Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1897-07-22
Communicated.

party or measure, either the failure OF
the one or the success of the other. 1t
has come from God. He pitied His
suffering people and sent bread from
heaven, and He has dealt with boun-
tiful hand.
This years estimated crop of wheat
in the United States is over $50 mil.
lions of bushels. The visible supply
of the whole world today is only Is
millions of bushels. AS stated in the
REGISTER last week, the government
crop report shows that in Russia, Aus
tria-Hungary, France and Great Brit
ain the crop is light. 1t is said to be
so also in Turkey, Italy, Roumania
and Argentina. As the REGISTER
states too, according to Beerbohm, the
requirements of Europe alone, not to
speak of other countries, beginning
with this season, will be for the year
over $50 millions of bushels.
The food supply Of the world is to-
day in the hands of the American
farmer, placed there by God, Himself,
to give them prosperity as the reward
of their honest toll. The world is will
ing to pay for its bread, and it has the
money to pay for it.
am neither a prophet, nor the son
of a prophet, but I venture a predlc-
ton which any one who puts together
the facts stated above will see for him
self must come to pass. In four months
from today wheat will be selling at
one dollar a bushel. If wheat is now
bringing sixty-fve cents, that means
that nearly two hundred million dol
lars will be realized from the wheat
crop of the United States over and
above what it is now worth. Or, If
sixty-fve cents pays the expenses Of
raising bushel of wheat, then the
clear profits on the crop this year will
be nearly two hundred million dol
lars.
The only question is who is to have
that clear profit of two hundred mil
lion dollars, the farmers or the large
grain spectators? If the farmers sell
their wheat now, then the large deal
ers will get the two hundred million
dollars; and while some benefit will
accrue to the country, it will not be
evenly distributed. If the farmers
will hold their wheat for four months,
or until the corn crop is in, then the
two hundred million dollars will 90
into the hands Of the farmers to whom
God gave it, and will relieve the fnan-
cial distress of the whole country and
lift us into prosperity. If the corn
crop is large, the two hundred million
dollars will nevertheless be cleared by
the farmers as profit from their wheat.
Ift9he corn crop is small, then a still
larger sum will be realized from the
wheat crop. God has given prosper
ity; will the farmer be wise enough to
take it?
1t is said that when Thomas Jetfer-
son was arguing against the adoption
by our government of the single stand
ard of currency, and insisting that
there must be a double standard OF
gold and silver so that the bankers
could not former the market in both
metals at once, he illustrated his ar
gument by reference to the Amerl-
can farmers, saying that 50 long as
they raised both wheat and corn, the
grain spectators could never corner
the market in both kinds Of grain at
once. Thomas Jefferson did not I'M
agine the time would ever come when
American farmers, while striving as is
right to restore the money Of the con-
stitution and make it both gold and
silver, would become so forgetful of
their own interests and the interests
of their country as to think that any
financial distress compels them to let
their crops go as SOON as they are har-
vested, and thus themselves put into
the hands of the grain spectators the
power to corner first wheat and then
corn, and pocket the profits which
rightfully belong to the farmers.
The papers report that in Kentucky
steps have already been taken by
which the farmers will help each other
so that all can hold their wheat for
few months when the rise in price is
bound to come. Cannot our farmers
do the same? But whether all the
farmers hold their wheat or not, each
one who does will not only reap the
benefit himself, but also help his COM
munity and country.
The market will, no doubt, tiuctu'
ate for awhile; the price will some