Evening star., 1924-03-10
IN TODAY'S SPOTLIGHT
BY PAUL y. COLLINS

The average man consumes less than
five bushels of wheat in a year and
only the hard wheat is touched BY
the tariff, SO that it is safe to guess
that an ultimate consumer" is af
fected by only about 10 or Is cents
worth of tariff protection" in year.
"If the millers and BAKERS" says
one student of farm economics. fail
| to penalize the consumer to the
amount of 50 or SO a year, TO cover ,
that the millennium is approaching,
when the lion shall eat grass like
the OK"
t'At the rate OF a cent and a half
per slice" says Secretary of Agri-
culture Wallace. 'the cafeteria pa
tron pays between 25 and 80 cents
pound for bread. In hotels, res
taurants and dining cars, where the
charge for an order of bread and
butter may be as high as 20 cents,
the cost per pound is three or four
times as much and the consumption
/ of bread is materially reduced"
"The retail price of bread in cities"
adds Secretary Wallace, has not
flour. A pound loaf in Minneapolis.
! which cost 5.3 cents in 1894, cost
/ 9 cents in 1928; whereas a barrel
81 Hour cost s4:43 in 1894, it cost
loaves Of bread to the barrel Of flour,
the margin between the price of flour
and that of bread produced from It
increased from 5000 to $3.50. Doubt
less l1ssa a nasrowing mar ewing Of the margin be-
would lead to more liberal use of
bread and to some increase in the
per capita consumption of wheat
nour, with a consequent reduction in
the surplus of wheat"
= y +
The amount OF No, northern
wheat in a barrel of northwestern
flour is about one to two bushels.
the rest being winter wheat from
southern states; hence the increase
Of tariff amounting to 12 cents a
bushel represents 12 to "a cents on
$50 pound loaves Of bread. If this
be made another excuse for restau-
rants charging patrons from Is cents
to 81 a loaf for bread, saws one
department economist, there will be
less bread used and the surplus
outside of the spring wheat region,
VIII become heavier. The increased
tarln, therefore, will injure all wheat
raisers rather than protect them
X +
It is noteworthy that the greatest
complaint of farm depression comes
, from the spring wheat region, whose
product is not exported. Farmers in
other wheat-raising regions are feel
ing the depression on wheat less
| acutely because they have more di-
versihcation OF crops and live stock
interests.
1t is less than fifty years since the
northwestern wheat has been valued
Pioneers believed the hard, dark kerr
nels which so resisted the old-time
most worthless. Not until the new
roller process of grinding was in
vented about 1880 was II believed
that the hard wheat was worth rails
ing: In recent years the wheat belt
which a generation ago lay across
Minnesota and the Dakotas has been
crowding northward, and the farm
ers OF the old wheat belt have refused
to see the signs that it going beyond
their range into Canada, and that
they must turn to diversificatien, as
did the Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas
farmers long ago.
Before the war, the wheat acreage
OF Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Al
a little less than 200.000,000 bushels
Today 1t Is 21,500,000 acres, and the
1929 crop was 47o00O,0O0 bushels,
richer in protein and gluten than
American wheat and more cheap1y
raised. 1t can yet increase threefold
X X X
Schemes to stimulate prosperity of
the Dakotas and Minnesota by plans
for government, financing of exports
Of the surplus wheat OF all the coun-
try are challenged by farm econo-
mists, who see in such artificial stim-
ulation further delay in adapting
farm interests to present conditions.
Northwestern senators declare that
1t is not more borrowing credit that
their constituents need, unless it is
coupled with immediate changes in
the character Of farming. They arguAg
that to encourage men to continue
Improbable farming. through lending
them more money to sink in that
practice, is not sound aid.
Copyright, 1874. hz- -Paal. ", cnRlsas.s.L