debts, and in the end his brother had given up in despair and had left the city.

Thrown out of work, Lewiston drifted aimlessly about Chicago, from pillar to post, working a little, earning here a dollar, there a dime, but always sinking, sinking, till at last the ooze of the lowest bottom dragged at his feet and the rush of the great ebb went over him and engulfed him and shut him out from the light, and a park bench became his home and the "bread line" his chief source of food.

He stood now in the enfolding drizzle, stupefied with fatigue. Before and behind stretched the line. There was no talking. There was no sound. The street was empty. It was so still that the passing of a street-car in the adjoining street grated like prolonged rolling explosions, beginning and ending in distances far away. The drizzle descended incessantly. After a long time midnight struck.

There was something ominous in this line of dark figures, closepressed, soundless; a crowd, yet absolutely still; a close-packed, silent file, waiting in the deserted, night-ridden street; waiting without a word, without a movement, under the night and under the slow-moving mists of rain.

Few in the crowd were professional beggars. The most were workmen, long since out of work, forced into idleness by the long-continued "hard times," by ill-luck, by sickness. To them the "bread line" was a godsend. At least they would not starve. Between the jobs here was something to hold them up a small platform, as it were, above the sweep of black water, where for a moment they might pause and take a breath.

The period of waiting on this night of rain seemed endless to those silent, hungry men; but at length there was a stir. The line moved. The side door was opened. Ah, at last! They were going to hand out the bread.

But instead of the usual white-aproned cook with his crowded baskets there now appeared in the doorway a new man, a young fellow who looked like a bookkeeper's assistant. He bore in his hand a placard, which he tacked to the outside of the door. Then he disappeared within the bakery without a word, locking the door after him.

A shudder of despair, an unformed sense of calamity, seemed to run from end to end of the line. What had happened? Those in the rear, unable to read the placard, surged forward, a sense of bitter disappointment at their hearts.

The line broke up, changed into a shapeless throng—a throng that crowded forward and collected in front of the shut door whereon the placard was affixed. Lewiston, with the others, pushed forward. On the placard he read these words:

"Owing to the fact that the price of grain has been increased to two dollars a bushel, there will be no distribution of bread from this bakery until further notice."

Lewiston turned away, dumb, bewildered, stupefied. Till morning he walked the streets, going on without purpose, without direction.

At last Lewiston's luck turned. Over night the wheel of his fortune creaked and swung upon its axis, and before noon he found a job in the street-cleaning brigade. In time he rose to be first shift boss, then deputy inspector, then inspector; then he was promoted to the dignity of driving a red wagon with rubber tires and drawing a salary instead of mere wages. The wife was sent for and a new start made.

But Lewiston never forgot. Dimly he began to see the meaning of things. Caught once in the cogs of a great and terrible engine, he had seen its workings. Of all the men who had stood in the "bread line" on that rainy night in early summer, he, perhaps, was the only one who had struggled up to the surface again. How many others had gone down in the great ebb? Grim question; he dared not think how many.

He had seen the two ends of a great wheat operationa battle between Bear and Bull. The farmer he who raised the wheat was ruined upon one hand; the working-man he who consumed it was ruined upon the other. But between the two, the great operators, who never saw the wheat they traded in, bought and sold the world's food, gambled in the nourishment of nations, practised their tricks and shifty "deals," and went on in life, cheerful, contented, and unassailable.

CLASS ACTIVITIES

1. How did Sam Lewiston lose his farm? So far as the story shows, was he in any way responsible for the loss? How would Lyon explain Lewiston's failure (see p. 292)?

2. Explain the cause which is given for the fall in the price of wheat. Why did Lewiston not keep his grain until the price went up?

3. Explain the author's purpose in each of the two parts of "A Deal in Wheat."

4. Read and explain the passage in Lyon's "Wants as a Factor in Determining Values" (p. 292), which refers to "bear raids." Does his explanation agree with that given in "A Deal in Wheat"? 5. Describe Lewiston's experiences in Chicago. Is there a "bread line" in your city? If so, who supplies the bread? If not, how do people out of work secure food?

6. What happens when there are "hard times"?

Name periods in

American history when times have been hard. What seem to have been the causes? (See A. H. Sanford, Story of Agriculture in the United States, 224-234.)

