The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-03-09

business the result will tend seriously to complicate much of the business interests
 of the United States.
 If it be true. as commonly asserted,
 that the market price of wheat is a
 barometer by which all food prices are tested, then high prices of food commodi- ties must continue if the government
 holds it's wheat at $2.26 a bushel. Va
 rious plans have been suggested by which the problem could be solved One of them
 was referred to in this column some
 weeks ago. In the fundamental prlnci-
 pie upon which this plan is based therc seems to be a common agreement that 1t provides the best way to solve this
 important problem.
 A day or two ago the produce exchange or some of it's leading members recom-
 mended the adoption of plan which is
 based upon this principle. Let there be established a market, free and open for American wheat That market would be
 certain to name a price for wheat Whlch
 would enable us to sell our wheat to
 other nations in successful competition
 with the wheat offered by Australia ana Argentina Some rather puzzling de-
 tails must he worked out before satisfac-
 tory market of this kind can be estab- lished But in a general way the idea seems to be that having established a reasonable market price then the farmers
 may market their wheat at this price and obtain certificates which will snow that they have parted with their wheat at the normal market price.
 ! For example, it is said that reasona- ble market price might be fixed at ap- | proximately Sl 26 cents bushel. with l that price established the farmers could sell their wheat at that rate and then with the certificates they would be able | to demonstrate to the government that | they had been paid $1.26 a bushel in the | open market so that the government | could be called upon to pay them only S1
 a bushel. in order to make good its guar
 antee of s2.26 a bushel.
 | In any event the government will be obliged to pay the farmers approximate llv sloOO eco for the wheat harvest of l i919 If no normal market is established, based upon the operation of the law of lsupplv and demand, then the govern l ment must pay to the farmers, if they
 harvest 100000 coo bushels of wheat this year. at least $2.250. 00,000, and take the wheat What would the government do with this enormous amount of wheatI ! It must either dispoTe of it for any price l it can get or it must burn it or turn it back to the farmers to feed to meat anl :
 mals.
 1 It is deemed the better way, there ] fore for both the government and the ! farmers as wei las for the people, that an open and normal market be estab- ished in which wheat may be disposed l of for reasonable prices, and then the
 government in order sto fulfill it's guar
 antee will pay the farmers the difference | between that guarantee and the money | which they received when they marketed | their wheat.
 | The problem is on the whole very im- 1 portant for the country and the gov ernment to answer satisfactorily. In any
 event the people. through taxation, will be compelled to pay to the farmers ap- 1 proximately s1,000, 000000 for the wheat which they harvest this year. The farm | CTS in good faith enlarged their acreage, | improved their cultivation of wheat and may demonstrate that it is possible foI 1 the United States to harvest in excess 1 of 1 600 GOO 900 bushels of wheat in year. They were stimulated to this by the
 pledge made by the government that they should be paid $226 a bushel at Chicago 1 for their wheat. Both the farmers and | the country will expect that the gov | ernment will act in good faith toward 1 the farmers, who now constitute about
 one-third of the industrial workers of | fba nation