will you have your newer civilization crumble in dust upon these older monuments? Would you be king of an Italy of liberty and brotherhood?"

The King motioned his attendants, and they withdrew in despair at this invasion from Sacramento, California. "Cinque minute, cinque minute!" they muttered hopelessly.

I cannot tell much about that interview between the King and David Lubin. But "cinque minute" lengthened to two hours, and at the end of the long interview the lackeys were horrified by the spectacle that burst upon them.

For the door opened, and out walked Victor Emmanuel and David Lubin. The King held Mr. Lubin's hand in both of his. They were both talking, now; and when the boy from the Ghetto and the desert and the store by the stilted side

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