Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1915-02-12
BRooMHALL's WHEAT FIGURES

| OfBduS VI the press 10 the ADVANCE
in prices which has taken place since
the outbreak of the war, more par
ticularly to the advance of the last
few weeks, says Broomhall'a. The
public, as usual In cases of this sort,
have VIGOROUSLY short memories,
and the leaders of public opinion In
the ordinary morning paper are
either guilty of good deal of care
lessness in the treatment of the case
concerning the prices of foodstuffs,
or they are ignorant of facts which
should be well within their knowl-
edge. The present price of wheat
ranges from about 54s per 48O
| pounds for good English wheat, to
5Ss per 4S0 pounds for the finer de-
scriptions of foreign wheat. For
flour the price varies between AIS
for bakers grade in Liverpool, to AS
Sd for a patent quality. Fortunately
for the scare-monger, the price of
wheat just before the outbreak of
war happened to be depressed to &
very low point, owing to the prom Use
OF an approaching abundant harvest
in the United States and Canada, a
promise, by the by, which was only
| partly fulfilled, as the Canadian crop
proved to be a deficient one. A COM
parison of today's price with the
price ruling just before harvest and
at the outbreak of war, consequent
| ly, is misleading one. The aver
age price OF wheat for the last four
years has been about 36s per quar-
ter of $50 pounds for a medium class
of wheat, and about 28s for ESQ
pounds for bakers grade flour. 1t
is from this basis that the present
advance should be calculated, not
from the abnOrmally depressed price
OF last July. We may take it, then,
that wheat has advanced about 2Os
per quarter above the price at which
1T would have been selling had there
been no war, and -four about las
per sack equal to about I'd on the
4-pound loaf of bread). This diff
ference, no doubt, Is a substantial
one, and, from the point of view of
the very poor consumer, is a griey-
ance of which he may perhaps Justly
complain, but when a broader view
of the situation is taken it will be
found that the nation has no great
cause for alarm or even discomfort
at the present actual price of wheat
in time of war. We have to go back
only to July, 1909, to find the price
of wheat within a measurable dis
lance of its present level. Flour at
that time was selling at GAS per
sack and the four-pound loaf of bread
within penny of today's highest
price. At that time the advance was
due merely to short crop in Ameri-
ca, and not to market manipulation.
The preceding occasion on which
wheat was at high price was in
May, 1898, the year of the notorious
Letter corner" Wheat then was
almost as high as it is today, and
flour was actually Is to IS per sack
dearer, and bread advanced to Sd
for the four-pound loaf. Those were
peace prices and occurred in the year
when the United States and Russia
were both blessed with abundant
crops. If instances are wanted when
wheat was really dear they may be
found within the experience of many
living who are still comparatively
young. AS recently as the year 1877
English wheat sold as high as 6Ss
I'd per 4SO pounds; in 1873 it never
fell throughout the year below 54s
I'd; in 1872 the minimum price of
the year was 59s lid; in 1871, SIS
I'd; in 1867 and in the beginning
of the year 1858 wheat sold between
7Os and las per $50 pounds: while
| II we go back to the time of the
Crlmean war we find that the aver
age price for the whole year or 1854
was 72s 3d. and In 1866, 74s Sd
as high as 83s per $50 pounds being
paid during several months of both
years. All the foregoing prices, it
VIII be seen occurred during modern
times. If instances of sensationally
high prices are wanted we may find
them in the years of 1912 and 1913,
during the Napoleonic wars. In the
first mentioned year the average
price of native English wheat for the
? months was 1865 per $50 pounds
and of the year 1913 109s: the price
Of barley being 66s IN 1912 and SIS
in 1913; Of oats, AS in 1912 and
SSs in 1913. We believe we have
seen it stated that one period of the
year 1912 wheat fetched 176s per
quarter, and one old member of our
trade, who passed away only a few