Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-01-06
CORN PRICE 100 HIGH
Grain Men Think the Disparity
Between Wheat and Corn
Not Sufficient.
Present Price of Corn Probably
Inflated More Than the Sit
uation Warrants.
Wheat Being Fed in Place o
Corn..Dollar Wheat
Predicted.

Predicted.
Des Moines, Jan 6.-Will we have
dollar wheat? Is the present value OF
corn inflated? These are the questions
that every one who has been watching
the grain market asks.
1t is agreed by every grain man IN
Des Moines that there is in Iowa today
complicated and peculiar general
market condition. Some of them say
that there is nothing new. yet it is safe
| to say that few of the grain men hold
market that they held a month ago
Chicago is receiving no corn from Iowa
Her total receipts have been around loo
cars day, and 1t has always been sup
posed that 1t took 400 to 500 cars of corn
each day to supply her demands, yet
her supply in the city remains around
5 600 bushels, which is 100000 more
than last year. There is every lndica-
ton that wheat in the south is being
northwest to be called upon all the de-
mands for it. The grain men n the city
think that there is not so per cent of the
grain being fed in the state fed in other
years This, even with short crop
would leave a fair surplus in the hands
of the farmers for the grain men. pro-
vided, they say, the crops were as large
as reported. The corn export trade OF
Chicago is practically nil, having drop
ped off from the two hundred millions
of former years to a present average of
twenty-five to thirty millions annually.
considering this and the substituting
of wheat instead of corn for feed, and
taking all of the hundred and one con-
ditions into consideration, is the present
value Of corn inflated? Likewise take
all conditions governing wheat this year
into consideration, are we to nave doll
lar wheat?
A local paper recently printed num-
Der of interviews with Des Moines
grain men and the concensus of their
opinions is yes to both questions.
One peculiar feature of the present
situation is that Chicago, which has
hitherto been Iowa's chief market and
the factor in fixing the prices on all
grain raised in the west and northwest
is getting no Iowa corn. This seems
the most natural thing in the world.
yet it has never happened before. Has
the increase in the price of corn cut of
the demand for 1t to such an extent
that there is no demand for corn for eN-
port at these figures, and is Chicago
now getting all she needs to satisfy
other demands made on her? If .his Is
so. the grain men OF this city under
stand the present corn market. If this
is not SO, they don't, and corn may sur
prise them and go higher.
If wheat which is now being fed in
place of corn uses up the supply in the
southwest, and the northwest is called
upon to supply the demand, then the
Des Molnes grain men understand the
wheat market, and there is a chance
for their prediction of dollar wheat to
come true.
In the meantime all the board of
trade commission houses are enjoying
an active business in speculative trade.
SO far most of the traders in Des
Moines and ether points in the state
reached from here have been bullish.
market and large sums are reported as
having been made.
j. w. Chambers of the Peavey Grain
Company reported but little corn selling.
the situation he said: The
demand in the south is good and think
that this demand is what keeps the
price up in Chicago. When the stock is
turned out to grass in the spring it looks
as tho this demand would fall off, and
If 1t does fall off, do not see what
will keep the price of corn up in Chicago
to its present price. There is considera
bic, or l will say, q little corn still in
Iowa. but the farmers who have it are
those who are able to keep it. One thing
which i have found is that there is a
larger surplus of corn in the state than
one would naturally suppose with the
crop which was harvested, and that is
because, when corn is as high as 1t is
now, the home consumption falls off;
that is. the farmers do not feed their
corn except as delicacy. l feel safe in
the corn fed that there was last year.
This feeding of wheat will cut down the
supply of wheat and force it higher"
IL. ~. deal, broker III CASH wheat,
said 1.-The prospect for cash buying was
never poorer than it is now, and do not
expect to buy any cash stuff to speak
Of until the new crop comes on the mar
ket. What I am buying goes south in
stead of to Chicago"
l.. W. Clifford of the Northern Grain
Company said: II think there is still
more or less corn in the state in the
hands of the farmers but the farmers
who are holding it are "bullish" and
able to hold their crop and will not let
it go until the new crop is assured. The
farmers reason that corn is high now
and that if we don't have a good crop 1t |
will go still higher. In our country ele- !
vators we are not storing any small
grain to speak of and we are crihbing
little corn. In fact, l think it is a good
time for the grain man to take his vaca-
,ion.
II think the present prices Of corn in
Chicago will stay about where they are
now, but in the long run 1 am bullish
IN wheat is the way C. A. Tower ex-
pressed his opinion of the present situa-
lion. I'VE are selling a good deal of
corn south" he continued. "and l think
his demand in the south, to great de-