The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-09-05
That Solitary Foreign Market
Where Prices Are Con.
tingent.
FOSTERING HOME INDUSTRY.
This Gould Be Accomplished by Re.
storing the Republican Party
to Power.

market Tor what he produces and, so far
as the American wheat grower is con-
cerned, he has but two markets, the home
market and the alleged Democratic 'smar-
kets of the world" which is England and
only England. If we have any other mar
ket 1t is because of short crop in some
country, and such market only lasts until
a good crop comes. Practically all of
Europe now produces its own supply of
wheat, for if the western nations lack any.
thing the eastern nations supply the need
But while Great Britain is Americas only
steady market for wheat, America is not
Great Britain's only source of supply of
wheat. In her markets American wheat
comes into competition with the new
lands in Australia, Argentina and other
| South American countries, with India and
Africa, and the building of tho Trans.
Siberian railway is adding another great
| field for food supply for our mother
! country" These countries are our COM
petitors in the wheat markets of the world
because, with the exception of India, they
are new countries just opening up to set
Element and new and better civilization,
and India is an old country being made
over new. This reason for competition
with American farms Is all-sufficient and
to advance any other, save that they have
cheaper labor than America, would be
supertiuous.
During the past six years England has
been buying from the United States an
annual average of 52.1S3, 76l bushels of
wheat, and whatever else was shipped
was sent away to countries which cannot
be regarded as regular customers. And it
is this small demand which fixes the price
for the entire wheat crop of America This
price is not fixed by England, but it is
fixed in England, that being the focal
point toward which all surplus wheat
crops tend. What fixes the price there
is the cost of production in the different
wheat-producing countries on the globe,
and every competitor of America in the
wheat markets of the world has vastly
cheaper labor and lower standard of liy-
ing than has America. There is a point
where human labor becomes cheaper than
farm machinery, and that point is reached
and passed in India. The other countries
which grow wheat are using machinery
made after American patterns.
While Great Britain was buying of
American farmers an average of 50, 1873, 76l
bushels OF wheat a year, our own people
were buying of our own wheat-farmers an
annual average of 321, 944, 010 bushels of
wheat, so that if the people of the United
| States could be induced to consume about
sixth more of wheat, there would be no
wheat to send to England, and England
would cease to fix the price of wheat for
American farmers and for American con-
sumers. Can American consumers be in
duced to consume more wheat? They can
How2 BY electing Mckinley.
This proposition will undoubtedly need
proof in order to make it acceptable, but
the figures are fortunately at hand to
prove it. When people are at work earn
ing money they consume products with
| out taking thought for the morrow" but
when times are hard and the necessity for
! economlzlng is enforced the ScripturaI in
| junction just quoted is no longer observed
People under hard times conditions econ
omize in food products as IN all things
else. For proof of this it is only needful
| to consult the agricultural reports from
the Statistical Department at Washington.
For instance the years 18S1-82-S3-84, 1889
| 1890-9l-92 were years in which the Repub-
| lIcan party was in control of the affairs of
this Nation. During these eight years (as
ascertained from the Statistical Abstract
for 1895, the official report of the Statistical
annual consumption of wheat per capita
| in the United States was 566 bushels. For
| the years 1856 86-87-88 and 1S93-94-95 the
affairs of this Nation have been in control
of the Democratic party, and the annual
average consumption of wheat per capita
| in the United States for these seven wears
! was 4.99, per capita difference of ST of
bushel for each man, woman and child in
| the country. In other words the Ameri-
can people consume ST bushels less each
| year under Democratic than under Re-
| publican administration.
The reason for this Is not hard to find,
| Under Republican administration the
business world knows what the policy of
| the Government will be-confdence sits
undisturbed in the market-place, money
! is invested in commercial enterprises,
| labor is employed. the people are earning
money and spending it for the things they
| want and are not stinted in food or cloth
ing. But when the people voted for
change and the Democratic party was put
! into power, under promises 70 try INFESTED
| experiments, the business world did not
| know what micht befall, confidence was
! shaken, money was left idle in the banks,
factories closed down and the people were
alone In public expenditures but in the
home living of the people, was enforced.
And that is the kind of economy the
| "Popocratic" party stands for to-day; the
kind of economy which is enforced by in
ability 10 buy-by poverty. Statistics
prove it, and the statistics which do prove
it were compiled and published officially
| under Democratic administration. Had
the people consumed wheat under Demo-
cratic administrations as they have ever
done under Republican administrations
there would now be little wheat for ship
| ment to England and the English market
would not fix the price for the home mar
ket. With our present population this
difference in per capita consumption would
amount to about As, 000 600 bushels a year.
Furthermore, the election of Mckinley
means better prices for farm products, for
wheat has always brought better prices
under Republican than under Democratic
administration of affairs. Again an APP
peal is made to Democratic statistics to
prove this assertion. The monthly crop
report for December. 1895. sent out from
the Department of Agriculture at WASH
ington, gave the following as the average
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