Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1891-08-11
The Question of Grain Specu-
latiOn Considered.
Facts and Statistics Plainly Presented
The Holding of Farm Products for
Reasonable Prices Urged
Upon Farmers.

posed to have been circulated secretly,
is given below. 1t is lengthy docu-
ment, but on account of its great I'M
portance will repay careful reading.
The full text of the paper is as follows:
The farmers alliance demand unani-
mously that the speculation for future
deliveries of cereals shall be prohibited.
The greatest competitor of the farmer
is the speculatOr, and his competition is
not at all fair, because he sells what he
has not got. and can sell unlimited guam
titles, while the farmer has no more to
offer than nature grants to him. The
speculator sells for delivery in anymonth
of the year, and therefore makes 1T un'
necessary for the actual consumer, the
miller and the exporter to lay in sucn
stock as he may consider reasonably
sufficient for his requirements.
The farmer, coming in with actual
grain. finds most of his customers sup
piled by the speculator, with promises
to deliver. He has no choice but to sell
to the elevator man at lower price
than the Chicago speculator has offered
his promises 1t is q competition be-
tween grain and wind, in which the
wind has the advantage, as the wind
crop is never short. The farmer is told
that it is best for him to sell as quickly
as possible, that there is superabund-
ance of wheat, that Europe will pay no
more, and that if the United States will
not sell it Europeans will buy OF other
countries, who would be glad to have
the trade.
Now, there comes in the swindle. In
dia is the only country that has any
wheat to ship to Europe, namely, about
$4,000, 600 bushels per year. All that
they have 70 spare is shipped or con-
tracted for long before our crop comes
into the market, and supplies only a
small portion of the IA, 900, 900 bushels
yearly imported by England alone. Peo-
pie talking about Egypt Australia, Ar
gentine Republic, etc., as competitors
with American wheat are either lgno-
rant or lie, for all these countries to-
gether have not enough surplus for ex-
port to Europe to feed it for three days.
You have probably heard that we'll worn
talk. that now every month in the year
there is a wheat crop harvested some
where in the world. This is probably
true. but it has not a particle OF inf1u
ence on the worlds Market because 1T
is all needed at home, and probably
more too. But no matter how rldlcu-
lous his assertions are, the speculator
succeeds in depressing prices, and
makes a profit. If finally at the end of
a crop wear the supply gets notably
scarce. he still tries to hold down prices
bv talking about the enormous crop that
is going to come. This manipulation
has robbed the farmers of this country
of $500. 600. 900 in the last three years.
From 1884 to 1887 the crops of Europe
and America were in excess of the con-
sumption. and low price for wheat was
quite natural but during the last three
wears the crops, though very fair, were
not equal to the requirements, which is
proven by the steady decrease OF the re-
serves, which at present are practically
nothing, or hardly sufficient to reach
the new crops. With this deficiency in
crops thoroughly known, wheat should
have brought very fair prices during
the last three years, according to the
laws of supply and demand. 1t makes
a difference of 800, 900, 600 a year to the
farmers of this country whether they
sell wheat at 20 cents or 81, and that
YOU had to take the lower price
for your product is due entirely to the
manipulation of the speculator.
Now this year seems especially de-
signed by Providence to help our farm
ing interests.
Our wheat crop promises to be good,
the European crops are worse than they
ever have been, and the reserves are
exhausted.
Our agricultural department issues
every month government report about
the crops. These reports estimate the
number of acres sown, and give the per-
centage of condition. A percentage OF
100 is a somewhat ideal crop, and would