Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1899-07-14

GudC VIC piOuuCe duu Sell. NOW NudC
business will be successfully based up
on a single purchaser; she also has her
choice of other fields than ours and in
variably buys where she can buy the
cheapest. Ihave never heard of Great
Britain charged with being a poor mer.
chant. What a you do-what a l
do? You may say that | could in or
der to help you, reduce the rate. Last
year we reduced the rate equal to more
than 80 to 400 thousand dollars.
Will that enhance the value of your
bushel of wheat his year? I think
not. [ think the other man will buy it
that much cheaper. Now, what you
want is ne mouths to eat your grain.
You want new markets for your grain;
you want more people to consume that
which you raise from the soil. You
will have to stop and as far as my voice
goes whenever l can and wherever I
can, I will raise it to help you to stop
being compelled to send your produce
to n buyer. (Applause.) We have
in this country a great variety of pro-
ducts and there is a market for them
all.
The farmer of Texas today is selling
his cotton lower than it has been sold
certainly in my recollection, and why?
Like the wheat farmer of North Dako-
ia he is sending his cotton to Great
Britain. Twenty-Five years ago Great
Britain commanded the cotton trade of
the world. Within that time Japan
and China have taken up the manu-
facture of cotton and Britain no long
err commands the trade. These people
are furnishing their own cotton. They
are buying the short staple, raw cotton
of India, and they are trying to buy
our long staple from the south, mixing
them together and making a good yarn
for the manufacture of the cloth for
their use. Now while our people are
raising this cotton and forcing it on
market in Great Britain, Great Britain
is losing her control of the market and
has more than she wants-has more
cotton offered than she wants to buy.
Is it strange that the prices should go
down while that is going on? Two
years ago we started a few bales of cot
ton and see how it would improve the
quality Of the cloth, and past your
doors every day, almost every train for
the last six or eight months has car
ried carload after carload of cotton.
At the same time while we have carried
probably 10000 bales to the Pacific
coast, 100000 or 100000 bales would
have gone if it could have been carried
by us from the Pacific coast of this
country to Asia, aud SO with the grain.
1t Is only three years ago that the low
rate of ocean transportation induced a
considerable movement of Pacific coast
flour tc the Orient. The rate was
$3.50 a ton. The business grew so fast
that the ships could not carry it aud
the ships today demand five and six
dollars a ton. Now, there are not
ships leaving the Pacific coast-not
ships enough to carry one bag Of flour
where ten offers. The -four today that
goes to the Orient Is not used for
bread, it is used for a little few fancy
cakes, comparatively no more than
sugar is used here to make candy. The
market there is without limit because
of the number of mouths to feed. One
half Of the population of the globe lies
between Balvadosa and the strait set
Elements. In China and japan lies
n third Of the population of the
world. We cal supply the portion of
China nearest the ocean for one or
two hundred miles back cheaper than
they could bring it from the interior of
their w country and feed their own
people on the coast, (.Applause.)
Now, why don't we-why don't we do
it? Now, if we should give four hun
dred millions of people-if we should
give them a bag of wheat a year per
capita it would take one hundred mil
lion bushels to supply it, and a hun.
dred million bushels is more than the
average shipments of this country to
foreign countries for the past ten
years. You can't spare them over
enough to give them a peck apiece for
a year. If that is true, why is it not
worth your while to pay the first atten-
ton to that market and that attention
will only be paid when you insist
when you insist that your representa-
tives shall pay attention, as far as in
them lies-do everything to secure for
you that market. (Applause.)
When | vas on the Pacific coast two
or three weeks ago a mill with the
capacity of 1900 OF 1000 barrels per
day, a man told me that he couldn't
get ship for 100 barrels a day,
and orders he couldn't pretend to fill.
There is no danger of your overriding
it. There is no danger of you1 not
having a market and [ believe that if
we are true to ourselves and intelli-
gent as we ought to be that those of
us who go back a few years ago and
remember dollar wheat will see it
again; there is no reason why we
should not. There is no reason why
we should not have dollor wheat if we
will get people to take our wheat and
our grain and to eat it and make it
scarcer for the people who have here
tofore had the opportunity of buying
it at their own price. Bear in mind no
matter what you do, you may produce
it, you may get the cost of production
down to thirty cents a bushel and l
may carry it for five cents a bushel and
it would not raise the price one iota. The
fellow who buys it and eats it is the
man who is going to get the benefit of
the lower price unless you can make
it scarce. If you can make it scarce it
is an economic law that that which is
scarce brings its %price,and where there
is a surplus one man Is passing that
surplus to another and hoping that
the last fellow that gets it will be the
one that holds it when the price goes
down. (Applause) Now l can't do any