Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1894-03-22
HIGH-TARlFf PRICES.

How the Farmer Is Injured by the Oper-
alton of the Mckinley Bill.
1t is not to be denied that recent
prices of wheat are extraordinarily low.
The statement that they have been
lower lately than they ever were be-
fore is also true in sense, but the
statement needs qualification, because
otherwise it is misleading
Conditions have changed essentially
within the last fifty years. Our rail-
road system was then in its infancy,
and where railroads existed freight
rates were much higher than they are
now. Consequently there was a CORE
spending difference in the price of
wheat in farmers hands and the export
price. For the period before the west
ern exchanges were esta blished, we de-
pend to large degree upon the export
price, or, in other words. the price at
New York, the chief port of exporta-
ton. Now, the export price of wheat
has been lower this year than ever be-
fore. But it does not follow that the
price in farmers hands in all parts of
the country has been less.
How this operates is illustrated by a
glance at the conditions existing in the
summer of 1916. The New York Com
mercial Bulletin learns from reports of
sales made in New York city at that
time that on June IL $500 bushels of
Indiana red wheat, part inferior, sold
at rs cents On July Is red wheat sold
at SO and white at 95. This shows the
condition of the market at the sea-
board. But it would be a great mis-
take to suppose that the state Of the
market in the west could be ascer-
tanned by deducting the difference now
existing between eastern and western
Bulletin says that about this time
man was sent to the llline Is and Missis-
sippi rivers to buy wheat, and that he
purchased large quantity at 25 cents
for red and 371a cents toc white, that
being the difference the n. in the market
value of the two varieties. At the
same time 1000 barrels of -four were
bought on the Illinois river for S2.75 to
s2.S7 per barrel In the next spring
and summer, he says, -four sold in St
Louis at s6.laa per barrel.
The great difference between prices
east and west at that time is highly
instructive as showing the enormous
strides since made in our methods of
transportation. 1t, cost to transport
grain from fields near the Mississippi
river to New York, something like fifty
two cents per bushel. ( From other
wheat producing regions rates, of
freight, of course. varied greatly, &C.
cording to the distance and facilities
of transportation. Prices of grain
would also vary greatly according to
local demands. They were not neces-
sarily low at. distance from New
York; because. in an isolated region,
where the productions. OF wheat was in
sufficient to supply the home demand
the high ratas of transportation would
tend to put up the price instead of put
ting it down.,
These low prices in 1876, il may be
-oted, we've shortly before the passage
of what Mr.. Blaine used to call the
..free- trade tariff Of 1s46 The country
was then under the blighting influence
of the high tariff act of 1912, as it is
now suffering from the effects of the
Mckinley bill The bill became a law
on JUN So 1t had been predicted thas
it woald rnin the country, bat it had
lust the contrary effess A period of
general prosperity followed; wages
were increased, prices of farm products
BECAME remunerative, more factories
were built, and existing ones enlarged.
and the country came to realize the
fact that prosperity is not attained by
destroying, but by promoting, COM
20 cree louisville Courier-Journal.
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