Crisis & Crusade

Wheat last week continued to make economic and perhaps political history when the Chicago price dropped to 83 3/8-c- per bu., lowest since 1914. For the first time in 28 years corn sold in the pits 2-c- per bu. above wheat instead of the usual 20-c- or 30-c- below. The husbandman's cry of "Crisis!" rose more shrilly throughout the land. Chairman Alexander Legge of the Federal Farm Board abruptly departed from Washington on a second crusade through the West for wheat acreage reduction (TIME, Aug. 4). En route he paused at Chicago to confer with cotton growers.

The new price slump did not daunt Mr. Legge. Sure that rock bottom had been hit, he declared: "If I were a miller, I'd want my tanks filled to capacity at present prices."* He thought if planters would announce agreement to a reduction program, prices would immediately start upward. His first stop was at Indianapolis to confer with growers of winter wheat. Thence his itinerary would take him through Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington.

U. S. Weather Bureau men last week compiled their July reports, declared the month was hotter and dryer over a larger area for longer periods than any other July in recorded U. S. weather history. The drought came too late to affect the wheat crop but it did, according to the U. S. Department of Agriculture, "much irreparable damage" to corn. Live stock, lacking pasturage and water, was rushed to slaughter houses before it died. The Farm Board prepared plans for "drought loans" to carry husbandmen over until next year.

*Continuing high prices for flour, despite wheat's slump, continues to puzzle consumers.

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