One thing I came across recently on the web was the following paper:
Trading Places: Griffith, Patten and Agriculture Modernity
It's a lengthy academic paper which is largely based upon the film A Corner in Wheat, directed by D.W. Griffith in 1909, but in many other ways captures the sentiment towards grain speculators at the time. The film is only about 15 minutes long:
I thought it would be good to juxtapose some of the photos in the paper of political cartoons with some commentary at the end relating a farmer's perspective towards James Patten. Click on the photos to read them better.
Whereas the farmer's perspective as quoted in the New York Evening Post, 10 April 1909 :
"James A. Patten is the man of the hour in this market and all over the agricultural regions. He is talked about at the corner groceries. The women talk about him over the telephone to their neighbors, they tell of him at the country blacksmith shops, or wherever there is a gathering of farmers. 'He has given us high prices for wheat, corn, and oats, and we are with him,' they say. The coming generation of farmers' boys will be named James Patten Jones, or James Patten Olsen"
Trading Places: Griffith, Patten and Agriculture Modernity
It's a lengthy academic paper which is largely based upon the film A Corner in Wheat, directed by D.W. Griffith in 1909, but in many other ways captures the sentiment towards grain speculators at the time. The film is only about 15 minutes long:
I thought it would be good to juxtapose some of the photos in the paper of political cartoons with some commentary at the end relating a farmer's perspective towards James Patten. Click on the photos to read them better.
Whereas the farmer's perspective as quoted in the New York Evening Post, 10 April 1909 :
"James A. Patten is the man of the hour in this market and all over the agricultural regions. He is talked about at the corner groceries. The women talk about him over the telephone to their neighbors, they tell of him at the country blacksmith shops, or wherever there is a gathering of farmers. 'He has given us high prices for wheat, corn, and oats, and we are with him,' they say. The coming generation of farmers' boys will be named James Patten Jones, or James Patten Olsen"