The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-03-07
WHEAT.

These sunny days The Journals free
trade lucubrations are delicious reading
for lovers Of the humorous providing
the lovers don't have to pay two cents
day for them. The other day The,Jour-
nal took occasion to suggest that ex-
Governor Wetmore's affections for pro-
lection were not surprising considering
that the protection policy forced ''the
farmer 10 sell wheat at 60 cents
bushel TO pay the interest on ex-
Governor Wetmore's bonds" Such
"a statement must arouse mingled
feelings of CONSERVATION and wrath in
the hardy breasts of the grangers who
till the wide wheat fields which spread
around the Shumunkanuc Hill and are
sometimes irrigated by the placid
waters of Pasquiset pond 1t may move
them TO turn their ploughshares into
swords and their pruning hooks into
spears and breathe "A prayer of vengeance
against ex- Governor Wetmore.
The innocence and simplicity of
thought revealed in this musing of The
Journal is as pathetic as il is humor-
Gus. T protective tariff is of course
no m responsible for the present
low price of wheat than it is for the
depraved condition of silver. For
the past twelve years this fortunate
country has overhown with wheat
beyond the requirements of its inhab-
itants. From eight to ten per cent. of
the annual production of the United
States i'll wheat is exported, and while
that condition continues the. price can
rise no higher than the level of the mar
ket in which the surplus production is
cast.
An article published in the New York
Sun Of Sunday last states that i" the
bread-eating worlds supply of wheat has
for IL years been in excess OF the re-
quirements i'll rations varying from IL
per cent. in the 1892 SO harvest year
to II per cent. after the har-
vesting year of the great
crop grown in 1884, and by as much as
GA per cent. in 1929, and more than
? per cent. in 1884. Only in one
year of the twelve Qs90-9l was the sup
ply no greater than the years require
ments; and as result of that parity of
supplies and requirements the average
years price advanced % per cent"
While the prices of wheat, silver, cot
ton, iron, steel and other indispensable
commodities of universal consumption
have fallen, such articles as pork and
coffee have shown an upward trend and
butter has been able to maintain its
price. 1t is not surprising to find, there
fore, that there has been no over-pro-
duction in the three last named articles.
The Mckinley tariff provides duty
of % cents per bushel on wheat, which is
of course imperative so long as the far
mers produce more than the home mar
ket needs. But the time is near when
the agriculturist will have no surplus to
export. He will have home market, if
present conditions continue protected by
an adequate duty which will place
prices upon more remunerative basis.
This home market, however, cannot
exist save for the policy of protection.
Under free trade the farmers market
will become more and a more foreign
one, because the normal increase of
population and wealth at home will be
stopped, and the people will driven from
manufacturing to agricultural pursuits.
All of which conditions will tend to
increase the supply Of wheat and, of
course. lower the price.
In other words, the free traders would
kill the home prosperity which enables
90 per cent. of the wheat product to be
absorbed in the home market and go
chasing the foreign market which
simply uses up the surplus, and with
the destruction of the home market the
surplus would shortly grow in excess of
the foreign demand and down would go
the price.