The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-12-01
 MISLED AS TO WHEAT?

or quasi-offieial reports on general conditions is that they are superficial, and, taken at their face value, are misleading. For example, it is recalled that the sixty million dollar decline in the price of wheat was originally in terpreted as heralding a general state of economic depression among far mers, and the flour mills of the North west began issuing propaganda urging the people to eat more white bread so as to help reduce this surplus. For tunately for their health, the Ameri- can people paid little attention to this exhortation. Later, an enterprising public journal sought to combat this error regarding the farmers economic condition by showing that, while there was a decline in wheat of sixty million dollars in value, there was an increase of more than six hundred million dolla,e in the valus of other grains and products of the grain belt. Very tardily and too late to do any real service, the department of agri- culture came forward with the news that the increase in farm values for the year showed net gain of more than one billion dollars.
 The statement as to the existence of an over-production and surplus n wheat, however, has gone officially unchallenged, and has therefore been accepted as true by the majority of persons. On this hypothesis, Sena- tor Magnus Johnson was elected to office on a platform of direct aid to farmers in the wheat belt, and an immense amount of printers ink has been flung about in comment on the situation, while the wheat farmers themselves, not having any more in- formation about the general situation than anybody else, have despairingly either held their grain or viewed their harvest as representing a potential loss. Politicians have made deep inn pressions upon their audiences because of their appeals based upon the al- legged surplus of wheat and lack of market.
 Now Representative Little of Kan sas says that his information and in- vestigations, based on figures given him by the secretary of agriculture, convince him that there is' no wheat production, nor even poten- tial surplus. In MT. Little's own words "There is no surplus. The figures I have received from the secretary of agriculture show that we have used SO,O00,000 bushels as seed, and up to November 12 have exported 77,000,- 900. Subtracting this from our total crop this year of 7S1, 100000 bushels, we have 624, 100000 bushels with the farmer. MT. Wallace tells me that the people will eat 537, 100000 bushels and the stock will eat 39,000,000 bushels, total of 576,000,000 bush- els. This leaves us 48,000,000 bush els. If the figures furnished by the department are correct there is not q surplus bushel of wheat in the United States or anywhere else this side of the planet Mars.p
 Although this newspaper, like so many others, was misled by the re- ports of surplus. yet The Age-Herald has maintained that there would be no surplus but world shortage if the foreign demand were properly supplied. It now appears that the foreign market is being supplied. il also appears, if MT. Little's statement is correct, that the wheat Surplus has been just like the sugar shortage of 1920, for the purpose of manipu lating the price to suit those who gamble in wheat or wheat prices. Ii is very disappointing that, in all this uncertainty and misleading propa. ganda regarding wheat, there has beer no prompt, decisive and Illuminating official statement to set people right The public welfare demands bette, service than that from the public ser wants. @