The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-02-23
IF SILVER WERE $1.29.
Farmers Could Sell Their Wheat In
the Orient

Washington correspondence Denver
News: A recent report made by Consul
Arson Burlingame Johnson of Anon,
China, to the state department on Isl
berian VS.. American wheat" contains
a powerful argument in favor of the
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 utmost
value to the bimetallists. 1t furnishes
evidence from the pen of a McKinleyite
in support of the most forcible conten-
ton of the friends of the double stand
ard. That the establishment of free
coinage of silver in the United States
would furnish US with the key to the
markets of the Orient.
The, American with the white dollar
would drive the Englishman with the
yellow sovereign out of business or
away from monometallism.
1t is a report which should be circu-
lated extensively among the farmers
They are enjoying temporary prosperity
this year because Of the failure of
crops in other parts of the world. Next
year they may be compelled, as they
have been in the past, to burn their
corn for fuel and sell their wheat for
%. cents per bushel.
If by shaking off the incubus of the
gold standard they could gain access
to the Oriental markets, they would
have never falling demand for their
products, which would sustain a high
level of prices.
At the present time, owing to the de-
probation of. silver, the Chinaman can
not afford to eat wheaton bread. A
simple illustration will make clear the
difficulty: Suppose flour is set down
in Hong Kong for 81 per hundred in
gold. The yellow man has no gold, but
he has silver. Silver is deprecated.
Consequently he must advance 81 so in
the white metal to secure the sack of
flour. 1t is just as hard now for the
Chinaman to earn a silver dollar as il
was when silver commanded $1.29 per
ounce. His earning power and his pur-
chasing power have therefore decreas-
ed. He would like to buy American
wheat, but he cannot
Consul johnson, who, by the way, is
q Colorado man, a protege of Senator
Wolcott, has shown characteristic Col
orado enterprise in gathering data for
his report.
Anon is not near. the base of sup
plies for information. It is about as
far from the Siberian wheat fields as !
/
cation being considered. Nevertheless. !
Mr.. Johnson has become possessed of |
most valuable information concerning /
the conception of Asiatic Russia wheat
with that of America The following /
will illustrate the two import |
ant points he makes:
The construction of the great Trans
Siberian railway, terminating on the |
TAR eastern Seaboard, was thought by
many American exporters to herald the |
advent of a dangerous rival The ST.
oerian wheat fields have for many
supplied Europe with a |
arge percentage of its breadstuffs. If
he new emans of communication with
he east resulted in charging the out
'ut and changing the course of the
movement, cheaper supplies might cut
III the american product Among the
cereals produced in the vast empire of
russia, the first place belongs to rye.
he second to oats, and the third to
Vheat. OF the country penetrated bv
ne great railway or tributary thereto
the northern and northwestern prov
noes of Russia, as well as the central
governments-less than 3
Ter cent of the productive land within
each of the railway is devoted to the
rowing of wheat. In the extreme
outh and southeast, the cultivation of
wheat assumes the first place: here.
rom one-third to one-half of all the
ands under crops are sown to wheat.
he outlet for the Neutrality-suspicious.
ountry is found in the great inland
cas-. While the market is near by.
Wheat in Russia ranks third in the
reduction of cereals. rye taking the
ead and oats the second place. In view
t this, | am of the opinion that the
of the Trans Siberian rail-
iay will not be followed by an in
rease in the expectation of Russian
heat
With a more favorable exchange. or
n advance in the present price of sill
er, China would afford an almost I'M Ia
mited market for American wheat.
ven though it now takes 50. 25 Mexican !.
} equal 81 in gold. there is a STEADY in
rease in the consumption of American [
heat in that empire. This differences ,
exchange brings flour UP to Sc to IS
er loo pounds to the consumer. who
nds it no easier TO secure the dollar in ]
hina than when there was only a
light difference of exchange, and flour :
as selling in the empire for $3.50 to 81 T
er 100 pounds. If the Americans lose
leir market for wheat in the Orient, Y
will not be due to the development
Siberia and the opening of the rail-
ay to the heart of that vast coun-
y"