Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 June 1909 — HILL DISCUSSES WHEAT CORKER [ARTICLE]

HILL DISCUSSES WHEAT CORKER

Says Patten Merely Took Advantage of Conditions. DEMAND FOR GRAIN IS BIG Railroad King Calls Attention to Fact That Thera Has Been a Falling Off In the Number of Live Stock Killed For the Market and-Declares That Nowadays the Farmer Finds There la More In Sowing and Reaping Than In Fighting Hog Cholera. Seattle, June I.—J. J. Hill of the Great Northern board of directors, discussing the recent wheat corner, said: "It is a mistake to say James A. Pat. ten cornered the wheat market. Here is merely a case of a man taking advantage of an opportunity. It has been but few years since it was estimated that the average consumption of wheat per annum in this country was six bushels, but now the experts argue that it is seven bushels and some pounds The census of 1910 will show that we have a population of 90,000,000 which will mean that we will require for our own use 630.000,000 bushels hereafter. "We raise now probably 650,000,000 bushels of wheat in the United States with good crop conditions. This will leave us but 20,000,000 bushels as a surplus for export, while in the past we have exported upward of 120,000, • 000 bushels per annum. So you can see we will need all our wheat to feed our own people. Within the next five years the wheat of eastern Washington will be shipped eastward. “And in considering these facts, it must be remembered that the number of live stock slaughtered last year was 1,000,000 less than the year previous. When farmers of lowa, Minnesota and Nebraska can get 65 cents per bushel for corn at the country station they will not endure the risk of hog cholera and the labor incident to hog raising, but will sell all their grain.”