The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-12-31
RISING wHEAr PRICES.

1t may be surprising to many of
current market quotations to note that
wheat is selling at a figure in advance
OF the governments guaranteed price
to the producer.
Latest reports of the department of
agriculture, show a winter wheat acre.
age of 100000 acres and suggest &
winter wheat crop of 765,O0O.000 blu.
in 1919. The average condition of
winter wheat on December 10, was
9S.5 per cent, an almost perfect con-
dition. Barring the most extraordi-
nary reversals during the growing of
the crop to maturity, the winter wheat
yield of 1919 promises to be by all
odds the biggest that has ever been
raised in the United States. Hereto
fore the record harvest of winter
wheat was 6S1,990.0oO blu. in 1914; in
the year 1915, when the largest spring
and winter wheat crop ever raised
was harvested. out of a total of 1,026,-
10000 blu. 673,0O0,000 blu. were win
ter wheat. The acreage this year
shows an increase of nearly 100000
or 16 per cent greater than in 1917.
In view f-this promise Of the biggest
bumper wheat crop, can present prices
for wheat hold in this country, and if
so. how much longer?
The 1918 wheat crop today practi-
cally in it's entirety. declares Invest
ment News. is in the hands of the
United States government. This may
explain not only the steady prices rul-
ing for wheat. but even the tendency
for that cereal to continue to advance.
The truth of the matter is that the
wheat crop of the country has been
cornered by Uncle Sam.
The governments adventure in the
pit game" however, continues the
News, may yet turn out to prove an
exceedingly costly one. The laws of
supply and demand cannot be set at
naught. even by governments. When
the break in foodstuffs comes. as come
It must, what is Uncle Sam going to
do? Out of the country's visible sup
ply of nearly 115,000,00O bu. Uncle
Sam has sailed away a boarding in
wheat estimated by grain operators at
approximately 10O,000,000 blu. This
enormous amount held by the govern
ment is absolutely unavailable, except
as the government wishes, either for
trading purposes or for turning into
flour, and therefore for consumption.
Whenever there is a corner in any
commodity it follows that if a demand
develop for that commodity the price
~ H.; t. -
wheat is doing in the United States to-
day. and that is the reason why wheat
notwithstanding the fixed price of
$2.26 per blu. (Chicago basis), is ig-
nored and there are bids today for
wheat at prices ranging much higher.
It looks as tho wheat must come
down. There is now more than enough
wheat to feed the entire world for the
next IL months. The crop in the Ar
gentine is reported one of the best and
will be marketed ahead of ours. The
India crop is coming, and there is no
doubt that the farmers of Austria, of
Hungary, and of Russia will busy
themselves in the next few months for
the biggest wheat crops their coun-
tries ever raised.
What then shall Uncle Sam do when
the deluge comes? The government
/ can purchase the wheat at the price
guaranteed to the farmer, $2.26 a bu.,
and sell it in the market at the then
prevailing price and charge the loss di-
rect to the war; or, it can permit the
farmer to sell the wheat and pay the
farmer the difference between the
price he received in the open market
and the guaranteed price. In any event
Uncle Sam stands to lose a goodly sum
Of money. for it Us inconceivable that
| in a land of plenty with bumper crops.
the same prices should prevail with
| the supply increasing and the demand
diminishing that prevailed when the
supply was decreasing and the demand
| increasing. In other words, the Amer
lean family will not pay war prices
for peace bread.