Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-11-24
TARIFF ON GRAINS /.
MIGHT. HIT FARMER
Question of Imposts Raised
as Government Tries to :
Stabilize Prices.
BY FRANK I. WELLER,
Associated Press Farm Editor.

There is notion among the hard-3
hltsen who never are satisfied with the,
obvious answer to things that the real
reason President Hoover has been asked
to increase the tariff on coarse grains,
Is to be found in the wheat market,
The Grain Sterilization Corporation
now Is holding about 10000, 900 BUSH
els OF wheat. The domestic price, stilb
rising, Is so far above the world price
that exporters can't operate. There Is
almost twice as much wheat in the
country as 1t normally consumes. The
grain either has to leave the country or
be consumed, If the prices the Farm
Board indirectly has set for wheat are.
to be maintained. The answer Is the.
live stock feed lot.
But, ask these observers. how may
feeders be expected to take wheat at
the current advance unless the price Of
feed grains keeps step? Higher tariffs.
they say, might narrow the spread be-
tween wheat and coarse grains. The
latter Is not so abundant, anyway, nor
this season always Immediately avail
able where needed. If the price were
boosted little and the farmer found II
was still about as cheap to feed wheat.
even at the present values, the feed lot
yeS might do for wheat what the export
market cannot and what the domestic
consumer demand Is not doing.
Tariff Argument.
And, with the surplus thus well eaten
into, prices might rise enough for the
Grain Sterilization Corporation to let
60 some Of the wheat 1t Is holding of
the market and wondering what TO do
with.
The Coarse Grain Commodity Ad-
viSory Committee, which found favor,
Hryf&fN hn Ter IN q
President for higher tariffs, says 1t acted
because domestic prices were too low
and to prevent unfair competition from
abroad. Much editorial opinion has
been advanced that while it is the
farmer who produces coarse grains 1t
also Is the farmer who buys them and
that higher tariff merely would put
money into one pocket while taking 1t
out of the other.
In the case of corn, it Is admitted, a
tariff increase might protect the Eastern
speculative markets against fluctuation
in event heavy shipments should reach
Atlantic ports from the Argentine.
How much 1t would benefit the interior
is debatable, since the whole of the
Argentine crop could be poured into the
United States and still not make up
the deficit caused by drought.
This country Is short about SOC, O0O,-
600 bushels on corn and the Argentine
crop is more often under than above
300,000,000 bushels. Besides, Europe is
the chief outlet for Argentine corn. The
most the United States ever imported
was 100000 bushels, in the 1884
deficiency Of 680,000,0 900 bushels.
Course of Speculation.
Argentine corn Is a small, fiinty
product, more suitable for use In ground
seeds and for poultry than for feeding
on the cob to live stock.
The better tone to cables and the
more friendly sentiment generally is
gradually restoring confidence and the
wheat market continues to advance
under q good class of absorption.
speculation has gone almost entirely
into the coarse grains at Chicago, the
Grain Sterilization Corporation assur-
ing consumers Of wheat products they
may make purchases with reasonable
safety for their seasonal requirements
and protect themselves against advances
that may come.
However, irregularity Is likely In
wheat around present levels and there
is considerable belief that any sound
ec0nomic advance must await European
leadership. Some advices say Russia
has Cancelled number of wheat ship
ments in favor of ore and that while
the quality of the new wheat being
harvested In Australia is good the
yields are irregular. More attention
Is being paid to rust damage In the
Argentine and quotations at both Liv-
erpool and Winnipeg have advanced,
the latter regaining almost all It lost
in the Scent break week ago.
It Is just possible that the increased
tariffs abroad and the stringent mill
ing regulations in importing countries
which have resulted in an unusual use
Of native wheat may be reaching the
point where they win operate for the
benefit of exporting countries. If ma
tive supplies are about exhausted as q
result, consuming countries soon must
look for source Of supply.
Canada, now about IL cents under the
world market, will be the only country
In the Northern Hemisphere to supply
that need and the rest will come from
the Southern Hemisphere. Domestic
prices now are higher in the United
States than in any exporting country.