Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1891-08-13

that much wheat upon the market
But as we understand this new alliance
elevator syndicate plan it will moi
keep bushel of wheat out of the mar
ket. The farmer is to place his wheat
in the elevator and take a receipt
therefor; the elevator man does not
agree to return the same wheat but the
same amount of wheat. In most in.
stances, the probability is that the
farmers would take their receipts for
their wheat to the. banks and borrow all
the money they could get upon them.
The elevator man would inspect the
wheat and place it among a large
amount of other wheat of the same
grade, and when an opportunity offered
he would sell it on the market.
The elevator man will be charged
with the wheat and when it is de-
mandsd by the farmer, he would turn
over to the farmer the same amount of
wheat of tine same grade called for in
his receipt and neither the farmer nor
any one else would know or care
whether it was the identical wheat
stored or whether it was wheat grown
in Dakota or Ohio. The elevator man
has the use of the cash value of the
wheat while the farmer gets the use of
only three-fouTths of its value.
In other words the elevator man
loans the farmer $3.50 on 1000 worth
of wheat which the elevator man the
same day sells for 81 600 cash. He has
the use of this 81, 900 during all the
time the farmer is satisfied with his
$3.50. The farmer of course takes his
chances on rise in the price of his
wheat. If the price goes down he
loses, if up he makes. 1t is much on
the same principle of buying futures"
about which so much fault has been
found by the people generally. 1t is
pure, unadulterated speculation in the
future price Of wheat and the idea that
such a scheme will have the least effect
upon the market is held out solely for
the purpose of deluding the farmer.
AS soon as the wheat is stored in the
elevator the elevator man will be on
the lookout for a market for it and
while the farmer is imagining his
wheat is in store at Kansas City, Chi
cago or st. Louis, it will in fact be
sold, manufactured into flour, shipped
to the markets of the world and the
money for it come back and go into the
banks, and be loaned to some other
farmer under the same conditions.
And when the farmer calls for his
wheat, if he ever should, it will be
there; not the identical wheat but just
as good wheat as that which the farmer
had placed there with tina idea that he
was helping to ''corner the market"
1t is amazing how many foolish
theories people get up and advocate as
something that had never been thought
of before and something away above
the experience of the ages. But how
forgetful people are in this respect.
Thousands of years ago Joseph
cornered the corn market of Egypt.
He did not PIT the corn in elevators,
but in the kings warehouses. He had
it under lock and key. He absolutely
owned all the corn Of that country and
he fixed the price to suit himself. When
the farmers had paid out all their
money and all their cattle to Pharaoh
in return for the grain that was needed
for their support, they sold bim their
land until King Pharoah owned every
thing belonging to farming in Egypt
and to this day the farmers of that
country are tenants of its rulers. Tie
effects of that corner are still to some
extent observable in that land. Gus
toms have been handed down and
modern civilization has not been able !
to change them. Now, the Kansas
farmers, by the plan they propose to |
pursue of placing grain in elevators,
will lose control of the grain. This
Joseph never did. He was smart |
enough to keep the immense supplies
under lock and key. The Kansas
farmers should pursue Joseph's plan,
if they seek to corner the wheat mar
ket with its crop of nearly six hundred
million bushels stored all over this
great country Of ours,