The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-08-31
QheG9telti4e1rter
Flour anu GraIn-.Lower Prices In
eYItRbIe.

From The Chicago 7TMeS.
The dropping condition of the pro-
duce markets is still their most promi-
nent feature, and the leading subject
| OF discussion and speculation in busi-
ness circles. We are aware that there
is an honest difference of opinion in the
minds ofgrain dealers as TO the course
of values within the next week or two,
and that many persons have the most
I unbouuded confidence that present val
ues will be sustained, if not advanced.
Our opinion is very decided, neverthe-
less, that the reverse will be the case.
II is argued that the markets through
out the country are comparatively bare
of supplies, and that they can absorb
an immense amount of grain, before
they can be, in any seuse, giutted, and
that speculutors have put out large
lines of "shorts," which will create an
artificial demand, sufficient to preserve
prices from any sudden or extreme re-
duction. These facts may be all true
enough, AS stated, but we have no con-
| fidence in The conclusions accompany
Ing them, for, TO our mind, they seem
overstrHined. We have just had one Of
the finest harvests known in the his
lOEN OF LulS GOuHlIJ.a III islluNSu IO-
Calities the yield may have been de-
ticient, but generally speaking, this
country has never gathered such har-
vest as This one, and the markets will
be Influenced by the pressure of a
much larger supply of grain than they
have ever before known. The mere
/ force and influence OF this increased
supply would be sufficient to carry
prices down, were there no other cir
cumstances or influences to consider.
Prices here were, indeed, we'll main
tained until Friday, through the efforts
of few operators and the influence OF
a liberal shipping demand on millers'
account, but the receipts have become
so enormous that prices could not be
sustained, and within two days we
/ have witnessed decline OF 2Oc per
bushel in wheat, and a heavy reduction
in all other values. During the past
week over 2. 400, 600 bushels of grain
about 0o,0OO bushels daily-haye been
received in Chicago, to say nothing OF
about IS, 900 barrels of flour. And next
week, or, at the fnrthest, week after
next, will see these receipts nearly
doubled. To turn the course of an ava
lanche with reeds may be possible, but
10 dream that the operations of specu-
/ lators can influence the course of
market into which such "A stream Of
grain is being poured, is the height Of
folly. What If 1t Is old few
hundred thousand bushels. the receipts
OF half to three-quArters of u million of
bushels daily will sweep away the
straws with which fools seek to stem
the resistless current. l.
Besides, money will be close during
the remainder of the season, and, even
il 1t were possible to sustain present
prices with proper facilities for an un.
interrupted movement of grain toward
the seaboard, they cannot be sustained
with the money market in its present
condition. With the present prices,
such vast sum OF money would be re-
quired to move the crops eastward that
the movement would be necessarily
slow and difficult.
Grain operators will have about all
they can attend TO in providing for the
daily receipts as they come in, and
when any great accumulation OF grain
takes place, AS it must take place when
the movement Is slow, its weight will
break the market, and all who seek to
sustain it, and the higher the price is
the less grain it will lake 10 accom-
plish this result.
Then, again, freights will unques-
| lionably rule much higher towards the
close OF the season, ns they always do,
I and the eastern market under the inhu-
| ence of more liberal supplies, will rule
| ensier, and both these causes will de-
4 press the markets here and everywhere.
! All these things, and others which we
! might mention, point to an inevitable
| decline, and, when the speculative in
| terest throughout the country realizes
! this tendency, and throws its strength
/ into the scale, all these agencies will
| acquire n more resiStless power.