People's voice., 1900-09-13
DOLLAR WHEAT IN SIGHT.

TO De mucn ueIdyeu Dy money lu-
terests. Truly,
WILLIS X FOLKS.
DOLLAR WHEAT IN SIGHT.
EDITOR VoICE:-Under the above cap
tion many Kansas papers are publish
ing interviews with Secretary Will
son of the Board of Agriculture where
in he is made to say that wheat will
be one dollar before the end of the
year.
This gentleman knows nearly as
much about what will help the Kan
sas wheat producer as his predecessor,
who was wise enough on November :
1896, to decide for all wheat producers
of this Union before he had given the
question thirty hours sober thought.
l refer to Mr.. Mortons answer to a
diplomatic letter from the Russian
government retired to him BY Richard
Olney, then secretary of state: (See
August McClures pagasD, proposing to
put wheat at 81 90 per bushel and
maintain this price
These honorable gentlemen make
one who has watched the speculalors
in Chicago and New York thwart the
Legitimate effects of demand and sup
ply think they are paid for Their
pains Why do they like Wilson:
prediction of dollar wheat? Because
the public mind is led to expect it and
myriads of successful bankers, farm
ers, merchants and professional meu
throughout Kansas, Missouri, Iowa
and Illinois buy wheat of these same
cormorants at eighty cents to hold
for Sl.O0. In a few days it is sold
back to them at seventy-five cents,
The process is continued until there
are not so many successful bankers
and merchants in the states named,
but millions more in the hands Of
the Chicago men who fleece the lambs
The most villainous part of this play
is that the honest producer in sum
ner county, Kansas, sells his wheat
now at fifty cents per bushel.
The railroads of our states are all
in this monstrous scheme to divert the
Kansas wheat crop from its natural
channels aud help cormorants doing
business in Chicago. l refer to the
well-known fact that for years Coun-
Selman on the Rock Island, Richard
son on the Santa Fe and Hall and
Robinson on the Missouri Pacific get
the Chicago haul on their cars OF
wheat at least five cents per hundred
less than any Kansas farmer can get.
If the rake-off of five cents don't pull
our wheat out of the natural channels
and put it in Chicago storage houses
a tate Is made that will do it and the
above-named gentlemen could state
now what this rate is for September
1900. Without large visible supply
in the great warehouses of Chicago
the Board of Trade could not well
work their cards.
My theory is that gradually and
permanently better prices would i'm
mediately result on Kansas wheat if all
the warehouses of Chicago were con.
demned, so far as they are now used
in speculation, the holders being re-
stricted to legitimate uses of the con.
tents and the future selling of wheat
prohibited.
To carry this thought farther, why
should not the people through their
government do this business instead
of turning it over to a lot of gam.
blers? An experience of some years
in the wheat business in Kansas leads
me to believe that we would now have
81. 90 wheat in Kansas had we, in July,
entirely stopped the special railroad
rates and selling of storage receipts
for future delivery.
WILLIS K. Folks.
The following is the statement from
Secretary Wilson, referred to above:
American wheat is at a fair price
today, and before the end of the
year it will go to one dollar bushel
because the demand for our surplu: