The record., 1920-11-25
The Goat

in the columns is 81 .S9H to 81 90,
marking a total decline of fifty four
cents in three weeks and ninety
cents vslnce the market was opened
to general trading"
This means a fall of more than
thirty per cent, sending the basis
of life below the cost of production
by any adequate computation that
takes into account the capital in
land and machinery, the labor re-
quircd and the fertility Withdrawn
from the soil. The labor alone re.
quired to produce a bushel of wheat
with compensation at the plumbers
or mason's rate would mean S3.so
wheat; and as labor Is less than
half the total cost of producing the
all-important grain, the reader can
figure for himself what wheat would
be worth if the farmer were paid on
a par with inflated wages 10 industry.
And yet this tumble in price will
undoubtedly be hailed with delight
by thousands who are getting more
a year for their nominal labor than
the farmer is getting for his labor
and capital combined. Indeed, as
this IS written, an ex official of the
Board Of Trade calls attention to
the very. great service which that
honorable body has rendered the
public IN hammeiing down the price
of bread, though Mr. Hoover has
already pointed out tina, at the old
price for wheat the farmers were
getting less than three cents out Of
a twelve-cent loaf.
When, as man who knows says
in one of our popular magazines,
wheat goes up or down over a wide
range because of the most unsup-
ported rumors, often set going for
their effect on the market, it raises
the serious question whether the
farmers profits and his business
should be exposed to the accidents
of trade.
When a box of common lightning
bugs can stampede the Chicago
wheat pit and send wheat booming,
the consumer is likely to object,
and when wheat falls ninety cents
IN a few weeks, or a dollar in a few
minutes, as IN the Leither deal, the
farmer will object.
In the famous deal the high spot
was s1.8S; and we are now inform.
ed that "since that time, excep,
when the war boosted the price, il
has been almost impossible to push
wheat above that figure"
Is that the way of ii? And are the
farmers forever to be hampered and
their profits fixed by the memorie:
of poor old Joe Letter, after ever
his name is all but forgotten? If ;
dead line in the price of wheat Is tc
be fixed at $I.SS because a few
spectators got severe jolt some
quarter of century ago, then thu
place of an institution like boarc
of trade IS likely TO be severed,
questioned.
The tendency is to say that eithe
: wages must keep on going up o
food must 60 down. This is al
! entirely gratuitous assumption, blu
the disposition seems to be, between
finance and speculation, to fore
GOOD down on the hands of the pro
Queer Shile speculation goes nerril
on.
"The Country Gentleman" doe
not stop here and now to argue III
I question, but In the most solem>
tones it warns the couBtry to bewar
how it goes for in this mad road tc
b ward what 1t may call restoration
> of prewar conditions.
The farmer is about at the end q
his resources. He is no longer spur
e red on by patriotism, he is very TIL
r ed of long hard days, and machinef
g us going up in price. If now hi
q linea@e is to be hammered down
one end asd cutoff at the other, h
n can be easily drives Git of bushes
" except as to producing wfrdt n
himself needs to consume.
- It is we'll to think of this phas
+. OF the Pfoblem before deciding ths
r the farmer shall be the goat for a
purposes In our reaajHstsnent. fh
sudden and violent manipulation
the wheat market without regard
the law Of supply and eeman
should be cause of alarm, especial
20 the consumer.