The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, August 17, 1916, Page 6

| TSR TSR e N e e SRS [ s AR R T e O S oA B o DA S ) S S P 5 U Lo N R o T S Guessing away millions of the farmers’ money by a farcical grading svstem is a popular sport at Minneapolis---Why wasn’t the system changed long ago? Because the wheat speculators don’t want it changed. It suit Dakota will have Minnesota.” ‘...........O....O....‘.Q........'...Q the elevator for shipping out the depend on the credit, often risky, [ it is a funny thing that it doesn’t work out that way. 3 ¢ “What I mean is this: I can get the grade of grain raised by reinspection much more easily after the main crop is in than while it is coming in. From last September to last February, inclu- sive, I only got 23% per cent of the grain I asked reinspected raised. That was during the main movement of the crop. From last March to July, inclusive, I got 31% per cent of the grain I asked to have reinspected raised in grade. That was after the bulk of the crop was in. “My belief is that the state inspectors are more liberal when no large amount of grain is moving, because their decisions do not affect as large an amount of grain and they can afford to be fairer. They tighten up when the main crop is moving and my requests for re- inspection do not get as good results at HE St. Paul Grain exchange, from which the Leader gets its grain market reports, is the only open grain market in the United States. That is, it is the only grain " exchange where any buyer of grain can appear and purchase grain without hav- ing to do so through a commission man or broker who is a member of the exchange and who charges a commission. The Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce is a closed market and therefore a monopoly. p Nobody can buy or sell grain at the Minneapolis chamber except through a broker or commission man who is a member, and both buyers and sellers must pay a commission in buying or sell- ing grain. In fact the rules of the Min- nepolis chamber force members always to charge a commission on buying and selling for clients. FARMERS BARRED OUT BY MINNEAPOLIS CHAMBER It is next to impossible for anyone to become a member of the Minneapolis chamber and therefore be able to buy and sell without paying a commission. There are about 500 members of the Minneapolis chamber and their member- ships are worth probably $5000 each. The chamber accepts as members only those they want to and they -are careful State-Owned Terminals, by All Means “While the farmers of North Dakota have awakened, the farmers of Min- nesota have been Rip VanWinkles—they have been asleep for 40 years. North its state-owned terminal elevator. It This is the way J. A. McGovern, veteran grain grader of St. Paul, who gave the Leader the accompanying interview on the grain grading system, expresses himself on Minnesota conditions. “A state-owned terminal elevator for Minnesota at St. Paul or Minneapolis_ will do as much for the farmers of Minnesota as the state-owned elevator North Dakota farmers have determined to have will do for that state. “I BELIEVE THAT WHAT THE FARMERS WOULD SAVE IN DOCKAGE ALONE THROUGH A STATE-CONTROLLED ELE- VATOR THAT WILL CLEAN THE FARMERS OWN GRAIN WOULD MORE THAN PAY FOR SUCH AN ELEVATOR IN A SHORT TIME. THE DOCKAGE OR SCREENINGS, LOST TO MIN- NESOTA FARMERS, WHICH NORTH DAKOTA FARMERS PRO- POSE TO SAVE THROUGH THEIR TERMINAL ELEVATOR, WOULD BE A BIG ITEM. THE ITEM OF INSURANCE ON STORED GRAIN, WHICH FARMERS NOW HAVE TO PAY WHEN GRAIN IS STORED IN COUNTRY ELEVATORS, WOULD BE MIN- IMIZED OR ELIMINATED ENTIRELY. “Of course the big feature would be the availability of ample storage facilities for farmers’ grain, not now existing, so they could hold their product till they want to sell, when the market is right.” As it is now practically no grain is stored. Storage tickets are issued, but they do not represent grain, under present conditions. They only represent “hedges” purchased to protect grain stored and owned by farmers. oney on these storage tickets, which of country elevators. With a state-owned terminal elevator the storage ticket would represent actual stored grain and no other credit would be needed to allow a farmer to borrow all he wanted to on the storage ticket up to the full value of the grain. ; “By all means Minnesota farmers should become alive to the need in’ this state for a state-owned terminal elevator. breaking up the grain combine. Storéd grain, if it really is.stored grain and not merely a ‘future’ purchased to protect an elevator when the real grain is shipped out, can not be gambled in on the exchanges. to abolish the evil of gambling in ‘futures’.” Therefore farmers can not borrow m is now up to It would be a wonderful aid in It would go a long way that time. At least I can not explain my experience in any other way. “Now I know also that it is easier to get the state to raise a grade on outgoing grain than incoming. I know that from years of experience and all grain men know it, but all will not admit it. When incoming grain is inspected it is still the property of the farmer or country elevator and reinspection requests do not get as good results as when the grain is going out, after it has passed out of the farmers’ hands and out of the control of the farmers’ elevators. Then reinspec- tion results are better. The state seems to be more liberal on outgoing than incoming grades, which benefits the ‘grain