Potato Spree

A sudden rush to buy potatoes turned Chicago's Mercantile Exchange last week into a madhouse. Sweating and shouting, scores of traders jammed the potato arena, in a single day bought a record 479 carloads (normal day: under 10), whanged prices from $3.10 to $3.75 per 100 pounds.

After an hour's trading, the panting ticker printed only the latest price, was hopelessly behind on volume. The Exchange's 15 bookkeepers worked until 3 a.m. to settle the day's business--biggest in the 21-year history of the Exchange.

For this strange spree, most Chicago spudmen credited the Government's own bulletin (Demand & Price Situation), which predicted: "somewhat higher prices this winter." Potatoes were in a cheerful statistical position anyway. This year's harvest will be 374,000,000 bushels, 24,000,000 below last year, with demand way up. (Not only are Army and Navy big buyers, but canned or dehydrated spuds soon may go to Britain.) Also entrancing to speculators was another fact: there is no such thing as a potato carryover. Since potatoes cannot long be stored, each year's harvest must be eaten soon or not at all.

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