COMMODITIES: Tearful Earful
In Chicago, which, in Ojibwa, means "wild onion place," onions were indeed running wild. So many carloads of onions poured in and jammed railroad yards and warehouses last week that the Association of American Railroads slapped an embargo on further shipments. Reason for the glut: farmers had held their onions off the market in hopes that last autumn's cloud-high prices would reach the stratosphere (TIME, Sept. 26). But when the prices started to drop, farmers hurriedly dumped their holdings. Under the avalanche, prices collapsed. From a high of $5.05 a 50-lb. sack last September, onions skidded to 44¢ last week, lowest price since trading began on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in 1942.
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