brokers aiid hurts the farmers. A TYPICAL INSTANCE OF HOW IT WORKS “I can give you a fine instance of this. A car of wheat was shipped from a farmers’ elevator at Northfield, Minn., who gets in. Readers of the Leader are probably familiar with the fight made by the Equity Cooperative exchange to get a membership on the Minneapolis chamber, so it could sell the farmers’ grain for the farmer. refused membership. : There was no grain exchange in St. Paul at that time, but a group of public spirited St. Paul business men decided to form one, so that the Equity could be given a seat and a means of selling the farmers’ grain. consigned to it without having to pay the toll exacted by the members of the Minneapolis chamber. The present St. Paul Grain exchange, located in the Pioneer building, St. Paul, was the result. This exchange has 100 memberships, of which 71 have been sold to’ date in the two year since the exchange was organ- ized. At the present rate of growth of 4 ...............O...0.0....00.....,.....................Q....O..fi... The Equity was’ to the commission house of Marfield Grain company, Minneapolis. The state graded it No. 2 Northeen, and it was purchased as such by the Marfield com- pany. This company sold the grain to Harry Olson, a member of the Chamber of Commerce, for $1.233%. Olson turned right around and sold the car at an advance of 1 cent to Hohle Brothers. Hohle Brothers unloaded the grain into an elevator and loaded it back, the exact same wheat, in the same car. They did this to get reinspection on it as outgoing wheat, so. as not to have to tell the inspectors what the grade on it was as incoming wheat. The state graded it this time, as outgoing wheat, No. 1, where they had graded it No. 2 as incom- ing wheat. The car was then sold on the St. Paul exchange for $1.31%. s them better the way it is. Such instances could be multiplied. The farmer or farmers’ elevator gets a worse deal on grading. than the mills and other buyers.” “Has nobody in Minnesota ever fought for and tried to get grades based on milling tests ?” Mr. McGovern was asked., “No. The people have been asleep. The only man who. really knows how grain should be graded and who has proved it is President Ladd of the North Dakota Agricultural college at Fargo. He has shown by milling tests how inaccurate the present grades are and how the farmers are cheated under them. He knows by laboratory tests what the grades should be and that the present system is rotten, and he is the only man who does. He has done a wonderful work.” ¥ Nicollet avenue, looking north, Minneapolis, in the heart of the great commercial and financial center of the northwest, built up largely by the grain business. The Only Open Grain Market in the Land the exchange the remaining memberships are expected to be taken up before long. The Minneapolis chamber was founded in 1881, so that the St. Paul exchange is young indeed in comparison with it. But its showing in the two years it has been in existence is wonderful and it is not an improbability that in time it will be the biggest and most important grain exchange in the Twin Cities. Its open market feature is gaining it friends and prestige all the time. Independent buy- ers and mills in large numbers now pat- ronize the St. Paul exchange solely. COMMISSION IS CHARGED ON SALE OF GRAIN Like the Minneapolis Chamber of Com- merce the St. Paul exchange does require members to charge a commission of one cent a bushel to sellers or shippers of Labor To Honor Frazier Lynn J. Frazier, Republicfi.n nominee for ‘governor, and John N. Hagan, nom- inee for commissioner of agriculture and labor, have accepted the invitation of the Fargo Trades and Labor -Assembly to deliver adgdresses at the Labor Day cele- braticn to be held in Fargo, September 4. Thyre it; a strong desire on the part of. many-of the working people of Fargo for . an.elaborate celebration with a parade for a central feature, and this will be con- sidered ‘at the meeting of the trades and labor assembly, Friday night, August 18, If it is decided to have a parade; a com-. amittee will- be ndmed’ at once to take active charge of preparations. PAGE SIX grain, and all grain must be sold through members of the exchange. But buyers can buy grain without buying it through a broker' and without paying a commis- sion. It is this rule that makeg the St Paul exchange an open market, and absence of this rule that makes the Min- neapolis chamber a monopoly. The Equity Cooperative exchange, the farmers’ own “terminal marketing com- pany, has two seats on the St. Paul exchange, one held by President Ander- son of the Equity exchange and the other by Manager Crites, and all the farmers’ grain consigned - to the Equity is marketed at the exchange. The Equity, , o.f * course, charges shippers and con- signers of grain one cent a ‘bushel. for marketing, but the Equity being a strictly cooperative institution its patrons get a rebate on the one cent n bushel after the expenses and small fixed divi- dend to' stockholders is paid. It will -be seen therefore that the Equity and’the St. Paul grain exchange furnish- the" best and cheapest means of marketing grain for the farmer, - : oA Thg Equity Cooperative exchange is- growing by leaps and bounds.” It:is now the second largest. grain handling "house ° in the world and éxpects' to be the largest before the year is out, handling ' mioré grain than any other one grain commission house in the world, = ° -~