The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-09-25
f WHEAT and
COTTON TRUST.
The Entire American Product Could
be Controlled by an Association
of Producers of Wheat
and Cotton.
FIXING A UNIFORM PRICE.
A Plan to Unite Wheat and Cotton
and Establish Values and Market
Without Reference to the
Worlds Wishes.
EXPORT TAX ON GOLD AND
RECIPROCITY.


THE wheat-raisers of this country
are in bad shape and the future is
doubtful. We should therefore well
come every honest effort to point out
way Of deliverance A little book
has just been published in California
with the above titles We do not in
dorse all its views: they may not be
practicable; but we want to set the
wheat raisers thinking upon the sub
jectS invOlyed; and out Of thought
may come wisdom. The West and
South has got to get together for self
defence.-EDITOR REP.
The unwillingness or inability of the
Government to regulate or suppress trusts.
coupled with the steady decline of prices
in all things deprived of their special
protection, suggests the need of more of
them. This might seem like a round
about way of reaching a desirable end,
but it is the only course open to those
outside of the influence of trusts already
in existence. A glance at the long list of
articles already enjoying such protection
reveals strange things. Every article of
any consequence enjoying the favor of
combination is one that is dependent al
most wholly upon home consumption,
thus placing the penalty of high prices
upon American consumers exclusively,
while wheat and cotton, the two items up
on which the nation depends for its COM
mercial existence, are sold to foreign con-
sumers at prices below the actual cost of
production. AS a result of this we find
Standard Oil and American Cordage
stocks selling at premium, while grain
and cotton go begging. In other words,
we pay high prices for what the world
must sell to us and low prices for what
the world must buy from us. Here the
ers of wheat and cotton in the United
States fix the price arbitrarily? AS one
engaged in the raising of wheat, I be-
lieve that by organization upon a proper
plan they can fix the price of grain and
cotton just as firmly as the world has fix
ed the price of gold it buys with them As
long as Europe is dependent upon the
United States for it's breadstuffs and cot
ton, the producers of these articles can fix
the price-under the penalty of starva-
tion-and no one familiar with the facts
will deny the existence of|that condition
at the present time. 1t is true that the
statement is frequently made, for the bene-
t<Nct tn<h Il,
supply it's wants wholly from the cotton
fields of India and the grain fields of the
Argentine Republic; but this is not true
today any more than it was fifty or even
one hundred years ago. Europe has al
ways purchased the entire exportable
product of those and other countries, and
then met its shortage by purchase of the
American product at the same prices
The entire wheat expectation of the Ar
gentine Republic amounts to about 45,-
100000 bushels year, or only about g.
600, 900 bushels more than the average
wheat crop of California alone. The Uni
ted States exports annually wheat and
other breadstuffs to the amount of 3OO,-
O00 900 bushels, and yet the American
farmer is told that he must accept the
price that the world places upon his pro-
duct or retire from business. What an
absurdity! The United States is just as
much the granary of the world today as
it ever was, and all that is necessary to
establish this claim is organization of the
producers. If Europe could have supplied
Its entire wants elsewhere or through its
provincial dependencies, it never would
have purchased much from the United
States, except Government bonds. There
is no love in trade.
The increased acreage of the Argentine
Republic and the other grain-producing
countries which is held up as a scare
crow to the American wheat-raiser, has
no more than met the demands of an in
creasing foreign population, and has had
no material effect upon the worlds sup
ply, except so far as it has been used as
an argument to beat down the price of
the American product. Between the
double threat of supplying it's wants else
where and refusing to lend us gold, two
untenable propositions, Europe has sue
ceeded in securing its necessaries below
the cost of production and in paying for
them with the interest-money derived
from American loans The combined
wheat and cotton exports of the United
States, even at the present low prices.
amount to $500, 100000 per annum, and
comprise two-thirds of all the exports.
indicating very clearly that Europe must
have these items, and that the CONNER
that the commercial life of the United
States is dependent upon their sale. Elim-
mate breadstuffs and cotton from the ar
tic1es of export and there would be a de-
felt in trade against the United States
of $45O, 100000 year. This nation, great
as 1T is, could not survive a single year
without assistance of its wheat and cot
ton-raisers, and yet any effort on their
part to better their condition or avert ap-
preaching ruin is denounced as popuhstic
anarchy.
"But how can the raisers of wheat and
cotton establish a uniform price?" some
one will ask. The answer is, by combina-
tion.
The first step necessary in that direc-
tion would be the formation Of company
that might be known by some such title
as "The American Wheat and Cotton
raisers' Association" the objects Of which
CONTINUED ON THIRD PAGE.)