
D. W. Griffith, Biograph, New York, November 1909, photographed by G. W. Bitzer. A farmer sows; a speculator corners wheat; the bakery raises its price and a breadline stalls. Drawn from Frank Norris (The Octopus, A Deal in Wheat), and timely after James A. Patten's 1909 corner. Griffith intercuts the banquet with the queue, comparison rather than chase. Moving Picture World (25 December 1909) called the sowers an animated Millet; the Biograph Bulletin sold the reel as an argument against cornering necessities.
The job: compare. Griffith cuts from the speculator's banquet to the bread line and needs no title to say what he thinks. The sowers are staged after Millet. The ending, in the grain, is the film's verdict.