Comedy of Mismanagement

The comedy of corn last week reached a new high of low farce.

On Tuesday 3,600,000 bushels of corn were sold on the Chicago Board of Trade -a new record for one day's business; two days later no corn at all was sold. (Tuesday was the deadline for a Government guarantee that any farmer who sold his corn at the present ceiling price would get any increase in price that occurred between then and Oct. 31.)

Grain traders estimated that during the whole 41-day lifetime of the Government guarantee, which was designed to bring more corn to market, only 35,000,000 bu. (less than 2% of a normal year's crop) were shaken out of the growers' corncribs. This was to be expected; the Government had fixed it that way by promising hog prices that made corn-in-the-hog worth $1.35-1.40 a bu. v. $1.07 a bu. (ceiling price) as grain.

Meanwhile farmers were angry at the Government. They had reared large litters of hogs at Government urging and on a Government promise of a price of at least $13.75 Per 100 lb. Last week, to keep its promise, the Government finally forbade packers to buy at less than $13.75. This capped the comedy: the Government now really guarantees to maintain a corn-hog ratio that will make it uneconomical for corn to come to market.

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