The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1877-09-27
The Bears i'm Wheat.

"A COUPLE OF weeks ago the ITsOUne gave
the farmers a warning not to be deluded
by the speculators who were selling wheat
short of the current price for future de-
livery. While the bears were selling it
down, down, down, till it reached Oh
cents for September delivery in Chicago,
we told the farmers of the Northwest that
wheat was about the best thing they could
hold for while, and that the only way in
which the bears would be able to reach
their expectations would be by panic
among the farmers to rush wheat to the
market and get what they could for it.
We reminded them that the wheat crop
was short in almost every part OF the
globe except In the Northwest, certainly
short in California, England, France,
Holland and the Atlantic coast of Europe;
that the Black Sea product would be cut
off altogether by the Turko-Russian war;
that the Indian famine is sure to cut a
figure in the demand; in one word, that
there was only one certain and abundant
supply, viz, in the vast wheat crop of
the Northwest. Nevertheless, the bears
went on beating down the price. The
1'rSbune's article was timely. 1t was wide
ly copied throughout the West; the farm.
ers quickly apprehended the soundEess OF
the advice, and have acted upon it.
We desire now to reiterate that advice
with the confirmation of its sOundness
which events have already afforded. The
gentlemen in this market who sold down
to 81 Ii cents are confronted now with the
cash price Of $1.1G, and they will be
obliged to buy in at something like that
figure if the farmers keep cool and send
their wheat along slowly in response to
81, L.. av~I V<>rI,
bears have been caught along with the
Western bears. The spectators in that
market have until recently confined their
operations to stocks; but the stock mar
ket became SO badly demoralizcd that
there was no more speculation in it, and
they turned their attention to grain. Their
experience of late years in stocks has
taught them that the short-sejler was pref
ty sure to win, and stocks were pretty sure
to keep on going down. They have
sought to apply the same rule TO wheat,
making no allowance for the generic diff
ference between a watered railroad stock
and the stuff the world lives on. They
have been badly bitten. They undertook to
sell the farmers produce which they had
not yet bought at prices lower than the
farmer was willing to accept. The farmer
was not consulted in the matter at all.
The New York bears did not own the
property they have been selling. They
were trading on the substance of other
people, And now they have been brought
up with the round turn they deserve.
They have begun to send out their orders
to Chicago and Milwaukee, and to scOur
the Northwest to buy in the property
which they have agreed to deliver this
month. Our advice to the farmers is still
to held on, selling only enough wheat to
meet the legitimate demands, and at q
good round price. The New York
ssshorts'' who have agreed to deliver
there in September must buy the property
here in the West before the 10th to get it
there. Let them sweat, to use homely
but expressive phrase. The farmers have
no interest in helping ont of a bad place a
lot of gamblers who formed a conspiracy
to put down the product of the West. 1t
is good time to teach them a lesson.
Let them cOnfinc themselves to their
wildcat stocks; the West has no interest
in that sort of thing. But they should be
taught, if they are going into the grain
business. they must go into it legitimate
", and that any combined effort to sit down
upon the West and squeeze the price Of
Western products to suit their speculative
necessities will always result in their get
ting squeezed themselves.
Beside teaching the New York bears a
timely lesson, We shall be sorry if the
farmers find occasion incidentally to teach
Chicago bears lesson at the same time.
Chicago's interests are identical with the
interests of the West, and they are best
promoted by securing good prices for the
Western products. The bear tendencies
of New York may be accounted for, per.
haps, because New York represents the
local consumption of the Eastern States,
and the desire to compete on vantage
ground with other markets of the world
in selling to Great Britain. But this is a
year when the bears in breadstuffs must
step aside or 90 down. There is an in
creased foreign demand, shortage in the
other great wheat markets of the world,
and the Northwest has an abundance OF
supply. It is duty the farmers owe to
themselves and the whole country to make
the most of these exceptionally favorable
conditions. With prudence and good judg-
ment, they may realize enough on this
years crop to pay of, or materially reduce,
their Indebtedness, and lay in better
stock of goods, supplies, implements, ETC.,
than they have bought at any time since
the panic. The whole country. will share
the benefits. 1t will be the beginning Of
the end of hard times. The merchants,
the bankers, the railroads, the lake marine,
the manufacturers, the workingmen-all
will prosper upon an improved condition
of the agricultural classes. Those who
seek to defeat this for speculative pur-
poses Of their own are enemies of the
country, and will deserve no sympathy
when they come to grief. All the farmer
has to do is to keep cool and regard his
wheat in hand as the most valuable COM
modify to-day on earth; the result will