AGRICULTURAL RELIEF 
361 
ago. Mr. George F. Stone, who was secretary of the Board of Trade 
of Chicago. was asked bv David Lubin: 
Mr. Stone, I desire to ask you a few questions in your official capacity as 
secretary of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago. 
What effect would a Government bounty on the exports of wheat have with 
respect of the general price of what throughout the United States? 
Answer. I would in my opinion increase the price per bushel. 
Question. It is said that the speculators would get the 5 cents bounty, or at 
east the greater part of the bounty. 
Answer. If a bounty of 5 cents a bushel should be given by the Government 
on all wheat exported from this country, in my opinion the farmer or pio- 
ducer would receive the full benefit of that bounty and not the speculator or 
exporter. It would simply enable the buyer to pay that much more thau he 
otherwise could pay or would be justified in paying. Competition would force 
him to pav all he could to the farmer to obiain his wheat. It would be for 
the interest of the exporter to obtain the wheat; that would be his object. 
Competition would force him to secure it by every possible means without loss 
to himself. His great object is to maintain his business, to enlarge his busi- 
ness. Competition would impel him as it now impels him to give every cent 
that he can possibly afford to secure the product which he seeks io export, 
The fierceness and intensity and volume of competition, by the very force of 
circumstances, by the very necessities of the case would drive the 3 cents 
bounty proposed by the Governmen® into the pockets of the farmer or pro- 
ducer. There it would land and from there it could never be wrested by 
speculators or by anybody else. 
Question. It is also admitted by some that the 5 cents would come in some 
way to the producer for the quantity that would be exported, but that there 
would be no advance on the greater quantity remaining for home use. 
Answer. It is a mistake, in my opinion, to say that the 5 cents per bushel 
vounty which it is proposed to give would be confined in its beneficial results 
‘0 the quantity or volume of grain exported. It would affect the price of the 
entire crop. for the reason that grain is a surplus crop in this country. and 
consequently the price per bushel of this grain is fixed and controlled by the 
export price of this grain. and this export price, of course, I will here aay 
parenthetically. is made in competi.ion with all the other surplus wheat-pro- 
ducing countries in the world. No domestic buyer will pay one single fraction 
of a cent more for a single bushel of wheat than the buyer for export will 
pay. The latter makes the price for the entire crop. If no more were raised 
than was required for home consump. ion the price would depend upon the 
domestic demand ; but the export demand is a continuous demand, inasmuch as 
the demand for food can never be interrupted for any length of time, and this 
continuous demand for wheat, so far as a surplus wheat-producing country is 
concerned, fixes the price of the en.ire crop of this cereal of that country. No 
class of domestic buyers, of course, can be made to pay any more than the 
price offered by the export demand, the domestic and the export demand being 
rer nresent in the market. 
[ do not say that ihe statement quoted is final authority. but it is 
1 clear statement. 
Mr. Mrxces. May I ask vou a question right there? 
Mr. Stewart. Yes, sir. 
Mr. Menges. If the competition would be so intense as you seem 
to indicate, why is it that the competition in buying wheat now 
‘etween these exporters does not make a difference in price? 
Mr. Stewart. It does not make a difference in price ? 
Mr. Mexces. Does not make any difference in the price. 
Mr. Stewart. As compared with what, Mr. Menges? 
Mr. Mexces. Well, I mean you have never heard that one exporter 
fers <0 much for wheat and another one so much, have you? 
Mr. Stewart. In answer to that question, may I call vour atten- 
lion to a report by the Federal Trade Commission on grain ex- 
porters? There an examination was made of two alleged price 
igreements. One was the so-called Gulf price agreement. the other