San Francisco, Oct. 24.
California grape growers. were, shown tovlay to have suffered a Toss. this season of G$1,500,000: by manipulation of Eastern markets.
'A group of men posing as prohibition agents stopped trucks which were proceeding from various Eastern terminals and asked where the rapes, with which the tracks were foaded, were bound.: They said that they were operating under orders to keep a check, There were, as a result, many cases where drivers, who. "feared later arrest, promptly did an about-face and took their cargoes back to the terminals, declining to handle them and allowing them to lie in imminent danger of spoiling.
Following this development, the market price dropped from G#52_ to $42 0 ton.
When the price reached $42 a ton, unknown buyers stepped into the market and" purchased the entice supply eagerly' through agents.
Dr. James M. Doran, Commissioner of Prohibition at the head of the Bureau of Prohibition, declared. when questioned that. "none of the several prohibition forces had been engaged upon any such checking enterprises.
Observers accordingly believe that the Whole scheme was engineored by a group of speculators who took this ingenious method of driving prices down—United Press,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.