breadinquiry

A Chicago millionaire, trader in wheat, horseman. There's a bit on him over at Find A Grave. Frank Norris's The Pit was apparently based on Leiter's life trying to control the wheat market; a century later, his legacy lives on.

Leiter appeared at the hearing on the fixing of bread prices. See NYT of Feb 20, 1915 select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30F12FC395C1373...

See note under

His wife is pictured in

The date on the negative is May, 1917, but it appears to be taken at the same time as the group of 1915 Bread Inquiry pictures. Leiter was in the news again in May 12, 1917 in connection with a public dispute with Thedore Roosevelt, and the date probably represents a re-use of a 1915 picture: query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E07EEDE123AE433A... "Roosevelt Resigns From Army League; Leiter Calls Him Unfit to Lead Volunteers" Here is an account of Leiter's testimony on 2/26/15 before the New York State bread inquiry: query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E02E0DC1238E633A...

That's supposed to be an H, not an A. C.H. Canby was a trade broker, head of CH Canby & Co., a member of the Chicago Board of Trade and its president c.1913-14. He testified before a number of congressional committees and his name appeared with some regularity in the press regarding wartime trade, grain shortages, etc; the papers did occasionally type C.A. (e.g. at the end of this NYT article from '21), but they seemed to get it right most of the time (e.g. in the NYT in '15). The following appears in the Thursday, March 15, 1923, Janesville [Wisconsin] Daily Gazette

Retired Broker Dies Chicaco — Caleb Harlan Canby, Sr., 67, retired broker and former president of the Chicago Board of Trade died here Wednesday night from pneumonia.

Unfortunately I haven't found any photos of Mr Canby, so I can't say for certain. But given the dearth of info that comes up for "C.A. Canby", and the fact that the photo before this is of another Chicago grain merchant, C.H. seems like a safe bet.

The Canby from the Board of Trade and Leiter both appeared at the hearing on the fixing of bread prices. See NYT of Feb 20, 1915 select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30F12FC395C1373...

swanq Nice! And now that you mention it, I see that this photo was tagged "bread inquiry"—LOC has uploaded several other photos from the same hearing.

And see note under

Here is an account of Canby's appearance before the State of New York's bread inquiry on 2/23/15: query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C03EFDE123FE233A...

I think an educated guess on this one is that he is Alfred L. Russell of A.L. Russell, Inc. which published the reports of the New York Produce Exchange, a commodities market that traded, among many other things, in grain. In a 1918 Columbia U. publication, he is also identified has having been a member of the Exchange since 1883. By 1918 he was working for the Federal Food Administration Grain Corporation, which was in charge of wartime wheat and grain distribution.
He is probably photographed here at the New York Attorney General's offices, where the inquiry into grain and bread prices, speculation and price-fixing had begun on February 16th, 1915. The Exchange's Chief Statistician, Henry Heinzer testified at the inquiry.
books.google.com/books?id=n44hAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA384&d...