The advocate and Topeka tribune., 1893-11-22
THE 0VERPRODUOTION THEORY
ONOE MORE,

ply" which contains some fact, but
so much fiction that we are moved to
present the important features of it
as an object lesson of the utter blind
ness Of those who "will not see" the
things (which surround them upon
every hand. OF the wheat market
the Star says:
Ever since wheat began to sell at an ex-
ordinary low price, the assumption in
trade circles and among economists has
been that the decline was due to temporary
causes, and that natural trade laws would
soon assert themselves in the re.eStablish-
ment Of prices which would be remunera-
tive to the grower. Every season the stats
tiCians have been able to set the figures of
supply and demand in such relation to one
another as TO prove that the depression in
the markets must soon give way TO buoy
GnOe and advancing prices, but the end Of
the season has found the sbatistiCians dis
Comfted and wheat still going down. There
was ample reason last July TO believe that
the wheat market would soon be at the end
of its long decline and would make an up
ward turn before the crop year was well ad-
vsnOed. But more than third Of the year
has gone, and the Liverpool price of wheat
10 now the lowest on record.
The decline has gone on 30 long and so
persistently that the men who buy and sell
wheat are settling down to the conclusion
that the low prices have come TO stay, and
qre not due to temporary causes, This is
not a universal conclusion by any means,
but the idea is getting stronger hold daily
on the minds Of leaders. That this is true
is shown by the general absence Of dispO-
sition to accumulate supplies for future use.
With large quantities Of wheat Offering from
four great sources Of supply, European i'm
porting countries are buying wheat only as
they need il. In proportion to their re-
quirements, the countries which produce
less chan they require have bought less
wheat in the first quarter of the present crop
year than for many years past. This same
thing is noticeable among millers in this
country. Instead Of filling their store
houses with cheap wheat, they are buying
just as they need il, expecting to be able to
buy throughout the season at about the
present range OF prices.
The conclusion Of "those who buy
and sell wheat" as stated, by the
Star, that 'the low prices have come
to stay, and are not due to temporary
causes" is undoubtedly correct. 1t
is correct, at least to this extent-that
it is not due to temporary causes.
and it has come to stay until there is
more success in the discovery of what
the causes are than is evinced
either by newspaper writer's upon the
subject, or by the corporation sttor-
neys who are picked up on account Of
their ignorance of farming interests
and converted into secretaries Of sgri-
culture. The Star makes the stereo-
typed state of the cause of low prices
as follows:
The cause Of the prevailing depression
may be readily found. It is not due to re-
duoed consumption resulting from indus
trial depression, for the best authorities of
Europe agree that the per capita Oonsump-
tion Of wheat there is increasing, and there
is evidence Of some increase in the average
consumption in this country. The low
prices are due TO excessive production, and
the mistakes which the statistioians make