Casper Daily Tribune Newspaper, January 7, 1920, Page 5

CharlesW Holman Cin the Country Gentleman) OUBLING ‘the farmer's share of the wheat dol- lar is one of the war- time Jobs Uncle Sam has done since food control e became possible. After L five months of grap- 3 pling with the problem, Undle Sam is now trans- Jating into the pockets of both produc- ers and consumers benefits derived by the Nation, He bas shut off specula- tion, produced a free market and movement of all. grades of wheat, cut expenses and induced a normal flow of wheat in natural directions, and ef- fected a thousand other economies. The Food Administration Grain Tor- poration, which supervises the sale, or itself buys every bushel of wheat pro- duced in the Nation in its progress | from country elevator to foreign buy- | ers or domestic consumers, marks a new step toward national efficiency, How tn four short months it has been | done fs told in the following episodes wherein two: bushels of wheat traveled to market, One fine fall afternoon, Col. Bill Jenkins, who farms somewhere in Mis- sourl, loaded his wheat Into a wagon and urove along the black road that led across the prairie to town, When | he reached the co-operative elevator lof which he was a-stockholder, he | pulled up on the scales, checked his gross weights carefully, and began to unload. The manager came out and | asked: si ; “When you want to sell this wheat?” “I dunno,” he answered. “One | time’s about as good as another— | later,” he added, with a dry smile. | . “Wheat shrinks a lot,” admitted the manager. “I hear the Government wants as much wheat as it can get | just now—understand the Allies do | eat a terrible lot of it since the war.” | “What's wheat to-day?” asked Col. | Jenkins, getting interested. “Well, let me see,” parleyed the manager. “I guess this wheat'd be a good No. 2 under the new grades.” “Grades? What about grades? That Food Administration ‘seems to mix into | mighty nigh everything from rabbits to axle grease.” | “Hold on, Colonel,” said the eleva- | tor man, good-naturedly. “The Food Administration is not to blame, Con- gress passed the act. and told the De- these days. ‘’T won’t weigh any more | partmént of Agriculture TO fix fhe grades. ‘They became effective last July. I sent out a letter on it.” “Well, I guess you better sell for the best you can,” said the farmer. “I am needed at home.” And he drove away, Z A New Order In the Grain World. | ONVERSATIONS of this kind might have taken place in almost every *Stéwn-in-thé great grain belt of the Nation aft- on er August 10; for revo- lution*in grain market- ing was taking place. Uncle Sam had started on this remarkable ex- periment; he was going to see wheth- er wheat could be marketed minus rake-offs to the speculators; This necessitated complete control by the Government of storage facilities, trans- portation and distributive agencies, and the marketing machinery for wheat and rye. Everybody was troubled; most of all, the officials of the Food Adminis- tration. Grain Corporation who had undertaken, without salary, and at the sacrifice of their personal connection | with the grain trade, to whip inte | shape the forces that would drive for- ‘ward the big business machine for | marketing American wheat. A single | control; and a $50,000,000 nonprofit- | making corporation to do the work. | ‘This work is a necessary arm of the | Food Administration, allowing the | Government to do business quickly | and without red tape, Its stock is held | in trust by the President of the Unit- | ed States. For the time of the war it | will supervise the rate or purchase | the part commercially available of. the | 660,000,000 bushels of wheat ahd the 50,000,000 surplus of rye grown ,in America in 1917. Its job is to find a market for every bushek irrespective | of cluss and grade. Under ts patron: "Ecisehings Bre“moving Just pleats No. 1 Northern. It must , also work out satisfactorily the local | prices for wheat at each of almost 20,000 country elévator points, adjust thousands of complaints, organize the | gathering and lysis of date, inspect concerns reported as dealing unfairly, | solye vexatious disagreements among | the trade, and deal effectively with the | allles’ purchasing agent and the neu- | trals who may desire to purchase. | In the early days, folowing the A términation of prices for, 1917 wheat | by the President's Fair Price Commis. | sion, confusion existed in every part of | the wheat-producing regions, ‘This was | Intensified by the inauguration of the | new grain grades, as promulgated by | the Department of Agriculture, which | took place about the same time, and | led to diverse complaints and a feel- | ing among farmers that the Grain Cor- | poration of the Food Administration was responsible for both the price as | determined and stricter observance of grain grades. But the corporation wan responsible for neither act. It Is pure. ly an administrative arm of the Gov. ernment formed to buy grain or super- vise its sale at the prices determined by the commission, and it must do its work on’ the bas! f the new