Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 201, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 September 1918 — WHEAT PRICES ASSURED. [ARTICLE]

WHEAT PRICES ASSURED.

The proclamation issued by the President, which guarantees to the farmers of the country the present minimum 'price of $2.20 a bushel for the 1919 wheat drop, should result in an important increase in acreage. Many wheat raisers have delayed making plans for next season because they did not know what to expect. The presidential decree disposes of uncertainty and clears the way for work preliminary to raising the food that is certain to be needed by this country and its allies. The President calls attention to the fact that there is an element of risk involved in a governmental guaranty of the price of wheat. Such an undertaking, he says, might result in a loss of $500,000,000 if there should be an 'early end of the war and Europe should supply its requirements from the stores of cheap grains in the southern, hemisphere. It is well known that Australia has a vast accumulation of wheat that is selling for less than ■$ 1 a bushel, and th® situation in Argentina is somewhat similar. The risk the President fears is not nearly so serious as might be supposed. The reason that Europe is not now supplying its needs from the southern hemisphere, is that the ships are not available. An early termination of the war ivjould not solve the shipping problem in a moment. There is certain to be a shortage of transportation facilities and consequent high, freight rates during many months and even years after the war. That will tend to equalize the difference in wheat prices here and at farther distributing cdurces. Meantime, the farmers of the country have assurance that they will receive at least $2.20 for every bushel of wheat they produce next year, and the price may be higher if conditions next spring warrant an increase. That guaranty should prompt general cooperation in the food administration’s program for a record breaking crop in'l9l9.

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