The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1916-11-07
SHORT WHEAT AND COTTON
BIG MENACE TO AMERICANS
New York Paper Quoted as to British
Activity in Buying Up Wheat on
the Chicago Market.

went last week, and said he found
the cotton situation still had very
strong support at these advanced
Rrices, and that the last ginners' re-
port absolutely confirms the idea OF
a very short crop. The high price
with the smallness If tle crop. means
that it is more nearly ginned than
ever before in it's history. The high
est amount that it mas ever shown be-
.ort ginned on THE cate w"s Go pc"
cent Of the crop. This would make
this crop under 100000 bales.
81 saw tie following editorial in
the New lor!, evening Mail while |
was gone Sad 81. AcLaurin. at
may be Of some interest in connection
with the cotton crop:
"|The British gova"~ ment, the
Dutch govern. .ant an ~,.ner govern
ments, but 2 incirally the British
government, nave oIu"a:s on the
floor of the Chicago sla.A market to
buy wheat for them, and to keep the
halter secret. To iiTulSe the identity
Of the principal means no more bust
ness from the source for the broker.
Zone who knows the Chicago
wheat pits as few men know it. went
about the floor the other day and got
line on what this foreign buying
amounts to. In one day it was 2ooo,-
900 bushels. Another day it was L.
100000. 1t averages perhaps 5nCUc,-
600 bushels a mouth. fle New York
Times says exports from the United
States and Canada for the last three
months have been at the rate ca
40O,000,000 bushels a year.
"'The wheat crop Of America this
year is equal to only 5S5,00O,OO0 bush
els. The normal requirements OF this
country for fec ing itself are 625,000,-
900 bushels 70 meet our own needs
regardless Of lu.y eyp0c.s ne would
have to GaW upon such supply Of
grain Is vas left over from last sea-
son.
The Canadian crop is failure.
If zoe 800 600 bushels Of wheat, or
anyth ng like that amount, should be
sent out of this country, it would pre-
cipitate food crisis such as this
country never has known and, it is to
be hoped never will know.
"4Aheat is selling above $1.70 a
bushel. The price is so sensationally
high that farmers are rushing their
grain to market, dumping their stun
as fast as they can, rakias and scrsp-
ing their bins to get as much har-
vest of gold as possible. The foreign
buyers, masked as they are by Am
erican brokers, are gathering tne
grain, hurrying it to tha seaboaTd,
shipping it across the seas.
America can not spare a bushel
of it's wheat. Every day that foreign
buying draws 100000 or 100000
bushels out of this country's stock in
creases the danger of such shortage
as will mean bread riots, hunger,
widespread suffering later on.
"'What shocking thing, what a
horror it would be if We. in our folly,
our blindness and our disregard of
national safety, permitted the .oIelgn-
ers to deplete our stock so that we,
the greatest grain producers Of the
earth, should be forced to buy back
grain from them that our people
should not hunger.
"'It is idle, worse than idle, to think
this situation is not possible. Not
only is it possible, but probable.
Those who know wheat in all its re-
lations declare we may have to buy
back from Europe for $3.50 to $500
a bushel the grain we are now SELL
ing so freely, so blithely and 80
thoughtless ct $3.50, $16.j. sl.70.''
Mr.. McLaurin said further:
There are strong indications that
British interests are following the
same plan with regard to the cotton
crop as set forth in this article about
wheat. Last Saturday cotton closed
at 18.48 in New York, and 10.4S in
Liverpool. To meet this advance
Liverpool was due to open at 1857.
1t opened at 1850 and went at orce
to 1915, with spot sales at about one
half cent above Fridays spot mar
kets. l have been watching the mar
ket closely and every week 1t opens
at new high levels, and somebody
takes all the cotton oere1 for sale
so as to steady the market at con-
slant advance. From what I could
gather on the street, Weld & Co. and
Gwathmey & Co. are the recognized
representatives of the British inter-
est, and have been the leading buy
ers on this advance. England is
financing this war, and she has got
to make the money out of the United
States and other parts of the world.
In 1914 she made money because OF a
panic about cotton and now, with a
full knowledge of the short crop, it
looks to me as if she was not only