The sun., 1919-08-14
Wheat To-day and Tomorrow Un-
der Government Price Fixing.

It's frank possessor, has gained the
that we imagine the United
States Grain Administration can do
as 1t pleases with the American wheat
crop from the first to the last shock
the 1919 harvest. We never have
had any such notion. We never have
dreamed that any such notion could
be conveyed to a soul. But If our
critic has understood us to hold a
misapprehension of that sort others
may have done so. Therefore we
quote his challenge, which is as
straight an explanation Of the facts
as any one could wish:
First, the Grain Corporation. rep
resenting the Government, does not
possess or own this years wheat
crop. There is no authority by law
for It to take It from the producer.
1t can secure It only by purchase,
and It stands ready to purchase at
the Government guarantee price so
that a minimum is assured the pro-
Queer; but there Is no obligation by
law for the producer to sell to the
Government II he can do better else
where. For over four months he a
done better elsewhere. until to-day
the Grain Corporation does not own
exceeding twenty million bushels of
wheat and flour, and 1t owes more
than h a amount to complete a con-
tract for definite delivery to the AL
lies, made last November. and ex-
tending to August 81. That is. the
Grain Corporation to-day possesses
no wheat on which 1t could establish
a resale price"
But we have said or thought moth
ing to the contrary. What we think
and what, If we have not already said
1t, we say now Is not that the greater
part of our wheat crop, indicated to-
day at $40, 1000, 900 bushels, has come.
but that II will come to the Grain
Corporation. 1t will come looking for
the Government guaranteed price Of
$2.26 a bushel. Naturally it will not
come till the wheat Is ready to go to
market. Wheat growing in the field
is a prospect. Wheat clamoring in the
market is a solid reality.
Our national wheat crop only now
being garnered,. naturally the Grain
Corporation has not yet been buried
under the offerings of the nations
farms. Naturally too there being so
far relatively only a trife of new
wheat to seek any market, what little
has come forward has rushed to the
highest bidder. We very much fear,
however, that before the Wheat Di-
rector is through with, before he Is
well into, the colossal crop of this
year Mr.. BARNES VIII have on his
hands for the Government, as the alb
solute possessor, all the wheat he
wants and millions of bushels
than he wants.
Again we quote u critic:
Recent crop ~shr!nkage has DEM
onstrated beyond doubt that II ex-
port opportunity were open to our
producers in America they could sell
their crop at or above the Govern
ment guarantee price"
Crop means all-all our wheat.
Since the latest report Of the De-
partment Of Agriculture only a few
days ago we have stated that a shrink
age of 22O,OOO,O00 bushels from the
earlier and fabulous promise of not
far from a billion and a quarter of
bushels would strikIngly tighten the
Grain Corporations burden of the
weeks and months to come, with the
rush of our crops to market.
But since the tangible worlds i'm
port demand Is estimated at about
only 700,000,000 bushels, and since
Canada. Argentina and Australia are
going to be, must be, insistent foreign
sellers Of their hundreds of millions
OF bushels of surplus wheat, how could
Jul wheat producers or wheat specu-
lators, given the export opportunity"
sell for export to a limited foreign
market our prodigious crop at or
above the Government guarantee
price" or at any price? Where would
they sell itf
Abroad, as here, there Is inevitably
an eager, a fierce demand before there
is enough wheat. But when, with the
new wheat coming upon the market
In tidal waves, there Is too much 1t
will be 8 different economic and hnan-
cial story.
Once more we shall quote and
gladly, for this relates to n principle
and a fact argued as bunglingly as fire.
quently by defenders of Mr.. WILSON'S
Grain Administration and wheat pol
icy. It is that "a wheat level arbltra-
rily and artificially reduced would not
exercise a direct influence on the price
Of other foods" 1t is that:
at can be substantiated by the ex-
perience of all the countries abroad
where an artihcially reduced level Of
Hour and bread Is made by national
subsidy. Particularly France, which
maintains a bread price at very little
above the pre-war normal, yet the
general level Of all foods rules in