The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-11-18
By the Governor:
JosEPH o. SMITH, Secretary of State.
The Speculation in Wheat.

The present high price of wheat cannot
fail to excite comment even from those who
are not accustomed to watch the move
ments of the markets and are but little af-
fected by the slight increase in the cost Of
the loaf upon their tables, so remarkable is
it and so inconsistent with any apparent
cause, and the inquiry is general. Why this
increase; what will be its effects and where
will it end2 Naturally the mind reverts to a
phenomenal season with short crops of farm
produce here at the East, and it reasons
rnau the wneaT ana gram crops or the west
share in the scarcity of our potatoes, cab
bages and apples. We assume that the pre-
sent high prices of wheat and other bread
stuffs is in great degree artificial and the
result of speculation. Scarcity begets high
prices; but so far as this maxim applies to
the amount of wheat in this country to-day
it is fallacions. The wheat crop of 1880
amounted to 4s9, 100000 bushels, an excep-
tional yield; and we had very large sur
plus over the home demand, much of which
found consumers in Europe. The crop of
1880 exceeded that of 1879 by about 40, ,500,-
600 bushels; part of which increase was
doubtless due to the the greater breadth
sown, as the Pacific States showed larger
acreage than the previous year. The crop
of 1881, according to the most careful esti-
mates is less than that of last year by about
III ,OOO, 900 bushels. This deficiency, how
ever, is partly supplied by the unmarketed
supplies of 1880, which is estimated at 5O,-
1000 bushels, California and Oregon be-
ing credited with holding some S5,000,0OO
bushels. So much for the value of
the wheat on hand for home consumption
and export.
The railroad war appears to be favorable
to almost all sorts of freight except wheat
Shippers are quick to take advantage of low
rates and prices of transportation have been
forced pretty low. They are not high to-
day and are liable to break again at any mo-
ment. The newspapers tell us of roads
blockaded with loaded trains bound to the
Great Britain, up to the first of the present
month were about the same as last year in
amount, but they were largely on contracts
made early in the season. Should the spec
ulators here succeed in forcing the price up,
to still higher figures, as they are trying to
do, we may look for decline in shipments
to Great Britain from the Atlantic ports.
The high prices have already so affected the
Continental demand that our exports in the
months of September and October to the
Continent we're only little more than
quarter of the amount for the same months
in $780, Meantime the Pacific ports have
been pretty busy with wheat shipments.
The freight engagements at San Francisco
during the month of October were over T.
5OO.O0O bushels. Portland, Oregon, has
sent twenty-one cargoes abroad and there
are now seventy-one ships on the way to
that port, which will be due between now
and March. A Portland paper says that 1877
more vessels will be required if all the sur
plus wheat is shipped before the crop of
1882 comes off.
These facts prove that 1t is not scarcity
that causes the present high price of wheat:
it is not the excess of demand over supply;
but it is conspiracy to withhold from the
market and force prices for the benefit of
the ring of spectators engaged in it. The
effect of this speculation is injurious to the
community. 1t prevents necessary distribu-
tion, deprives the great transportation lines
of legitimate business, stagnates labor,
destroys the market for the millions of
bushels now in the hands of the farmers,
who depend upon the ready sale OF their
crop for the means of present living and fu-
ture agricultural operations, and adds to
individual burdens by increasing in so much
the cost of daily food. The evil is beyond
the reach of legislation; it will end, sooner
or later, as all similar gigantic conspiracies
to force up the prices of the necessaries OF
| life have ended heretofore--in crash.
Men never learn by the experience OF 9TH
ers. In this matter history must repeat it
| self again. When we begin to realize the ex-
| tent of our food resources for the coming
year, the people will prepare themselves to
meet the conditions which are forced upon
| them. When the scheme of the spectators