The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-11-24

said today.
Producers to Pull Thru.
Things are beginning to look as If
the milling industries and the grain
producers of the country are going to
pull thru the present stress, but fif-
teen days ago, Mr.. Hoyt declares, it
looked to him as if milling properties
in the United States were worth about
SO cents on the dollar, and he was
looking for big failures which would
have demoralized the business of the
country.
One of the reasons for the fact that
wheat has been forced down from 81
to s1.20 per bushel since the opening
of the option market was the fact that
when the market opened, July Is, De-
cember futures were sold at Is cents
per bushel less than the cash price of
wheat then. Exporters, who have
been buying all the freely. moving
wheat which they could get hold of,
Immediately began to hedge. and wait
for the December prices. Eastern
flour buyers did the same thing and
the price has been hammered down
and hammered down, all thru the
manipulation of the wheat market,
Mr.. Hoyt believes.
No Options During War.
There was no option trading during
the war-instead, there was a gov
eminent guaranteed price. When the
government guarantee was removed,
June l, 1920, option trading was not
Immediately resumed, and the wheat
trading which went on until July IS,
when the market was again opened,
was cash dealing for wheat actually
delivered
Under those condition the wheat was
moving toward the export terminals
on the gulf, and not to the terminals
of storage in the interior. All the
wheat which could be exported was
being rapidly shipped, at fair price.
Then the market" opened with a
bear movement which has been con-
tinued to the present time, and the
price of wheat has been hammered out
oil all semblanoe to war prices.
Gamblers Sold Entire Crop.
Gamblers and professional specu-
latprs have sold the entire crop of the
market opened, and somebody had to
carry all that wheat in the meantime.
That's why we had a sixty cent break
in the first twenty days after the
market opened, and why the price
has been forced down ever SINCE
Mr.. Hoyt said.
Canadian wheat, with the removal
of the duty which had been attached
to its importation into the United
States, flooded this country. Mr.. Hoyt
believes that its effect has been more
general. far-reaching than the public
knows of.
Canadian Wheat Cheaper.
Canadian wheat is on the market in
Buffalo, n. Y, att price twenty six
cents a bushel below the price which
American wheat can be sent there
for" Mr.. Hoyt said. THAT is partly
because the Canadian shippers get a
cheap water rate for shipment over the
raised a hundred million bushels of
wheat more this year than she has
ever raised before"
Canadian flour is selling in the east
today at SO cents less a barrel than
the actual cost of placing the flour
there would be to Topeka millers.
Bought on High Market.
Kansas millers bought wheat at the
high prices of July, and sold flour at
correspondingly high prices. Eastern
buyers who took their flour at a price
which means now a loss to them of
from 81 to IS barrel, are refusing
to accept it, and the warehouses of the
milled and sold in July. fG which
shippers orders cannot be secured.
The option market has. been a
strong factor in bringing corn down
to less than pre-War prices, Mr.. Hoyt
believes. The same method of pro-
cedure was followed in the corn mar
ket which was followed with the
wheat market, and, in addition. the
biggest corn crop which has ever been
harvested in the United States came
this year.
Decrease i'm livestock.
But the main factor in driving the
price of corn down is back of ~
crop situation. During the war the
livestock population of the country
was greatly decreased. And since the
war, the financial stringency has been
such that farmers could not get mon
ey to buy stock for feeding purposes
Consequently there is comparatively
little stock being fed in the country.
and very little market for the big corn
crop. Mr.. Hoyt foresees little hope
which he has paid ten cents bushel
for husking.
There remains a little hope for the
wheat farmer and the miller. Mr..
Hoyt believes that the exportable sur
plus of wheat in the United States this
year, has been for the most part,
out.
The United States, he pointed out
consumes some 100000 bushels of
wheat itself, each year. There was a
shortage in the eastern wheat produce
ing states, of some 100000 bushels
this year, and Mr.. Hoyt believes that
the United States has sent about all
the wheat overseas which is to be sent
this year.
Small Amount in Storage.
The stored stocks. at terminals such
as Kansas City and Chicago, are SEN
small, on account of the
with which exporters got the
wheat moving early in the season.
Ordir1a riIU at This SnaSon IF tho