Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1917-07-25
Twenty Years From Now Many
Readers Will Tell Their Chill
dren of High Prices in
European War.
HAVE NOT SEEN LIKE OF
PRESENT PRICES IN CENTURY
We Are Making Price History
These Days. Prices May be
Twice as High Next VIM
ter as They Are Now.

mas not seen the ike Oh present prl-
ces for over hundred years. Our
fathers and GRANDPA theirs tell us that
prices ware very high during the
Civil War, from 1S61-1S65. Up I'M
til 1914, most Americans thought
that we would never again see such
high prices in this country. But dur
ing the Civil War, the highest price
of wheat in Chicago was $2.95 per
bushel Today, wheat is selling so
cents higher than this. The highest
price of corn during te Civil War
times was Sill, but today corn is
nearly 80 cents higher than this
Oats, however, reached 80 to 30
cents several times during the Civil
War, which is a somewhat higher
price than they have reached during
the present war.
For the most part, prices stayed
higher for several years following
the Civil War, but they went up and
down in a very startling manner.
The corn crop sold in 1864, for in
stance, at around 80 to so cents a
bushel, whereas, the corn crop of
1865 sod at close to 40 cents a BUSH
ell, and that of 1856 at so cents to 81
per bushel. 1t took the country
about ten years to get down to a
basis where prices stopped their ex-
ftremely violent fluctuations. In good
Icrop years, prices would go away
down, but the slightest scarcity
would send them sky-high. This was
true not only of oats, wheat and
corn, but also of cattle and hog pri-
ces.
A little over one hundred years
ago, Napoleon was shaking the world
in somewhat the same way as the
world is being shaken today Just
before Napoleon began to stir things
up, wheat was selling at around
S1.25 per bushel in England, but
during the fifteen years during which
Napoleon was active, wheat averag-
ed around s2.75 per bushel in Eng
land At one time it reached nearly
IS a bushel. However, there were
times even during the midst of the
Napoleonic wars when wheat sold
for less than So bushel. Even after
Napoleon was exiled, it was six or
seven years before wheat prices got
back to normal During good crop
seasons in war times prices may not
be so excessively high, but the slight
est scarcity sends them skyward with
a bound.
One reason why prices reached
such extraordinary heights during
the Napo.eonic period was the fact
that there were serious crop failures
in 1909, 1903, 1910, 1911 and 1912.
During the first two years of the
present war, prices were held down
by exceedingly good wheat and po-
tato crops. But last year, the wheat
crop was 40 per cent smaller than
il was the preceding year, the corn
crop was Il per cent smaller, the
oats crop 20 per cent smaller, the
Potato crop 20 per cent smaller and
at the present time the hog crop
seems to be about 10 per cent small
Ter Under ordinary conditions, to
compensate for such shortage, we
would expect al advance in wheat
prices over the preceding year OF
about 100 per cent, OF corn prices
about 20 per cent of oats prices
about - per cent, of potato prices
about 43 per cent, and Of hog prices
about 80 per cent. Actually, prices
have gone considerably higher than
this, but this really is not surprising
in view of the acute shortage of
foodstuffs over the entire world.
The entire civilized worldShas new
er been so panic-stricken as it is to-
day. 1t is no wonder, therefore,
that wheat is 81 per bushel higher
than supply conditions would seem
to warrant, that corn is so cents per
bushel higher than we would expect
from the supply. Potatoes seem to
be fully a dollar too high, but oats
are only about 10 cents too high, and
hogs are not far out of the way, when
the price of corn and the shortage
of the hog crop are considered.
We are making price history these
days. If the season during the next
three months is at all favorable, the
probabilities ares that the world new
er will see such high prices again
during the next forty or fifty years.
But if we have a season like we had
last year, we may see prices next
winter twice as high as they are now.
1t must be remembered that We get
seasons like that Of last year only
about once in ten years as rule.
During war periods, farmers are