Evening star., 1923-07-27
CAPITAL KEYNOTES
BY PAUL v. COLLINS

The dead letter ONCE Is In posses
sion of a copper still which had been
mailed py parcel post to man In
Virginia. The addressee failed to
claim it-for obvious reasons. What
now Is Uncle Sam going to do with
It? It would look bad IL the prohi-
bition officials should hear about ii
and raid the dead letter office. Dare
the Post ONCE officials turn 1t over
voluntarily. to the prohibition off,
ders, or should the Post Office trace
the addressee and force delivery, and
then tip off the address. in the hope
of finding other paraphernalia. which
had not been shipped so openly? This
is a delicate question of ethics.
II y y
The members of the Farm Loan
Board. the Federal Reserve Board
the War Finance Corporation and the
Department of Agriculture unite in
the view that the Farm Bureau Fed
erations scheme to boost the price
of wheat by establishing farm bond
ed warehouses and storing 100000
900 bushels of wheat therein, with
the government loan of rs per cent
is not sound.
The Withholding of 200,000,00C
bushels would stimulate the price on
all other wheat, according to the
bureaus theory, but the theory Is
cause the market price is never based
on the actual wheat in the market
but on the visible supply" and all
that 2OO,000.000 bushels. although
held in the government bonded
warehouses" on the farms would be
still in the visible supply" abso-
lutely. and most emphatically. The
quantity would be known to all the
world: II would be available when
ever the market bid for 1t. and as
soon as it would be released, or any
part Of it. the bear tendency of the
market would be active.
u X x
If the 200,o00.ooo bushels could be
hidden by the Individual owners. and
not used as collateral security fol-
government loans, II would not be a
part of the worlds visible supply
and spectators would fight eact
other while guessing or "speculating
about 1t. That would raise the price
a while. just in proportion to the un'
certainty of its amount, but visible
supply" under government bond. can.
not be manipulated in any possible
way TO increase prices. say the off,
cials
For Individual farmers to hide 200.-
900. 900 bushels and keep faith with
each other that it shall not reach
market is proved by many previous
attempts to be impossible. Per.
sonal need or personal greed will
I... IN nd 10
liveries.
The experts assert the above doc.
trine Of economics. and point out that
the only way the government could
force up the price would be to buy
the 200,00O.ooo bushels. and destroy
the wheat-an act so wicked. in the
light OF starvation in many parts OF
the world, as to be inconceivable.
The government might buy the
wheat and ship 1t as charity, in orde,
TO get rid of IL, but the experts sug-
gest that that would only open the
door to the governments fixing
prices, not alone on wheat but or
other farm crops. 1t would convert
greatest project of socialism ever un-
dertaken in the world, not even ex.
cepting that of soviet Russia Thi.
would cease to be a government OF
all the people for all the people. anC
| would become a soviet of. for and BY
| the farmers-one-t third of the people
X
The farmers Of all the world have
permitted the momentum of whea'
acreage, encouraged by the necessi
( ties of the world war, to go on, after
| the reasons for increased whea
acreage had ceased through the re
turn of the nations to more norma
peace conditions. In the Unitet
| States. in 1928, we have 100000
! acres more devoted to whea
than we're used for wheat prior TO oul
entry into the war. On that l4.0O0,00'
| acres excess we have produced az
| average Of fifteen bushels per acre