The Wheat Gamble: A Warning to Inland Empire Farmers
Former State College President E. A. Bryan cautions local farmers against abandoning diverse crops for the high-stakes 'wheat gamble' driven by war-time market trends.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Former President E. A. Bryan of the State College has issued a letter of warning to the farmers of the Inland Empire: With fine stories floating all about us of twenty-thousand, hundred-thousand, and quarter-million-dollar wheat checks, the head of even a farmer begins to whirl and he is tempted to enter the wheat gamble. I don't mean the Chicago pit or the Minneapolis market. I mean he is apt to want to put all his money into wheat land and equipment, betting against the weather, smut, insects, war, shipping, and manipulated markets, with the hope that he will win a capital prize. Why milk cows, carry slop to the pigs, or bend the back to pick up spuds if one big stake in wheat might make one independent in a single year? Never was the temptation greater to desert the little old standbys, and never were the risks of doing so greater. Beware, take care. Don't put all your eggs into one basket just now. Keep the old sow, the old mare, and the young hens. Let the California special depart without you, and let the big automobile flash by without a pang of jealousy.
“Never was there a time when the temptation was greater to desert the little old standbys that have helped out in so many a pinch.”
This 1916 editorial captures the classic boom-and-bust agricultural anxiety of the Inland Empire. The struggle to maintain diversified, sustainable farming against the allure of 'get-rich-quick' industrial monoculture continues to shape Kennewick's economic debates today.
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