Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1915-09-16

present price of wheat is only tempo
rary and that some time before the
first of June wheat will go up to
ST.. 40 per bushel where it was when
we harvested our grain.
Now somebody is to blame for the
low price of wheat, but it is not any
one man or any combination of men,
it is a woman, and she is not a
s%uffragette, her name is Dame Nature.
Supply and demand determine the
price of our wheat-our supply this
year is enormous-the biggest in the
history of the world-the demand is
great but some of our best customers
the European nations, are financially
crippled. If it was not for these same
nations and the war wheat would be
worth fifty cents per bushel.
An artificial combination may in1u-
ence the price of grain for a short
time when there is a limited supply
but no aggregation of capital can in
fuence the price of grain when an
enormous crop has been raised.
The whole aim of your editorial is
to make the farmer believe that grain
prices are reduced temporarily only
until the farmer has sold his grain
and then up go prices. Do you believe
this to be the case? Is it a fact? If
it is true and you believe it to be true
l expect to see you a multi-millionaire
before next summer All you will
have to do is to buy December wheat
at 9Oc or May at Csc and if wheat
goes up to Sl.OO in the Minneapolis
market any time between now and
June first, 1916, you will make from
five to ten cents on every bushel that
you buy.
What fools these chamber of com
MERGE people are, this gang of rob-
bers. If wheat is sure to go up why
do they not fix it so that the farmer,
the editor, and all the rest of us fell
lows, poor outsiders, can not take
advantage of the game that they are
playing and reap all the profits for
ourselves?
If wheat is bound to go to a dollar
in the Minneapolis market why is it
that you can right now find plenty of
people who will agree to deliver thou
sands of bushels of wheat in Deem
Der for 9Oc and in May for Csc?
The facts are these: nobody knows
what the price of wheat will be in
the future, but the probability is that
it will be 9Oc next December in the
Minneapolis market. 1t may be high
err and it may be lower. We Go know
this much that if we put our grain in
the elevator we will have to pay stor-
age; if we hold it in our granary we
will have to stand shrinkage and in
both cases we are out the interest on
our money; if we sell u grain and
buy futures we are out the brokerage
fee and interest on our margin money.
These things are certain. 1t is as
certain as two and two make four that
the man who speculates will, in the
long run, lose. He is playing with
loaded dice, the brokerage fee, the
shrinkage of the grain, the interest
on the money all load the dice.
Your editorial in effect advises your
farmer subscribers to speculate in
grain, to hold their whaet. Suppose
they take your advice and wheat goes
down will you not be responsible for
their loss?
Your editorial points out the cham
Der of commerce as the satanic iniu-
ence that the farmer must fight. Sup
pose that the chamber of commerce is
ar organization that does more to
stabilize and facilitate the marketing
of grain than any other human
agency. If that is so you are advis-
ing the farmers to attack their best
friend. The farmer ]hasenough to fight
against without conjuring up imagi-
nary evils.
The farmer is lot getting a fair
return for his capital and labor.
When you consider the money invest
ed in his real esate, in his stock and
machinery, the labor Of himself, his
wife and his children, the risk he
runs, l doubt if S1.25 per bushel for
wheat would be a fair price. The
farmer is being robbed but when you
call out stop thief!' and point tc
the chamber Of you are
pointing to the wrong party and the
real thief is only too delighted to joir
in the cry with you and thus direct
attention away from his own knavery.
Who is the thief? There are many
of them, land spectators, over-taxins
of personal property and investments,
the oily-tongued promoter of fake
scheme s, extravaganza in the use O.
public money these are some of thu
robbers.