Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1915-01-01

potent every day that America now
stands close to the position of sup
| plying the world with wheat and
| flour and can name her own prices.
| lnasmuch as it is Americas grain
! and flour that has dominated its
/ trade balance since the European
war began these commodities have
leaped to a place of Importance III
the worlds business.
Smile at Russia
Couched in carefully worded
/ phrases purporting to importially
disclose the real situation, buyers in
England are advising American hold
ers to sell their May wheat in Chi
cage. They claim also that Arge..
tine has l00,00O.o00 bushels of
wheat to sell and that the country
viii be compelled, Through Imam
cial stress, to sell quickly. Since
England has the only alternative of
buying Argentine wheat to grind at
home, the only actual competition
American millers now find comes
from the South American angle.
English spectators are asserting
tha. they eNnect sool To re-
ceiye large shipments OF wheat
from Russia but local millers smile
at this, declaring that Russia has too
many mouths of her own to feed to
take chances on sending its wheat
out of the country.
the chief difficulty with the ex-
port of wheat and flour at this time
is the scarcity OF tonnage. Charters
TO the United Kingdom have scared
to 80 shillings An offer of 46s Sd
was made to the Great Northern
steamship company last week for a
charter of the Minnesota for the
United Kingdom, and declined.
Charters to Baltic ports have mount
ed to 65 shllings and are firm at
that level.
American millers can see nothing
but firmness ahead. In the Philip
pines an order for 5000 barrels of
flour was filled from Seattle this
week. China is grinding its own
wheat, bought 80 cents, gold below
the world market, in mills at Shang-
hal. whose machinery was made in
America. The capacity of these
mills at Shanghai and up the river
is 5000 barrels a day, but conf
Dental reports from men in the field
to the home offices here show that
this crop has nearly all been ground
and the Manchurian crop is a failure.
Japan, which in normal years is a
heavy buyer of American wheat, has
not appeared on this market this
year. Local millers believe the
Japanese are conserving their high
priced flour and have gone back to
| rice as food staple.
Australia "a Buyer
Australians crop is a failure, and
the markets in the Straits Settle
r"ehtg Hollands inslhar possessions
and Java viii be supplied by Amer
lea with flour. Australia itself will
| be in the market for 100000
! bushels of wheat, and it is expected
that the bulk of it will go from
Washington. Should this be the case,
all the available wheat in storage in
this state would be sold.
For the first time in the history
of North Coast milling, Scandinavia
has been a brisk buyer on this mar
ket. Purchases of several thousand
barrels of flour were made during
| the week.
Export at Top
In the wheat trade new high
marks in values have been made al
most weekly since the war began,
and recent rises have caused no COM
ment in local circles. For the first
time bluestem and forty-fold wheat
on Wednesday sold at the same
price. With forty-iold as the princi-
pal export commodity and bluestem
the top grade of the wheat family
the situation discloses the tenseness
with which the export trade is grip.
ping American foodstuffs. Large
quantities of bluestem have beer
sold this week for export, all The
leading traders being interested il
the purchases.
The tonnage will be relieved il
} February. All spaces are booked VI
to that time, but it is expected tina
) more ships will be at the commant
of exporters before March I.
Washington, Dec. 20.-"The tota
standard grain crops of the world