The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-04-08
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORM ALTON
BUREAU
FREDERIC J. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington. y. C
KANSAS WHEAT.


| in Kansas they are happy. The big
gest wheat crop in the history of the
state. the biggest wheat crop ever pro-
duced by any one state in the union,
in fact one of the biggest crops OF
anything ever produced anywhere, is
spreading its tender green across the
Kansas prairie.
Everybody out in Kansas talks
about the wheat, thinks about the
wheat and prays for the wheat. And
| answered. All the experts here in
Washington agree that the Kansas
wheat crop is enjoying almost ideal
conditions. The weather shark says
proved upon. The Snow-cover which
is SO necessary to the welfare of win
ter wheat. has been excellent And
warm, stimulating spring is in pros
pect. Nothing can really hurt that
wheat crop except a drought along in
sas knows that no such drought is go
ing to occur.
To the people of Kansas the wheat
crop is always the chief concern of
life. A good wheat crop means
wealth, good business, more flivvers,
great state of Kansas, which has an
almost fanatical press agent in every
true Kansan. If the wheat crop
prospers. the area of grin on Kansas
sprouting wheat spreads across the
prairie. If the Hessian fly. or the
wheat smut or drought comes along
to threaten the life of the wheat, the
joy is taken out of Kansas life. and
the Kansas face lengthens like a sun
flower stalk in the spring.
The intensity of the Kansas interest
in the Kansas wheat crop has radiat-
ed into all parts of the United States.
| There is no one SO benighted but
l. hot fe,
sas. 1t is to Kansas that the college
boys all go in June looking for jobs.
Kansas has a reputation for the way
it feeds them and makes them work.
1t will need a lot of them this year.
1t is estimated that $4,000 extra men
crop, which means that Kansas alone
! will be able to handle a large part of
the unemployment problem for
while.
Kansas has had bumper wheat
crops before this. the fame of which
has gone all over the world. And it
has had crop failures which have been
even more spectacular than some of
the successes. But this wheat crop,
for a variety of reasons, takes place
as one of the most dramatic events in
Kansas history.
The 1917 wheat crop, as every one
knows. was abnormally light, In re-
Spouse to the pleas of the food admin
istration the Kansas farmers made
Ngreat efforts for the 1918 crop. 1t was
good, but not a bumper. And all the
world was stifl short of wheat That,
you will remember, was the time of
wheatless days and wheatless meals,
and Queer-looking bread and cake,
when you had to buy a pound of
something else with every pound of
wheat flour
The Kansas farmers determined
that the great state of Kansas should
do all that one state could to relieve
this world shortage of wheat. And
the Kansans claim-and there is
good deal of evidence to support their
claim-that pure patriotism was their
only motive. Congress had passed the
law by which the government guaran-
tees the farmer a price that means
about 81 for him on every bushel. But
at that time 81 looked like very
small price for the 1919 wheat crop.
Every one believed that the war would
continue for yeara and the farmers
believed that if the government had
! left wheat prices uncontrolled, they
could have gotten a great deal more
than $500 a bushel for their wheat.
Besides that, they claim that corn
looked to be a much more profitable
crop than wheat, according to all signs
at that time. Nevertheless they plant
ed wheat because wheat was what the
world needed. and wheat was what
Hoover demanded they. should plant.
The crop was planted under tre
mendous difficulties. The preceding
summer the crop had been gathered
only by calling ON the city and town
/ folk for volunteers, and by using
women and children; and the plant
ing of the new crop was almost as
desperate an undertaking. What lit
tie labor was available demanded
1 l. ers6
to keep. About that time the average
farmer was treating his hired man
with much the same studied diplo-
macy and consideration that the City
! people were displaying toward their
maids and cooks. One farmer kept
his hired man by letting him have the
| family car to play with every Sun
day afternoon, another was appeased
| by an agreement to the effect that he
should always have pie for dinner.
The average farm hand was getting
fifty or sixty dollars a month in addi-
! ton to his board and room, and that
| is about twice what it cost to keep a
| hand before the war.
And the cost of labor was not the
| only thing that had gone up. Seed
| was very expensive. SO that If the
I farmer lost his crop he lost good
| deal larger investment than usual.
Machinery was way up in price and
| the scarcity of labor made the use OF
more machinery necessary All i'll all,
it was a mighty expensive and diff
cult crop to plant. and the little old
| two dollars and twenty cents which
| the government had promised the
the government had promised the farm
err did not look so large when he re-
Elected that he might have gotten
three dollars or more in an open mar
ket. and that a corn crop would have
haAf nr-
planted wheat with 2 deep and some
what grouchy consciousness of meri'
Virtue was never more gloriously
rewarded in a best seller or a fairy
tale. The war-you may have heard
this before-came to an end. Food
began to be abundant in this country.
1t became clear to all and sundry that
but for the fact that the governme IT
had promised to pay two-twenty for