Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1886-12-15
Stauntott Spectator.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER Is. 1886,
An Open Market and Fair Play.

An Open Market and Fair Play.
1t is unfortunate that just at the time the
whsat-producing interests Of the United
States had successfully battled with the alb
sorbing question of being perpetually re-
manded to subordinate or dwarfed relations
in the commerce of the world and to the
position they should hold to the countries
buying bread-supplies, that they are called
to confront another movement, which may
prove as troublesome as the tolls of the one
from which they are emerging. Twelve to
fifteen years ago it was conceded that our
country was the mainstay in furnishing
bread subsistence to these who would have
need to buy, and it is discreditable to us as
a nation when the facts which threw us into
the back ground of this enviable position
are presented. The spirit of unnatural
gain and speculation Familiarity known as
gambling in wheat, by making corners in
the trade, inflicted the heaviest blow we
have ever met in going forward to the full
fillment of our natural destiny as the grana-
ry of the world in production. Directly
from this procedure practised at the great
grain emporiums of this country came the
stimulant that aided the British Govern
ment and the influences in sympathy with
the object of making the determined effort
that India and other countries should be
tested to see if it was possible to render
the United Kingdom and other countries
which had to buy their subsistence from
abroad independent of the United States in
that particular. Unwarrented speculation
here broke up the usual course Of trade,
and for the purpose of gain, by Selling
more than was the share of the interme-
diate agents who passed the crops from
producers hands to the consumers in dis
tant lands, our wheat-growing interests
especially have been made to suffer incalcu-
liable injuries. For several years it ap-
peared that we would have to succomb to
a deplorable fate as the increasing yields
from Asia and other countries than our own
rendered British sagacity and enterprise
superior in the situation.
The test has been made. The wheat
produced in India, the country upon which
the principal reliance of independence
rested, will not meet the requisite in
quality, and the prospect of higher or en-
larged culture ia quite unfavorable. The
grain growers of England and Scotland
have bitterly complained of the policy of
their government which has worked great
injury to them.
Inferiority of the grain on enc hand and
failing prospects on the other have cut
down the hopes for successful competition,
and in this connection should be considered
the fact that the laborers in the India
wheat-felds are demurring to receiving
rice in place of the more Strengthening
food which they have made by their toll
With these adverse realizations, the fact is
also evident that the resources from all
quarters, leaving out the United States, is
only three ourths of the demand in Europe,
and storage places are now empty. which
year OF so ago were overlooking with a
surplus.
If the surplus wheat Of our country can
have fair-play, it will work wonders in be-
half of our farming interests, and become
the handspring in new and quickened
vitality As we come upon the. field to
look as far as we can ahead, the gamblers
are there too. Remembering the setback
received in consequence of their cupidity,
and remembering their ways as the source
from which came long years of discomfort,
apprehension naturally arises when new
move is made from their standpoint. Any
movement which breaks the channels OF
trade regulated by demand and supply, as
fair and open commerce governs them, is
dangerous to the producing iuterests-in-
deed, it may be said is always in conflict
with them.
Recurring to the first paragraph of this
article, reference is made to the new move
ment upon the checker board to consolidate
the North western milling interests upon
the mammoth establishments at Minnea.
polls. To make the worlds milling cent1e
sweeping in its influences and power to die
tate to producers, as it is in its pride OF
name, may prove more fatal than the effects
of the gamblers when they dragged down
cur prospects in the past. This movement
IS not in the interests of legitimate progress
nor will it aid development. The gambler
on the grain exchange will cease in his
personal identity and in carrying the re.
sponsibilities of venture. Anxious study
and eagerness to plan with the receipt OF
the first cable messages, will give place to
the ponderous machinery debating the
price of the farmers product as it enters
the elevators, and with iron-willed mandate
control the cost of bread-supplies as they
are sent forward to feed the millions in
want. The Minneapolis proposition may
net succeed, or if it does in the first features
of its design, the interests which it shal
seek to render subservient to its gains may
be tooSbroad for the censummation of thai
purpose. Mammoth capital may over
reach itself, and it would be a public bless
ing if it did, if thereby is brought about
more milling plants in the interior and thus
increase the number which at last and fol
many reasons is best for producers.
Some may ask Why discuss these matters
that are foreign to our interests? That i:
a mistake. Every farmer in Augusta
county who sells wheat or any kind Of
grain, and every man who buys bread-sup
plies has a concern in them, for they more
or less affect people everywhere who con-
sumo the staff of life. This will be the testi.
mopy of our dealers here at home. In this
connection, we may remark, as we have
often dcne before. that nowhere is there a
finer class of merchants than those who
handle the products of the farming inter-
ests which sustains the prosperous COM
mere of Staunton. Had it manufacturing
industries of similar scope its growth would
be greatly augmented, In close observa-
ton of the Staunton market which is a good