The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-02-06
Wheat Theories and Wheat Facts.

Wheat Theories and Wheat Facts.
What does our neighbor the World
think 1t Is talking about when it gives
utterance to things like this?
Speaking for that great seat Of ap-
piled science, economies and benevo-
lence. the Chicago Board OF Trade. l..
F. GATES told the House Committee on
Agriculture that the needful thing as
TO wheat is to restore the law OF sup
ply and demand
when the law of supply and demand
was last in force In the Chicago pit,
year ago last August. cash wheat was
selling at s3.25. To hasten the return
of that golden age the expounders Of
the law dismiss lightly the Govern
ment's pledge and dwell solemnly upon
the enormous surpluses which the world
Is soon TO see. With a slut OF wheat
everywhere. they say, somebody. either
Government or buyers; will have to pay
billions more for the cereal than 1t will
be worth. and SO what happier solution
OF the difficulty can there be than 10
have the Government break faith and
let the Board OF Trade resume Its dis
interested service as between the farmer
and the famished?
There are judges OF food supply and
food requirements as we'll equipped as
any in La Sale street who do not be-
lleys there Is TO be any plethora OF
wheat for some years to come. In many
places stocks are low. In the devastated
countries the bins have been swept
clean. In lands where the warehouses
are reasonably full the trouble Is not
40 much a matter OF price as it is OF
distribution The back breaking surplus
OF which We hear from Chicago exists
chiefly in the minds OF gamblers Out Of
a Job and is based largely upon crops
not yet grown. in vast regions not yet
in the ground.
There Is not and there is no prospect
Of too much wheat. Until normal cond!-
tions can be restored we may easily have
too much Of a law Of supply and de-
mand as interpreted by Chicago specu-
ptors."
Nobody has proposed. nobody has in
t!mated that the Government shall dis
miss lightly its pledge to buy the farm
ers' wheat on basis Of So 20 Il bushel.
On the contrary-and If the World
doesn't know this everybody else does
the very proposal Is that, although
the Government must pay the farmers
on the So % basis, the American peo-
pie, with q glut Of American wheat,
should not be compelled to buy their
bread on a famine price basis when
pretty much all the rest Of the world
will be buying it's bread on a basis Of
81 bushel lower, perhaps even S1.10
lower, The proposal Is that the wheat
shall be put on the market by the
Government and allowed to sell down
! for the benefit OF the consumer under
the law OF supply and demand.
Possibly the judges Of food supply
and food requirements under our
neighbours dome do not believe there is
to be any plethora of wheat. But at
least national producers Of wheat like
, Australia and Argentina must believe
50; for they have cut the price OF
their wheat to about 81 a bushel lower
than our 1926 basis. National i'm
porters OF wheat like England and
: France must know 80, for they are
caIcelling orders for wheat from the
United States. They are row buying
wheat from Australia. Argentina and
other producers at about 81 lower
than our S2.2G basis.
If it is true that there is not and
there is no prospect of too much
wheat" why has the bottom dropped
out of the wheat market although the
Government is trying to prop 1t up7
Why did our wheat exports drop from
more than 33,OOO,OOO bushels in De
cember, by more than ] 0, OOO, 900 bush
cls in January? Why does the visible
supply in the United States now show
an Increase every week?
Why, even with the English and
similar contracts not deducted, is
the lowest estimate-HoovERs-of the
carry over from last season INTO this
season 100000 bushels? Why Is
the general expert estimate 100000