The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-02-24
WHEAT IS A DRUG
The New York Herald Publishes
a Big Article,
Saying That 81 Wheat VIII
Never BE Known
IN THE STATES AGAIN.
A Remarkable Article Of Inter
est in the West.
The Future OF the Wheat Grow
Ing Industry.
n THE STATES AGAIN.

/ CHICAGO, Feb. 24@The Herald this
morning publishes under the caption
wheat is a Drug" a three column
article bristling with statistics tending to
show the present low price of wheat is
the natural result of the prevailing
financial depression, assisted by over
production and the holding back of
marketable supplies Of the cereal by
farmers.
Interviews with bankers and mer-
chants are also cited. the trend of their
views seeming tOindicate THAI the effects
of existing conditions on finance are not
real, but are directly attributable 70 the
law Of supply and demand. The position
taken by the Herald IS extremely bear
Ish, as would be seen by the subjoined
exeerpts
"W neat is PROSTATE In all the markets
Of the world. For weeks It has been "a
drug at prices Unprecedented since spec
uIati0n in farm products began 1t has
sunk below all low marks, refused to re-
sp0nd 10 bullish influences, and gone
begging at quotations known TO be under
the actual cost of production.
Theories that crop products, like arti-
cles Of manufacture, had an industrial
value under which they could not long
be sold, have been exploded, and wheat
has continued TO falL How long this
condition of depressed prices viii last, is
d question that interests American far
mers, who devote 50 100 200 acres every
yeartO cultivating the cereal 80 every mer-
chant in the land, and Incidentally, to
spectators the world over
sAfter analyzlug all the Influences
that have contributed to the tumble, and
there are amy number Of them, 1t would
appear that a new level is about 10 be es-
tablished for wheat, beyond which it is
n0t likely to rise except by the boldest
manipulation, and then only for brief
periods
There are spectators who believe
those good old days when 81 bushel
was the rule, viii never come again and
that 15 cents may he looked t0 as the fu-
ture top notch quotation. These men are
by no means bears, for they cOucedc that
wheat cannot hover long around the de-
pressing figures of today.
'fIhey have ransacked the statistics of
the world, and claim TO have discover
that the cheap product Of Russia, India
and the southern hemisphere. which has
lately turned an almost eNhaustIble SUPP
ply into the markets of Europe, VIII
finally drive the American crop out Ex-
posed to that fatal competition, they argue
that wheat raising will some day become
an American question, to be treated with
out reference To the export market, and
ON the theory that Europe Will be SUD-
piled from the fields that skirt the Baltic,
from the rich plains of India and from
South America.
at may be said that this gloomy view
is not shared by the professional bull,
who, with all his buoyancy, offers no
promise Of an early return to prosperous
prices.
Board of trade men, however. are
agreed that better times are ahead and
that the effect Of these low prices is by
nd means as disastrous as might be sup
posed They say the willy farmer has not
lost SO heavily as spectators, ON whose
hands the stock declined; that a very
large proportion of the crop was market
el before the tumble and the big specu-
latOrs, therefore, stood the heaviest
Inssas y