The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-04
THEFHCTS ABOUT WHEAT
THE SILVER STANDARD WOULD NOT
BENEFIT THE PRODUCER
COmpetition-Presen Conditions
in the Argentine Republic.
ST. Louis Globe-Democrat.

| cereal products the effort to do so by
! change in the monetary standard is the
most hopeless. Just long the farmer
| raises wheat he is working in open compe
tition with the world. and there is no way
| known to political science whereby he
/ be protected against the competition of
other countries, unless he raises no sur
plus for export. The home market can be
| protected against invasion by foreign
| grown wheat, but the instant any surplus
| sails from our shores it has passed beyond
| the power of the government. 1t must
| then be sold cheaply as any other
wheat or it cannot be sold at ALL More
| over, it must be sold for gold; its price
| must be fixed on a gold basis, in accord
| ance with the state of the foreign mar
| kets where 1t is offered for SALE The price
| abroad will not be reckoned in United
| States dollars, but in pounds sterling in
| England, in francs in France and Belgium
| and in marks in Germany; and the
| amounts RENTED in payment will be con-
| verted from these foreign measures into
our currency on the basis of the prevail
| ing quotations on gold bullion, no matter
! what that may represent in silver coin.
Let suppose for moment that an ar
! rangement could be made whereby Amer
lean wheat could not be sold in Chicago at
60 cents bushel, but should command 80
cents bushel. What would be the result?
If this increase were real and not merely
nominal that is to say, If the 80 cents
actually meant 80 cents in gold or its
equivalent in exchange, there would be an
instant stoppage of expectation so long as
there any wheat offered in the foreign
markets from other countries at a price
below 80 cents a bushel, plus the costs of
brokerage and freightS to those foreign
markets. Nor is this all; there would fol-
low an immediate movement OF wheat
from foreign countries to American ports,
while these higher prices prevailed, unless
the farmer were protected IN n ms nome
such a protective tariff he would promptly
be undersold in his own country and
prices would settle at once to their former
level.
SUPPLY AND DEMAND.
1t is a basal principle of political econ
omy that the price of a commodity de-
ponds upon the relation between the de-
mand for it and the amount of it produced
the fundamental law of supply and de-
mand. To attempt escape from the opera
ton of this law is as futile as the quest of
that visionary apergy for removing us
from the action of gravitation, and causing
the apple to soar into the air instead of
falling to the ground. This law of supply
and demand will fix the price of the sur
plus production of wheat which is offered
in the great European markets from all
quarters of the globe, and will regulate
the price which we have to pay for it in
our own markets, unless competition is ex-
cluded by a tariff. 1t is unyielding law,
beyond the power of any man or group of
men to change. The feeble efforts occa-
sionally made by spectators to fly in the
face of it by "cornerng the market al
most invariably bring disaster and ruin
upon those who had the temerlty TO at
Perhaps the farmer may doubt the ex-
istence Of such a competition powerful
enough to govern the markets of Liver
pool London. Antwerp and the rest of
those great wheat importing centers of Eu-
rope. 1t is evident that he does doubt 1t
when he ascribes the fall of prices to the
existence of a gold standard. In the hrSt
place-keeping ever in mind that infiexible
natural law of supply and demand-be it
remembered that before the wheat market
Russia. the Danube Valley, Argentine and
India there sprang up fierce competition
at home between farm and farm, between
State. Wheat high. rs culture was
eminently profitable. Encouraged by fair
to reap the benefits of these remunerative
prices by. multiplying their wheat fields in
all directions. They did not intend to lower
prices, but, nevertheless, they did it. While
the disparity was great between the guam
tity raised and the amount demanded by
consumers. the bushel of wheat had a high
value but, this disparity grew less and
less the farmers, having much more to
sell, were obliged to accept lower price
in order to dispose of it all. And then be-
gan the foreign competition. The era of
railroads and canals was beginning to
work industrial changes in Russia, the
Danube Valley, in Argentine and in India.
Vast tracts OF virgin LANDS lying IN tenn M
from the great world of commerce, We're
thus suddenly rendered accessible. What
was stin worse for the American farmer,
these new wheat fields lay in countries
where the standard of living was immense
the Wags Of these new farm aborers was
only fraction of the wages paid in Amer
lea for equal services. This meant that the
Russians the Argentines and the others
were able to raise their wheat at an in
significant figure, as compared with the
costs III this country.
CONDITIONS IN ARGENTINE.
Let US examine the conditions in the Ar
gentfne Republic It's total area is 1872, 500
square miles. OF this area, which is equal
to one third of that of the United States,
375, coo square miles. or 100000 acres, is
suitable for wheat culture and consists for
the most part of open plains, where the
costs of wheat growing are at their lowest,
so far as typographical difficulties are con-
cerned. Fifteen years ago Argentine was
strictly pastoral country, where gauchos,
tending vast herds of cattle, held dominion
as did our cowboys twenty years ago in the
Western plains But this condition in Ar
gentine at that time extended up to the
very suburbs of Buenos Ayres, the capital
of the republic on the seacoast itself. 1t
is estimated that only 10000 acres were
then under cultivation in the entire coun-
try. The exports were limited to hides
salt beef, tallow and wool, while among
the imports find III, 900 tons of wheat
equal to $500, 900 bushels. This in
1881 By 1890 the extension of railroads
had begun to work the change that has
since come with such tremendous rapid
ity. The railroads had reached total of
6,235 miles of track and the explorations of
wheat had become an important factor in
Argentine commerce, being in that year
TO- 1913, 333 bushels. Since then all railroad
extension has been made with express ref
to the development of the wheat
growing districts. and the freight rates on
grains have been reduced on almost all
lines so as to encourage their production.
Thus in five years from 1890 the railroads
increased TO S69S miles. and the under
cultivation had risen to over 16, 0J0 000
acres In 1894 there were about 10 900 900
acres in tiIage of which $500 900 acres
were in wheat $500 900 in corn, and 3000-
900 in alfalfa, the remainder being devoted
to the culture of oats, linseed, etc The
yield of wheat in that year was H. 800 900
bushels of which 53600000 bushels We're
exported The yield was trifie over eleven
bushels per acre. but this average was
brought down by the primitive methods of
culture in the more remote districts The
use of modern farm implements and the
knowledge of proper methods of culture
are rapidly extending. due largely 10 the
educational efforts of the railroad COM
panies. In the more progressive sections
the average yield in 1894 was seventeen