Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1900-01-19
fond of flour as the white ace ana as
ready to eat il ut a fair nricp.

loIlu OIL hour us Lne WIltc race anu rs
ready to eat it ut a fair price.
II question may arise, how can
people who work for wages of from
10 to - cents a day and have lived for
centuries on just such wagcs--how can
they buy flour which must he carried
across the Pacific ocean? If they did
buy flour instead of four and one-half
bushels per capita, ut the rate of one
bushel per capita, we in this country
would have to be eating corn pone. We
simply couldn't sell it. to them. Sup
pose we could let them have 100000
600 bushels, which is a very large sur
plus-the average for ten years has
been about 97.0o0.000 bushels. If we
could sell them one buShel Der capita.
it would take $50, 900, 600 bushels to sup
ply China and Japan alone. to say moth
ing of the Straits Settlements and other
countries having Il large population.
If the home market, which we have
nllrSed so long for our iron and steel
industries. is of so much value, let lis
now go on and take care o.. our agri-
cultural interests and not leave them
where they are tOday-without one iota
Of assistance from any point. \ year
ago YOU could buy nails for 81 % a
key: now they are $:3.25:. You all
know lumber has gone up and all the
other articles Of prime necessity on the
prairie farm. Fuel has advanced; ev-
rrytlin% made of iron has advanced.
But your crop has not advanced be-
cause it is sold in open competition
with the product of the world. And
until we get other peoples to eat wheat
it will not advance, and YOU will go or
hoping against hope. You will not
get Il high price for your wheat until
wheat is made scarce. The figures I
have already given illustrate i, per-
lcctly. \ shortage Of only 10000. 600
bushels in II years crop raised the
price of the whole many times the value
Of the shortage.
III we could Increase our export TO
The Orient by IO.OOO.OOO bushels ana
reduce our export to Europe 5O.OOO,0OO
bushels. | haven't the slightest doubt
that it would advance the price of
what we do send to Europe Is or 20
cents.
In the first place. what we would
send to the Orient would 80 from the
Pacific coast. The Pacific coast is
handled in Il manne entirely different
from that which prevails east of the
Rocky mountains. Having to cross
the equator twice. it must he carried
in sacks to prevent heating. not in bulk
in the hull of Il ship. as on the great
lakes or the Atlantic. The grain is all
practically bought by three concerns,
two Of them located in Liverpool and
also interested in the White Star line
OF steamers. so thai they furnish their
W shipping. 1t is sent to England
and sold for what it will bring. 1t
acts as Il damper-a wet hlankct-on
the entire market. The voyage around
the Horn is four months long. and by
the time the first car@OeS are reaching
port The last are leaving. SO that it is i'll
lilOat ut the same time. The buyer
in Europe knows what is atloat. Thus
the manner in which the crop is ham
dled breaks tle market down more
than twice the same amount from
Atlantic ports. There the buyer must
send ovcr and place his order in adj
vance of shipment. With the Pacific
coast grain it must sell for what it will
bring. The ship cannot be delayed
and the grain cannot be stored in sacks.
You must cNcuSe me if | higrcss
from the question Of markets to take
whack ut the farmers. They certainly
ought TO do better for themselves. In
England they have raised their aver
age from ten or twelve bushels Il hun
urcd years ago to % to 2i bushels. Ev-
cry intelligent farmer knows that I'M
der fair conditions he is entitled to 20
bushels to the acre. if cultivated prop
rrly. Oh, they say. that is special cul-
1ivatiOn. I would make it general
cultivation.
| notice that the senator from New
Hampshire has introduced II bill look
in" to the appointment Of Il commits
sion to investigate III commercial re-
lA1iOns with the Orient with a view TO
extending our markets. The new SEN
ator from North Dakota in the first
thirty days of his service has intro
huced a similar proposition. Both of
them seem TO me to wander wide of the
mark. They want two members of
the commission from the Atlantic
slope. two from the Pacific Seahoard
and one from the middle west. The
1'acitic slope, to be sure, raises 3.OGO.-
Coo bushels of grain. but the people
whose interest is the greatest and who
will derive the greatest benefit are the
people Of the middle west.