The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1889-08-23
Short Crops and Home Markets.

Mr.. J. S. Moore writes n letter from
the far West to the New York Times,
not, however, signing himself in this
instance "a Parsee Merchant" and
probably being unwilling to add "a
aliases. Mr. Moore is ''the farmers
friend" when he is in the West, just as
he is 'the merchants friend when he
is in the East, but always and ever the
Golden Clubs champion and advocate.
1t is rumored that the wheat crop will
be somewhat short in Dakota, and
thereupon Mr.. Moore reminds the
farmers of the West that their dimin-
ished crop will have to compete in
Liverpool with the wheat grown by the
ill-paid ryots of India and peasants of
Russia, while what they buy with the
price of their wheat will be the pro-
duct of the well-paid and protected in
dustries of America. Therefore, says
Mr.. Moore, the farmers should labor
for the abolition of tariff duties.
We think that the farmers will be
quick to detect the suppression of the
truth and the suggestion Of a lie in Mr..
Moore's latest effort on behalf of the
Golden Club. For if it were true, and
it is not wholly true, that the price Of
American wheat is fixed in Liverpool,
it would also be true that the price in
Liverpool would depend upon the sup
ply, being high when the supply vas
scanty, and low when it was abundant.
Now, although the American farmers
find q home market-thanks to protec-
tion-for nine-tenths of their crops, yet
the surplus of one-tenth which they ex-
port furnishes Liverpool with its chief
supply of wheat. So that upon the
greatness or smallness of the American
crop Liverpool prices depend. This does
not look as if Liverpool fixed prices
absolutely. But if the Dakota crops
are short there will be shortness in
the Liverpool supply, consequently
prices will go up. Consequently the
Dakota farmer may receive as much
for his scanty harvest as for previous
%plenteous harvests. And if the great
home market which protection has Gre
ated did not consume nine-tenths of
all American farm produce the greater
part would have to go abroad, thereby
swelling the Liverpool supply and
reducing prices permanently. Even
with short crops the supply from our
Western States would make wheat a
drug in Liverpool if the millions of
people engaged in American manufac-
lures, and in the selling and transpor-
tation of them, did not reduce the
surplus which would remain after the
food supply for the farmer and his
animals had been provided. Mr..
Moore suppresses this important truth,
but the farmers are shrewder than he
imagines.
They also know that most of what
they buy from the American manu-
facturers whose capital gives employ
ment to the millions who consume nine
tenths of all the farm products is Of
better quality and ofnot greater-often
of lower-price than are English goods.
Plows and reapers, oil implements of
agriculture, are cheaper in any coun-
ty seat of the West than III London or
Paris, and SO is household furniture,
and 70 is tea and coffee. Clothing of
all kinds, except silks and broadcloths,
is quite rs cheap in Omaha, Yankton,
or Bismarck as in any city Of England.
Besides which, when MI. Moore
lauds the enterprise and growth
of the West, as he does in glowing
terms, he gives the Golden Clubs case
away. Commercial sctiyity and rapid