The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, August 24, 1916, Page 12

3 et 2 B i — S ARSI Ce il %5 | e e L rain Board ~ (By Leader Staff Correspondent) INNEAPOLIS, Minf., August 19—The . Minnesota: ~ grain Dboard of appeals, which fixes the “Minnesota grades,” under which the farmers of the north- west market, their crops, struck a rough place last week on the toboggan slide on which for so long it has had easy put ashes on the track. ‘It is even said that some farmers played the trick. “The fact is the board held its annual meeting - to- discuss and fix the grain grades for the current crop. But it was , not at all the usual kind of meeting -the board had got away with in the past. quately represented and an organized at- tack-was made on the present system of grading grain. There were fireworks, and the Chamber of Commerce papers > didn’t tell the people anything. about.it. The thing started, as reported in the Leader: two weeks ago, when it was rumored that the Chamber of Commerce elevator-millers combine pFoposed get- R ting “by” a new set of rules this year . for the grading .of -grain. It was announced these rules were to take ‘into ity of the wheat crop this year,” and farmers -scented an attempt to have the board of appeals -adopt. alterations to the system that would force mest of the farmers will get at best for their 1916 o ol WARNED BY THE LEADER - FARMERS WERE ON HAND So when the board opened its session there were present, among others rep- -F. A. Teigen, both farmers-and members of the Minnesota legislature, J. M. Anderson of the Equity Cooperative “exchange,.. Representative Charles L. Spooner,- Equity Organizer Rolley and society lawyer and attorney for the pro- dueers-in the-famous Minnesdta legis- lature' investigation into. the grain com- - bine in1913.. John A: Layne of Fessen- ‘den, N. D., was also present. ; . Now this annual.fixing of “the gra . has been, in"the past, a rather per- functory matter. The board has met, heard from the elevator men and millers, listened to the Chamber of Commerce. Yepresentatives and usually adepted the grades of the year before with little or no change. Rarely has a farmer ever been heard and no organized attempt has they have -existed ‘from year to year. The meetings have ‘been a' matter .of a few hours in the past. But this time the farmers and (their representatives ~ kept the board busy a whole day, and still all they. had:to say was not said. -Then they took up all the next-day. The up- shot' was “that' the board was not ready to say what the 1916 grades should be even then, and:will not announce its S M.innéSO‘ta' li.ve’sto'ck,‘ west live stock market. . " have not: been e ' successful,»beeaus made the industry not a sledding in fixing the grades. Somebody * kinds. consideration “the. universally low qual- : crop “into unfairly low grades and: severely cut jnto the meager returns the - ‘Minneapolis—it - e i ..., 'barley and geoes out as malting. = "' resenting the farmers, Magnus Johnson,,’ Benjamin Drake of Minneapolis, Equity. ever ‘been made to attack-the grades as - rofitably. raised in the' vicinity : ile more. distant parts of the northwest, notably North Dakota, raise ntuch live stock, efforts to make it a leadin, [ C y en. ssful» beeause distance from:the market and high frexfig: p together profitable, Farmers- and Equity Men Point Out Facts and Put in Plea for Fair Grading decisioq till: late this_month. In the meantime the board will welcome.letters from farmers, they say. ‘Such. letters should be addressed to E: R. Ruhnke, chairman. board of appeals; 304 Flour Exchange building, Minneapolis, Minn. GRADING. OF BARLEY FORMS IMPORTANT ISSUE i One -of the big issues’of the meeting . was the’ grading “of barley. It. was brought ‘out that the beard of appeals For the first time farmers were ade- 1od never provided in thé grading rules for dockage on barley, although doekags is:provided. for by law. - The fesult has been ‘that barley has been given iower grades, to:take ‘into account the presence of . sgreenings and foreign” matter of all Instead . of ‘being docked-at so” many - pounds- per bushel for dirt, -and giving- good ‘grades to the rest of the barley, a8, ‘in’ wheat, ‘the ‘inspection department, has- simply -given the grain a lower grade. : 3 The .result has been that practically ° none of the higher grades of barley are Sold-by the farmers dt Minneapolis, and fromi_the: reports on incoming grain one Wwould believe that no-high grade, malt- - .. ing barley at all is' grown in the north- west. -Farmers raise nothing but feed- ing barley, if the figures on incoming “grades’ are to be believed. As 'a matter of fact; however, breweries. buy millions of bushels of the -best malting barley at -— -Mr. Teigen - brought. out ' this point. Heicaused a stir when he showéd that the _ grain inspection-department apparently. was - trying - to- ‘conceal tlie true facts: . He"“said he liad beensuble. to. get figures - from the published reports of the depart- ment on incoming’ barley, showing that it>was all graded:féeding barley; but he. said the_ -department - reports wutterly failed to give any figures on out-going barley; - which wauld. show. -the grades given to barley going.