St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-04-20
THAT EAST INDIAN WHEAT.

THAT EAST INDIAN WHEAT.
In these times when the cold
truthfulness Of poor Richards coun-
sci to take care of the pennies
and the pounds will take care of
themselves" is pressed down deep
into the convictions of us all, an
investment of even a quarter in
Coin" is an objectionable waste
of good money. 1t is literally a
throwing of good money after bad.
And after one has made the invest
ment and plodded through the lies
sons" one reproaches himself as he
thinks of the good beer that quar-
ter would have bought, or the poets
dreams one might have INDUCED
himself in over an evening pipe
Ever since this financial fever be-
gan to run in the veins of our peo-.
pie a favorite illustra ton of the
fruits of that awful and gigantic
conspiracy of 1873 has been the re-
markable manner in which the
chrafty Englishman has duped the
poor ryot of India into taking 80
cents worth of silver for a dollars
worth of wheat. We recall that
when Senator Davis and Gov. Mer-
riam opened the campaign of 1890,
and the silver-tongued senator was
eXtolling the beneficial legislation of
the Fifty-first congress, he pointed
to the Sherman silver purchase act
as a shining example, and told his
audience to note how silver had
jumped to $1.21 and carried wheat
UP with it. In the same discourse
that exuberant imagination of his
again took the bit in it's mouth
and ran away with him. He told
this old Indian wheat yarn. 1t is
related that after the speech Gov.
Merriam said to him: "Cush,
don't know much about the tariff,
but 1 do know something about
that wheat matter, and your talk
is all dashed nonsense"
And Coin" puts up his straw
pupil and knocks him down with
the same old gag He makes the
pupil-who was never there-ask
hirn-the schoolmaster-if 1.-The de-
monetization Of silver does not give
England a special advantage over
us in depressing the price of our
wheat?,' Then the schoolmaster
takes a silver dollar and silver
quarter and explains that the East
Indian has been accustomed to get
ting about" that amount for a
bushel of wheat. The rapacious En-
glishman buys of us the amount
OF silver in the $1.25 for 60 cents,
takes it to India and turns it into
rupees, nominally worth SIPS, and
buys bushel Of wheat with it.
The ryot gets his dollar and a quar-
ter and is happy; the Englishman
gets his bushel of wheat for so cents
and is serene.
The cheaper he gets his silver the
cheaper he gets his wheat, the lower
he can sell it, and the poor devil
on our Western prairies has to meet
the price or go out of the business.
LII is the same old chestnut in a
different burr. Without presuming
to question the accuracy of this new
vendor Of financial cheStnuts the
Veneration one feels for him can
not repress some suggestions from
obtruding themselves. The first one
is that, though the Englishman, in
trying to get his wheat as cheapiy
as possible, is but following a prece-
dent with which Minnesota formers
are familiar, he is a very different
sort OF dealer from any they know
II he does not try to get all for it
he can. Buying wheat cheap for the
sole purpose Of selling it cheap is
trait Of human nature that is
strange in these parts, though pos
sibly common among Englishmen.
Another suggestion that will not
down at the nod Of this schoolmaS-
ter is, how does it come that that
farmer on the uplands of India man
ages to always get about" SIPS a
bushel for his wheat? Did Buddha
register some decree in days prime
val that the grower of wheat should
during all time get three rupees for
his bushel of wheat? And has the
English interloper been ever so tend
er Of the superstitions Of the natives
II.
has voluntarily given three rupees
a bushel? There have been a good
many times in recent years he could
no get again for his wheat
what he paid, to say moth
ing of freightage. But the sug-
gestion that comes and hits the
hardest is the surprise that it is
only the Engli5hman who has "got
onto" this soft snap" How comes
it that none Of our Yankees, thrifty
fellows and keen on the scent for
the dollar, haven't spoiled the En-
glishman's game by taking our sill
yer over there, turning it into
wheat and cornering the market?
1t is such "a good thing" we marvel
that Coin himself doesn't stop
teaching school and push it along"
But-pity tits there should always
be ''but" to these good things
Coin" spoils his own story by tell
ing his imaginary pupil that the
Englishman, who has taken the
silver, take it to India and turn it
into $1.25 wheat, sells the latter for
the same 60 cents he paid for the
silver. Without expressly stating this,
it is inferable from the statement
that because of this Eve must sell
our wheat at 60 CENTS" So it seems
that all the Indian farmer gets for
his wheat is the same that the
American does for his, only the In
dian sells on a silver basis and ours
on a gold basis. 1t follows that,
were we ON a silver basis also, we
would get s1.25 for wheat in silver
or so cents in gold. This probably
accounts for the Indifference of the
speculative Yankee to the allure
ments of Indian wheat bought with
60-cent silver. After all the quarter
is not wholly wasted.
The dispatches some days since
contained a report of what Minister