The daily gazette., 1881-08-17
WEDNESDAY,, AUGUST II. 1881.

last edition it commences a paragraph
with the odd assertion that "The
Stars IN their courses are fighting
against the syndicate Of liars" and
proceeds to apply the lash as follows
"The members of that worshipful
company here and abroad have labored
with indomitable energy and no little
skill to prove, among other things,
that England would require no Ameri.
can wheat this year, and therefore tha,
the American railways would have no
business to do. As will be seen by
our special cable dispatches this morn
ing, the Agricultural Gazette admits
that while 81 per cent. of the wheat
acreage in England will yield an aver
age and per cent. of it more than an
average crop, the yield of no less than
Al per cent. of the English acreage
will fall below the average. Mr.. Glare
Sewell Read, tho best agricultural
authority in England, warned the
crop prophets some time ago against
being deceived by the appearance OF
the standing grain. That he knew
what he was talking about is made
very clear in the Mark Lane Erpress,
which says that the first threshings
are thin and that the crops yet stand
ing are threatened by mildew. In
France the wheat crop is below the
average. The attempt Of the syndi-
cate to dishearten the American far
mer by pictures of glutted European
market have not been more successful
than the effort to frighten him into
believing bis own teeming wheat fields
to be bare and barren"
There is scarcely doubt that the
World is right in its denunciation of
the traders and speculators in grain
and all other produce that is shipped
to Europe. The ''bears'' upon the
wheat and produce exchange have
adopted the practices of the 'bears''
on the stock market, and hereafter
should our exports continue to run up
to such high figures, we may look for
almost as many "bears" and sbullsu
dabbling in the grain and produce
market as there were bulls and bears
about the stock exchange. The Syn
dicate of liars' whose assertions the
World aims to contradict in this in
stance refers to the agricultural in
terests of the whole country. The
"tricks of trade" are manifested in
this way and every industry is subject
to the "artful dodgers" that flow in
the currents which carry forward the
great natural laws by which at last it
is conducted to successful ends.
But what is to be the consequence
OF the European grain harvest? Let
us suppose that the Syndicate of
liars" which The World refers to NAV
have hit upon the truth by accident,
are the farmers of this country to lose
the entire export trade of products
and the balance of trade thus to be
placed against usp This Is possible !;
but we think it is not at all probable.
The exports of the country have be.
come SO varied and numerous that IL
would be difficult to set the balance of
trade against us should the harvest of
Europe prove as plentiful as repre-
sented. All our products that are
shipped to England are retailed in the
market as low as the products of that
country and an immense trade has
arisen in them occupying the greater
part OF the attention and labor of
many merchants and shippers. 1t
would be difficult matter to destroy
this trade by forced enactments BY
Parliament, and it could only be done
after an appeal to the people through
an election. American -four, wheat
and meat might by tariff laws be ex-
cluded, we grant. But this could not
De done without severe battle at the
ballot boxes. In a contest of this
kind many occupations would be found
taking part. The iron ship builder,
a. well as the merchant, capitalist and
consumer would be interested. In
fact 1t would involve the whole manu.
featuring class. To raise the price OF
food by excluding American products
would require that the price of EN-.
ployees should be advanced in the
very teeth of the strife which is now
going on in England to compete with
American manufactures. This would
not answer. Resort might be had to
Russia for wheat. But this would be an
unprcftable change. The commerce
Of England has erected laws that may
not easily be changed. It might be
easy TO get additional grain from Rus.
sla, but that would amount to little in
competition with the great commercial
operations that baye settled down into
an established trade, requiring the
services of millions of operatives and
involving the use of hundreds of MI
lions Of dollars annually. Gould it be