The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1897-09-03
WASHINGTON
CORRESPONDENCE
The Latest Happenings at the
National Capitol.
Recent Advance in Price of Wheat
and Corn, aud the Causes
Therefor.
The Farmer Should Learn How to CO.
Operate Intelligently With His
Fellows IL Large CONNER
cial Undertakings.

WASHINGTON, ID. c., Aug. 3l.-
Special. The deluded followers of
the Hanna-rObber- er-trust-tariff are
now triumphantly pointing to the
recent rise in wheat as one of the
boons of prosperity, brought to the
lOngsuffering people through the
enactment of that consummation of
iniquity. Expecting to deceive,
they claim that there has been an
increase of $500,000,000, in the value
of farm products in this country
within the last thirty days. Taking
the difference in the price of these
products thirty days ago and now,
the increase would probably come
up to this figure; but the cause that
produced this result is we'll known
to come from the short wheat crop
in Europe. Argentina and other
countries from which these supplies
have been obtained.
These astute and economic calcu-
lators should carry out the figures a
little further and go back to the
time when silver was struck down
in 1873, and show the farmers and
the people the enormous loss in
values, not alone of the production
of the soil, but in realty and all
other kinds of prosperity except the
holdings of the banks, trusts and
syndicates, and the cut in the wages
of the laborer and the artisan. let
them be frank and honest and do
this, then subtract the $500,000,0
gain, claimed, and the result would
startle the world of mankind with
wonder and amazement.
The recent advance in the price
of wheat is in no sense abnormal,
hence the strength of the market.
Bulls and bears never before had so
little to do with controlling prices
as now, it being literally and un-
questionably the working out of the
law of supply and demand. A
shortage in the worlds supply
makes every bushel of American
wheat needful. The result is, as
natural as that water seeks a level,
higher prices. Hence the bears
have no ground to stand on in their
attempts to depress the prices of the
chief cereal, nor has Hanna's rob.
ber trust any more to do in bringing
about this increase than it had on
the incident that occurred in the
Garden of Eden six thousand years
ago.
One cheerful factor in the corr
market, which, perhaps, many OF
the bucket shop stock gamblers dc
not realize, is the fact that the corn
| fhn FNrinninnl
d1cing States will feed much
larger proportion of the crop thar
has been done any year heretofore
Especially will this be the case il
the Southern States, where farmers
who formerly "raised more cottor
to buy more meat to feed more
labOrers to make more cotton" have
been made to learn valuable les
son, taught by low prices of cotton
and are now producing theic owl
meat supplies at a less cost thar
they can be raised by those whc
formerly supplied them.
The Department of Agricultur,
under its new administration ha
adopted measures to put stop t
unjust determinations agains
American productions shipped t,
foreign countries. 1t proposes t,
guarantee the quality of our agricul
tural products by giving certificate
of purity and wholesomeness, t.
accompany each consignment des
tined for export. 1t has just beel
begun with beef. None of our bee
now goes to Europe without Ger
tificate, and if the Germans or othe
foreigners persist in discriminatln
against us, Notwithstanding thes
measures, proper means will b
taken to remedy the abuse.
Agriculture being the source fror
which all prosperity must come, fa
more attention should be devoted /
imparting to the farmers of tn
country, and especially the youn
. men engageing in this greqtest ave
cation of life, more thorough in
formation, not only in the technics
details of their business, but as t
the relation that agriculture sustain
to other great Industries of tn
county. To this end, the commo
schools should be improved, the az
rlcultural collegs more largely pal
ronized, and agricultural literatur
more generally read and digested b
the farmer.
The farmer has learned the simpl
lesson of production, but to gain thi
knowledge he has had the advantag
of "a virgin soil. Now he must b
taught the no less important lesso
of the economy in production so as I
secure the largest possible benefit
of profit He has yet. however, {
learn how to cooperate Intelligent
with his fellows in large commerci;
undertakings. He has also vet
learn how indissolubly the interest
of the individual and of the con
, munlty are united. He does not V,
r fully recognize the interdependenc
: of agriculture, manufacturing an
= commerce. He has not yet done h