OCR Text |
Show GRAIN SITUATION. Delegates to the national council ot grain exchanges, just adjourned in Chicago, Chi-cago, declare that there is plenty of grain to supply the needs of the United States and the allies during litis. The chief difficulty, they claim, is moving it from the farms to Hie centers of distribution, dis-tribution, which oner more brings the i transportation question to the front. lust now the congest ion on the railroads rail-roads has reached a clinia:-., but food .nd fin! arc 1,1 jug given the prefer- euco and the situation should improve iu the course of the next thirty days unless traffic is again tied up by storms.. But this only applies to conditions con-ditions at home. In order to .feed the allies we must have ships to transport the grain across tho ocean and available avail-able vessels are comparatively few considering con-sidering the amount of cargo space required re-quired for foodstuffs aud munitions, to say nothing of the transportation of American troops to France and Italy. But, allowing that there is plenty of grain iu the country .at the present time and that we can spare 90,000,000 bushels for the allies, it goes without saying that, wo should conserve the supply as far as possible, for there is no telling how this season's crops will turn out, although the winter wheat prospects iu the northwest are said to be excellent. We can never be certain cer-tain of a normal crop until after the harvest and a drouth in the great grain growing states this year would endanger endan-ger our success in the war if the country coun-try were to be left practically bare of foodstuffs for export. While the government gov-ernment is attempting to solve the transportation problem the people of the country should be as saving as possible pos-sible and cultivate every available foot of ground. The government will take j all the wheat that can be grown at j $2.20 per bushel and the com growers , are practically certain to receive something some-thing like the maximum price of $1.28. We cannot see what lies just ahead of us, but we can make all necessary prep- j aratious for almost any turn of for- : tune's wheel and it is our duty to do so. A year from now we shall know mora about our war prospects, and we shall also be nearer the goal, aud we should not relax our efforts in the meantime. |