AN OBJECT LESSON.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVIII, Issue 18572, 26 November 1920, Page 4

AN OBJECT LESSON.

It is not often that, the economio re--4 suits of a course of action make themselves felt as speedily as has been the case ■with - the “strike” of American wheat-growers. On October 17 the American Wheat-growers’ Association, sitting at Ponca City, Oklahoma, re~ solved to advise all American wheatgrowers to refuse to sell their product after October 23 till the price 1 rose to three dollars a' bushel. The market price at> that date was under two dollars a bushel. > On October, 28 the Chicago wheat-brokers were informed that the strike was in full force in Kansas, indicating that the advice had been followed in States outside of Oklahoma. By last Tuesday nine banks in North s Dakota bad closed their doors. These institutions had granted farmers heavy credits, and were unable to meet their obligations if grain remained unsold.

It looks as if the financial end of the strike had not received sufficient attention, but it was inevitable that in the absence of financial booking the scheme must fail. The British Food Controller in announcing a “readjustment” of wheat values on a lower scale is simply stating the result of economic forces which sporadio combinations of producers are powerless to combat. It is to be hoped tho result of th 4 American experiment will not be lost on tho New Zealand Government, which is empowered to assist all primary producers to hold the products for a rise. The propping up of falling markets is a hazardous undertaking.