The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1896-10-23
Politics at the Bottom of the Rise
of Wheat.

The more we see of the manipula
tions of the stock and produce markets,
the more anxious are we for some sys-
tenn whereby this influence may be
converted into power for good. The
/ recent rise in the price of wheat on the
very eve of national election, on the
very face of it looks fishy. Not that
we condemn the managers of prices
for putting up wheat to high point,
but we ask in this connection the plain
question "who does it benefit" We
may be allow, d to answer this in one
or two ways: In the first place it is
plainly a powerful political scheme
which only the gold standard people
could manipulate and carry out sue
cessfully. 1t was done to controvert
the statement made by the silver ad-
vocates that "wheat falls in prices with
the decline in silver" and they even
go SO far as to knock off a cent or two
in the price of silver to make the dose
more palatable. The stock brokers and
wheat shippers claim that the crops on
the other side are short and that
heavy demands are coming in for
wheat from all sides. Now, is it not
strange that this shortage in the cereal
crops of England, Germany, France
India and all other countries was not
chronicled in time to give the farmer
a chance to save his wheat so that he
could have come in for a part of the
profit. In nine cases out of ten he
could not have done so, owing to the
fact that his financial obligations re-
quired ready money and as soon after
threshing time as possible he must turn
his crops into cash How many of our
Frederick County farmers have enough
wheat on hand to pay them for hauling
it to town and dispose of it at the pres
ent prices? The plot is even too trans
parent to obscure vision in the darkness
Ifthese prices would have been obtained
several months ago and would con-
tinue along after the election, there
might be some substance in them, but
now under the circumstances the ruse
won't work. Some eloquent and able
men have said that wheat would rise
under the free coinage law. We hope
that it will and some enthusiasts have
declared that the present furry in the
market is due to the confidence that
the people have in Bryan's election
and that things are getting better al
ready. But we are sure this is not the
case. The operators of the stock and
produce exchanges are not of the Bry-
an stamp. They are against him and
the rise in wheat is intended to operate
against him. 1t only shows more con-
clusively to the world how securely the
produces of our common country are
locked up in the control of few ma
nipulators, who at the stroke of pen
or the click of telegraph key, can
send them up or down in the accommo-
dating scale of prices to suit their own
convenience. Whilst we hope our far
mers and dealers will make as much
out of the rise in wheat as possible, we
denounce it as most gigantic politi-
cal deception and jugglery by which
the price of our most staple cereal is
made to act as blind, behind which
the perpetrators can hide their guilty
heads Do the gold standard men
think that a rise in wheat two weeks |
before the election can make any far
mer forget his experience of the past
twenty years? Let them advance the |
prices at time when the farmer is in |
a position to take advantage of them
and not when he has disposed of his
crops under the heavy hand of the gold
standard pirates and the demands of
and other creditors