The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1896-10-22


Tillcrs of the Soil.
The rise OF thirteen cents n bushel In
wheat during the last thirty days, while
silver has remained steady or declined Il
fraction, will be worth tens Of thousands
Of votes 90 the Republican candidates.
Free coinnge orators and writer's have
assured the farmers that the fall in their
products was directly due to the fall in
silver "As silver went down." they said,
your wheat went down, and silver went
down because the mints were closed
aga inst It. Consequently, unless the mints
nrc rcopened 20 free coinage and silver
goes up again, your wheat must continue
To fall"
Intelligent farmers saw the fallacy OF
this, but many others were mislcd by 1t
and were inclined to vote for the man who
promised to make money plentiful and
double the price of their wheat. The rise
OF the past month in the cereal, while the
white metal has sagged, Is n demonstra.
ton TO these men that there Is no neces-
sary connection between the two and that
the price Of farm products, like that Of oil
other products, Is regulated by the laws Of
supply and demand.
False In one thing, false in ALL" and
seeing they have been deceived by tho free
silver men in this vital matter the farmers
will cease to believe in the other will-o'.
the-wlsp theories 50 alluringly presen ted
10 them. 1t Is immatcrlal In this conncc-
tion whether wheat is to advance still fur.
thcr rs n result of u world wido shortage
In the yield or whether the rise has nj.
ready been pushed too far by skillful spec.
ulators. The fact remains that with the
price Of silver un changed or falling the
value Of wheat has risen 20 per cent In the
worlds markets, and every farmer can
see that tho price Of his products docs not
depend upon the price which tho mine
owners get for theirs.
Wheat has fallen OF lato years for pre-.
cisely the Same reason that silver has
the production OF both. Mr.. Cuthber,
Mills h as recently demonstrated that the
decline In silver kept pace with the rapid
extension of railways, opening up thereto |
fore inaccessible mining regions and |
thereby increasing the worlds output |
The great bonanzas would have added lit |
tie to the supply Of silver without tho rail. |
ways which carried in machinery and sup |
plies and Gu rried out the ore The full in
wheat W as produced in precisely the same |
way Railway extensions In this country, |
India, Russia and Argentina opened up |
new an d fertile lands. Wheat grown by |
cheap and inferior labor In remote regions
came into competition In the world mar
kcts with that produced by western farm
ers, supply increased faster than demand.
The result W as inevitable. There was no
silver question" in this.
And now wheat has suddenly advanced.
Why Anything connected with this sill.
yer question: Not at all. 1t has gone up
because the supply has decreased. Before
the now crop was made tho reserves had
run very low and the yield In many coun-
tries seems to be smaller than usual Es-
Inmates Of our own harvest vary from $780,
10000 to 43O, 100000 bushels, whereas last
year we had 4yO,0OOOO0. Exports from
Argentina to date are less than half as
large rs they We're a year ago Russia, II
Is said, will have ~ per cent. less than
last year to sell, and the crop In India Is SO
short that wheat Is now being bough in
San Francisco for export to that country.
This is such an unprecedented incident
that tho news Of II was received with In.
crcdulity in the tr ade, but dispatches from
Lane Pacific coast corroborated It, At any
rate the demand for our wheat abroad has
been such that since July wc have OK.
ported no less than 100000 bushels.
Whether ON the existing facts wheat has
already been advanced too far or whether
L should go higher still is matter wo are
not discussing. What we assert Is that
farmers must be impressed with the dem
onstration that as wheat fell because Of
Increased supply so It rises because Of a
decreased supply, and its price no more
depends upon what Mr. Jones gets for tho
product of his mines than IL does on tho
,rice Of sulphur in Sicily.