7. Mention reasons why men must buy for future delivery if they wish to succeed in business. Do growers of fruit need to buy trees for future delivery? Do builders of skyscrapers or bridges need to buy steel months in advance? Do dealers in groceries or hardware buy their goods long before delivery? If possible, ask some business men how far in advance of shipment they order their goods. 8. Read the part of "Commerce" (p. 307) which best shows the spirit of the "bears" and "bulls."

9. Which gives a more convincing explanation of the causes for changes in prices, this story or "Wants as a Factor in Determining Values" (p. 292)? Give reasons.

a. Find out how much unemployment exists in your community and what the chief causes for the lack of work seem to be.

b. Find how much the price of wheat and corn has varied during the last two years and ask for the causes of the variation, first, from two farmers and, second, from two dealers.

c. Examine grain prices as given on the financial page of the daily newspaper and tell the class how prices of wheat and corn compare in Liverpool, Buenos Aires, and Paris.

5. BETTER BANKING

ANONYMOUS

In the commerce of to-day banks are almost as important as railroads. This selection gives a clear account of their work and explains the system by which many of them are linked together to serve the needs of business and commerce the country over.

Read the selection through thoughtfully; then read a second time the parts which tell what a bank does, what a Federal Reserve Bank does, and the way the system works as shown by the incident of the Austin grocer; finally, scan the selection a third time in order to clear up any doubtful points.

The Strength of Organization.—It is usually better to work with other people than to work alone. We have clubs, associations, societies for the purpose of multiplying the strength or effectiveness or resources of the individual members. A regiment is stronger than the strength of all the men who make it up. An army is stronger than a mob.

What a Bank Does.-Just so with money. Men work and save, and deposit in banks their savings or the ready money needed for business. In every bank there are many deposits, none of which may be large in itself; but taken together they become much more useful than if they had been kept separately. Taken together they enable a bank to lend its customers the money they need for carrying on their business. Thus the money of many individuals serves the business needs of city and town and the farming needs of the country.

What the Federal Reserve Bank Does.-A Federal Reserve Bank does for banks almost exactly what banks do for their customers. It receives money on deposit from such banks as have become members of the Federal Reserve System, and lends to them. All National banks are members of the Federal Reserve system, and many State banks and trust companies have become members also. Every member bank is obliged by law to keep with its Federal Reserve Bank an amount of money bearing a certain proportion to the deposits it has received from its customers. This is called a "reserve"; as the Federal Reserve Banks keep the reserves of their members they are called "Reserve" Banks.

At times, member banks borrow from their Federal Reserve Bank just as individuals borrow from their own bank. Individuals can not deposit money with a Federal Reserve Bank, or borrow from it; their relation with it is through the member banks.

Before the Federal Reserve System.—Before the Federal Reserve System was in operation, each bank stood virtually alone. This was safe enough as long as everything went well in the business world, but even then the machinery of banking was so cumbersome that it often worked badly.

In order to meet the requirements of law and to pay depositors, all banks used to keep large amounts of gold and currency on hand and most of them also kept money on deposit with other banks in the larger cities. When all went well, the money on deposit with the city banks could be withdrawn in currency whenever it was wanted. But when, as sometimes happened, business or banking conditions were disturbed and suspicion was in the air, the banks were anxious to increase the amount of cash on hand lest an unusual number of depositors might want to withdraw their money. During such times the city banks were least able to furnish cash. For the available supply of currency was limited, and there was no quick way of increasing it.

Defenses Weakest When Needed Most. This limited supply of currency led to the panic of 1907. Moved by fear, almost every one of the twenty-four thousand banks sought, for its own protection, to withdraw such currency as it could from other banks and pay out as little as possible to its depositors. As a result the existing banking machinery fell apart into thousands of separate units.

Each bank had to trust largely to its own cash resources, because, however willing, other banks felt they could not give up much of their cash, for by doing so they might destroy their own ability to meet the possible needs of their own customers. Each bank, in seeking to protect itself, necessarily weakened the entire banking structure. The defenses were weakest when the danger was greatest.

The result was that every few years a money panic occurred, bringing disaster and depression. These money panics from which the United States suffered, and which the organization of the