Wheat is now being harvested throughout the country, and it is reported that the yield is richer and of better quality than was expected some time ago. In the states of South and North Dakota, Montana, and Minnesota, where the harvest starts about July 15, the total wheat acreage this year amounts to twenty million acres. Here too, a good crop is expected; and it is only right that the farmer should be assured of a generous reward for his toil.

But those who are familiar with conditions know that the time has passed when golden wheat meant gold in the farmer's pocket and dollars in his bank account. When harvesttime finally comes, and he no longer has to worry about the possible destruction of his fields by drought or rain or hail, the best he can hope for now is that all this wealth which he has produced to keep this nation, and possibly other nations, fed, will enable him to come out even. He has given up 2all hope of a fair profit, or rather a fair wage for his work.

This being the generally accepted situation, one can readily imagine how the farmers felt last week when they were informed that the price of wheat had fallen below the dollar mark on the Chicago wheat exchange for the first time since 1914 At the same time, it was reported that flour prices also had fallen; but that was small consolation for the farmer, for the expense incurred in raising his current crop was too high, even in relation to previously existing prices. The drop in the market came, therefore, as a heavy blow to him.

But we venture to predict that this gamble with the farmer's means of existence and the nation's bread will not be permitted to continue indefinitely. On the tenth of this month, a dispatch from the capital reported that Senator Ladd of North Dakota, a Republican, is about to propose legislation which will authorize the Government to stabilize the price of wheat. A similar proposal was presented at the last session of Congress, but Senator Ladd's plan is said to be simpler and even more advantageous to the farmer. It is much to be hoped that this plan 3will be taken under sincere consideration, and that effective measures will soon be taken to help our distressed farmers.