{o breweries, after it had: passed out -of. the hands of the" producers: and ‘ceuntry-.elevators. He said. the " inspection™- department had refused: him the figures:: . * ; “Representative - Spooner :threatened if the':board- of appeals. did. not produce -these™ figures . ‘on" .out-going barley he ” would, seethat the-next legislature com- “~pelled the board or the ifispection'depart- ~.ment-to nféke public the facts. * FAILURE TO DOCK BARLEY R MAKES FAT THING FOR ELEVATOR It is believed that the practice of not docking barley is responsible for great and unfair/ profits by ' the terminal elevators, which buy barley as feeding ~grain.at a low price, clean it at little or no expense, and sell it as high. grade malting . barley at top prices. If barley were docked; of courge, the farmer would lose_the valde of the screenings, if .they had any value, and he wouldn’t get paid Ty B L) 3 of <St; :Paul-,- fhe north- source of profit of farmers fdilure of nearby mills' to'be built up for as many bushels per shipment, but it was the belief of those at the meeting representing the farmers that the pro- ducer would more than make up for this in the higher grades he would get if dockage were enforced. The excuse given by. the board of = 2 The- Hill building at before- the Minnesota legislative inves- tigation of 1913. In this testimony Mr. Evenson said that the Minnesota grades were based entirely on the physical appearance of grain and that this stand- ard did not represent accurately the value of the grain for commercial and milling purposes. ° \ DRAKE SHOWS FACTS ABOUT GRADING ABUSES _Mr. Drake then read from the last 23 St. Paul, housing the Great Northern and Northern Pacific comes inas -feeding railroads™ general offices and ‘the big Hill bank, one of the monuments at the Twin Cities constructed out of profits gathered from the grain fields of the northwest. _ested, too.. LT ; ,appeals\for not “enforcing the l'awl was that the country elevators did. hot”want dockage enforced on barley. "This is one of the questions the board has consented to hear from farmers about beforé the final“.grades are fixed the last of this month. . e e e In- tHe minds of students of Minnesota politics and * those familiar with the grain business one of the most significant outcomes of the meeting. was the declar- ation ‘of “Representative Spooner that he will Tead 2 movement ‘in ‘the next legis- . lature “of . Minnesota to ~divorce. the present railroad hoard from its grip on grain and inspection matters. . The pres- . ent, railroad. hoard ‘is believed to be and by its. acts: and.failure to act has shown itself to be a reactionary body, one of the most_ reactionary departments of the . - state ‘government. - It shows no activity whatever in attempting to prevent the ‘exploitation of the producers by the big milling and ‘elevator interests at the terminals. . - : : & ¥ A . GRAIN BOARD OF APPEALS IS SUBJECT TO DICTATION- - Reformers believe that there will be some chance for relief if the railroad jpoard is divorced entirely from grain inspection matters. As a matter of fact “it is generally conceded that:the present board of grain appeals is hampered and handicapped .at every step by the con- ditions: and the supervision imposed on it bp the railway commissioners. If the separation Representative. Spooner says he will attempt to get in the next legisla- ture is accomplished the board of appeals would be made ‘a real -board of appeal, independent and-free to act in reforming: present abuses. : : * Another -point made by. the represent- atives of-the producers at the hearing was that present grades are not based on actual miling tests and do mnot represent the trué value of the grain for commer- ‘¢ial and ‘milling’ purposes. Mr. Drake read to the appeal board the testimony of 2. Mr. Evenson- of the appeal board, taken PAGE ELEVEN ¢ : The Minnesota Grain ‘Board of Ap- peals now “wants to hear from the farmers,” its 'members say. write to give your views on the Min- ‘nesota grading system, send a copy of the letter to the Leader. We're inter- If you bulletin of Dr. Ladd of the North Dakota -Agricultural collegé, who has conducted tests for eight years with thousands of samples,of wheat of various grades. He has shown that the present grades do not * anywhere near represent the milling :value of the grain and that millers get more returns from the poorer and rejected grades of wheat than they do from the No. 1 and No. 2 Northern, resulting in a loss of millions of dollars a year to the producers. - - On the whole the farmers and” repre- sentatives of the producers present believe that ghey. gave the appeal board a good jolt and have started them to thinking. At " least the millers and elevator men did not have the only say at this meeting as in“the past. ' There were a number of Chamber of Commerce and elevator present, but they kept in the background when' they saw the strength of the pro- ducers’ delegation. They had little to say.” The board. promised not only to receive -and'consider letters from farmers before the new grades are fixed, but to take ‘actual samples of the crop this this year from the various states = This has never been done before. In other words the protests of the farmers this year have: made the fixing of grades - something more than the usual perfunc- - tory meeting. It may not result in any substantial relief this year but it is a start. = Sooner or later the entire grad- ing system will have to be reformed. If you have anything to sell use ‘tfie Leader classified "ads. ‘Patronize”the i H'ote?l?-Da'cdtah PRESCOTT & DAHL, Proprietors 0,25 T NORTH DAKOTA Located in the business center of the city. Modern Europcan Plan. First Class Cafe in . Connection.. Rooms 75¢ to $1.50 a Day. men and -some millers 2 it £ tF f il