The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-02-21
MILLIONS OF BUSHELS
China the Natural Market for
American Wheat.
RUSSIA CANNOT COMPETE
The Rehabilitation of Silver Would Give
America an Unlimited Market for
Her Cereais-The Report
of McKinleyite.
Snao,al n;snate,, IA the standard.

Special Dispatch to the Standard
washington, Feb. pa recent report
made by Consul Arson Burlingame
johnson of Annoy. China. to the state
department on siberian vs.. American
wheat" contains a powerful argument
i'm favor of rehabilitation of silver. Mr..
johnson shows that an increase in the
value of silver would give the American
farmer control of the Chinese wheat
market. Millions of bushels of the
cereal would be yearly consumed by the
Celestials.
The report while brief is Of the ut
most of Importance TO the btmetallists.
1T furnishes evidence from the pen Of a
McKinleyite in support Of the most Ia
yorable contention of the friends OF the
double standard-that the establish
ment of free coinage of silver IN the
United States would furnish us the key
to the markets of the Orient. II is a
report which should be circulated ex-
rensively among the farmers. The fol-
lowing extracts will illustrate the two
important points he makes:
1.-The construction of the great trans
Siberian railway terminating on the FAR
Eastern seaboard was thought by many
American exporters to herald the ad-
vent of a dangerous rival. The Siberian
wheat fields have for many generations
supplied Europe with a large percent
age OF it's breadstuffs. If the new
means of communication with the East
resulted in enlarging the output ana
changing the course OF the movement,
cheaper supplies might cut OF the
American product. Among the cereals
produced in the vast empire OF Russia
the first place belongs TO rye. the Sec
IN nd the third To wheat. In
the country penetrated by the great
railway or tributary thereto. the north
ern and northwestern provinces OF
Russia, as well as the central nom
Christian governments, less than TWO
per cent of the productive land within
reach of the railway is devoted TO the
growing of wheat In the extreme
south and southeast wheat assumes the
first place. The outlet for the wheat
producing country is found in the
great inland sea, where the market Is
near by. In view of this / am of the
opinion that the extension OF trans
siberian railway will not be followed
nv an increase in the expectation of
Russian wheat.
with a more favorable exchange, or
an advance in the present price OF sill
yer, China would afford an almost un-
limited market for American wheat
Even though it now takes $2.25, Mexi-
increase in the consumption of Amer
acan wheat in that empire. This differ
ence in exchange brings flour up to 81
TO SIS per hundred pounds to the con-
sumer, who finds Ii no easier to secure
the dollar in China than when there
was only slight difference of exchange
and -four was selling In the empire
for $3.50 to 81 per hundred pounds II
ahe Americans lose their market foi
wheat in the Orient II will not be due
to the development of Siberia and the
opening of the railway to the heart Of
that vast country"
What MIR. Johnson tries to show II
that when -four sells in Hong Kong fol
a. in gold per hundred, the Chinamar
must advance $3.50 in the white meta
10 secure the sack of -four. lie has NJ
gold and must pay In silver. His earn
ing power and his purchasing poWei
have therefore decreased. lie woul'
like to buy American wheat but he can
not.