The Biggest Check Ever Written
A staggering 225,000-bushel wheat sale by George Drumheller sparks a frenzy of trading, turning the city's streets into a bustling theater of politics and grain prices.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The largest individual wheat sale ever made in the Northwest was closed yesterday afternoon when the George Drumheller lot of 225,000 bushels, mostly club wheat, was sold to the Jones-Scott company at $1 net per bushel. As a result of the high market, scores of other farmers let go their holdings, and it was conservatively estimated that over half a million bushels of wheat had been sold. There were probably more farmers in the city yesterday than any Saturday in years. The streets were crowded for hours and the sole topic was wheat and politics. When the Jones-Scott company issues a check for something like $225,000, it will be the biggest check of its kind ever written here.
“The streets were crowded for hours in the afternoon and the sole topic was wheat and politics, with odds in favor of wheat.”
The spectacle of a record commodity sale dominating the town’s pulse echoes the boom-and-bust cycles that have defined the Tri-Cities for over a century. While the technology of trade has evolved from physical bushels to digital derivatives, the raw hunger for growth and the political influence of major landowners remain constants.
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