The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1929-06-08
WHEAT LESS THAN A DOLLAR
New York Times)

tNCW xOIk xlWCSJ
The commotio caused on Mondays Chicago market,
when the price OF wheat fell below one dollar per bushel,
was stirred up by old associations quite as much as by
recognition Of an existing problem. Dollar wheat was a
familiar catchword in the pre-war period, but it he'd a
different implication from what attaches to it now. Dur
ing most of the quarter century before 1914. wheat selling
for a dollar at Chicago was equivalent to agricultural
prosperity. The uprush of prices in general after 1914,
however, and the agricultural experiences Of the war
brought a totally altered viewpoint. When the govern
ment. after our own entry into the war, guaranteed a
price Of $3.50 for all wheat sold to the official grain cor
%poration' and the open markets price went to $3.50 even
in 1919. the suggestion Of a return to dollar wheat was
dismissed as impossible. Commodities other than farm
products were selling 100 to 200 per cent above 1913. and
cost Of materials and labor had moved up against the
farmer as against producers in every other industry.
Even in the speculative atmosphere which has per-
vaded markets during the last five years, it will not have
been forgotten what q jolt the grain trades ideas of
prices then received. The government withdrew from the
task Of distributing the wheat crop: the wheat market,
in July of 1920 to nearly a dollar toward the end of 1921
Recovering internationally during the next two years, it
fell back to the dollar-mark at harvest time, in each OF
them. In July and August. 1929. even the Chicago cash
price went as low as 96i: cents a bushel, but it never
went again below the dollar-mark since that year unit!
last Monday.
The low price of that particular period resulted partly
from the reactionary influences then prevailing on all
markets, partly from the poverty of grain-consuming
populations outside Of the United States. but very largely
from the fact that. by a species Of blind instinct, the first
step Of economic reconstruction In the outside world was
intensive application to grain culture. Our department Of
agriculture's estimate was that the worlds annual wheat
yield In 1923 was greater by nearly 7aO,O00,OOo bushels
than In 1919, an increase Of Is per cent; that 1t had never
but twice before been equaled in the grain trades history.
and that the whole Of the inc; ease occurred in countries
other than the United States.
The substantial recovery in the wheat market after
1923. which carried the cash price to the two-dollar
mark for q time in 1925. and kept 1t pretty steadily above
$50 up to the end Of 1923, was largely occasoned by
smaller crops, especially In Europe. Nevertheless. the rel
atively high prices paid for wheat during that period
stimulated greatly the activities Of foreign producers. In
1927. and particularly in 1929. all previous records in
wegld production were surpassed. Our own wheat yield
rose In magnitude along with the others: farmers and
markets began to worry over the unsold END of the sea
son surplus" As reported by the agricultural department.
1t has reached this year by far the largest figure since
1923. Our own farmers had indeed, reduced by nearly
10 per cent the acreage planted last fall to winter wheat;
but the winter season was so exceptionally favorable that
the customary abandoned acreage" was only one-ffth
Of what It had been q year before. and the present in
dicated yield Is larger than 1t this time In 1929.
This monthS fall In wheat below the dollar-mark
again + therefore no mystery: but the fact that Its cause
u plainly visible dQes not detract from it's possible disccn-
cssttne effects. Precisely what they viii be on the
tangled farm. relief' controversy at washington O. on
the pf4u.rity q the agricultural -He@t, are ct present
Mlel9EQy = egQFstrs.