grades, But to return to our farmer and his expectations of price. introducing Two Bushels of Wheat. Lying side by. siden his wagon had been 2 bushels of wheat that fate had marked for strangely different ends. They were very much alike, those | bushels of wheat, and to look at them ; you would not have suspected the strange and syonderful adventures in Store Tor them, Yet one was destined to travel abroad for consumption in France; the other to find its way into Georgia, where it was milled and Its flour finally reached a New York baker on the East Side. But in the sum of the travels made by the two, as we shall follow them, will be un- folded the international panorama of wheat marketing in time of war. Finding a Price at a Country Point. High war costs of production gave our Missouri farmer much concern as to his returns and accounted for his depression over the prospects of his wheat “grading down”; for that meant a reduction of 8 cents per bushel un- der ce No. 1 grade. But it graded 0. The elevator would also deduct an additional 5 cents a bushel to cover the fixed charge made In this locality for handling and selling. The 5-cent charge included the commission of 1 cent per bushel customary in 1917 ‘ among commission men for selling the wheat to doméstic millers or foreign buyers. The elevator man was none too sure as to how to get at the price which this wheat should bring. He knew considerably more about human nature than freight rates and decided to “check up” the problem to the nearest zone agent of the Grain Corporation, So he wrote a letter to the representa- tive stationed at St. Louis. That lete ter was referred to the tratfic expert in the New York office, who transmit- ted the following rule for determining the price of wheat at any. country. Point: There is only one price for wheat at a Country PoInt” “That price ls always to be arrived at by taking as a basie the price at the most advantageo primary market where we have fixed a price and deducting the freight to) that market and a falc handling profit. That is the price to be paid for wheat at any station, regardless of the poling to which it may be shipped. Working out the price which should | be paid for wheat at your station is a fine occupation for an off day. you cannot find the answer, write to the .Food Administration Grain Cor poration in New York City and its traffic expert will give you ald. Finding the Price of No. 2 Wheat at Sikeston, >~: AKBE an actual example: G, = An elevator man in 3 Sikeston, Mo., wanted a to know what price fi PNG, 4 No. 2 wheat should bring at his station when No. 1 wheat at New York City was $2.28 per bush- el. Here is how he went about it: The freight rate from Sikeston to New York being 16.98 cents per bush- el, he deducted that from $2.28 per bushel and found the price at Sikeston to be $2.1102, From this he deducted 1 per cént per bushel for the commis- sion firm’s charges, which put the net price f. 0. b. Sikeston at $2.1002, He next compared this price with what he could get if he sold at St. Louis, his nearest primary market, At St. Louls the basic price is $2.18 per bushel, and the freight rate from Sikeston to St. Louis 6 cents per bush- el. This would make the Sikeston price. $2.12,.less 1 cent per bushel far Louis price would therefore ‘govern, being advantageous to the Sikeston seller, If our imaginary 2 bushels of wheat had started from Sikeston, since it was a No, 2 grade, we must deduct 8 cents per bushel, which would bring the price f, o. b. the elevator point to $2.0802 per bushel. As our Imaginary ~ elevator man {s charging 5 cents per bushel for handling, which includes | the commission fee just mentioned, we deduct an additional 4 cents to arrive af the price the farm; secelved. This price would be $2,0402 at the elevator. } Some of that 4 cents will return to our farmer if the elevator prospers; for it is owned co-operatively. When Farmer and Elevator Man Dis- agree. Had this elevator been owned by pri- vate firm or person, or had {it been a “line” plant, Col. Jenkins would not have been so bland and trustful. He might have refused to sell at all | and arranged to store his wheat or he might have taken {t over to a com- petitive concern which offered a high- er price; for the Food Administration has not*yet attempted to regulate the prices paid farmers for wheat at coun- try points, It does, however, offer to sell for any farmer or farmers’ organ- , Izatlon wheat offered at ‘terminal points, but makes a commission charge i of 1 per cent for its services. ++ | whe United States census of 1910 was notable in that it was the first to be taken by the permanent census bureau, which had been established in 1902. Se a ee ee ee ee Be es true. 1% Ieesoahe toate hoateete ate esete tte atetto-ote-ofeag - best. Sa ee se ss Oe ee Oe Oe Oe Ok ke ek appearing in this paper. ing it. you quality goods “as advertised.” IT PAYS TO READ ADVERTISEMENTS Bs Ss A A AK Rs A DS A DS A GS A DS DS Ss AIS KS IS DS IK IK You've often heard the saying, “It pays to advertise.” Phat is true. 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