The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, August 24, 1916, Page 8

-has- seen- in" years has come. a - 'the utmost importance.- - " '.-Shall farmers have a voice in fixing " . five_ il Minnesota and I Grain Growe e —————— S O Is Right Price to Demand for No. 3 Northern This Year ARGO was the scene last week of an epoch-making conference of northwest grain growers. Out of conditions amounting as. near to a total -crop failure as the northwest move. of the price of their products? Shall they “hold their wheat”? : "“Yes” gail “this Fargo conference, representing- 27. of the 52 comnties of North Dakota,three counties in Montana, several in, South: . The conference not only said “yes;” but" it proceeded to estimate what the farm- ers ought to receive for their grain this year, and-from the conference will go word -to every farm in the northwest, recommending that m ‘be held this yebr for the following prices, Minnesota terminal market: ' r One dollar sixty for No. 3 Northern 'vheat. other grades in proportion. Ninety cents for No. 2 feed barley, other grades in Pproportion. % Fifty cents for oats, No. 3 white, other ‘grades ‘in proportion. . One dollar fifty for durum wheat, No. 2, other grades in proportion. S Two twenty-five for flax. . One twenty for rye. DON'T HURRY TO SELL IS MESSAGE TO FARMERS ’ These - are the prices the conference decided farmers should hold for this year. They are Minneapolis-St. Paul - terminal prices- and to figure what the recom- mended holding price is for any. station in-the northWwest- freight:to Mimmeapolis should be deducted. . The> importance of this move can not be qver-estimated. Tt means that the - slogan for the ncrthwest this fall will be “Hold Your Wheat.” It may, and doubt- less will, take on national - significance. Every means of publicity is to be used to get this message to every farmer. He is to be urged through all his market- ing societies and unions and _other organizations, by personal letter and interview, through such papers as will carry the message and by every means at the command of those back of the move- ment to hold the wheat and other grain until the price quoted above -can be obtained. e o ““Hold your wheat.” . Not since the old. Farmers’ alliance days of Kansas has a ‘move of this kind with as strong a backing.and as good a chance for success been launched in the northwest. Most of them hit as hard or harder than they evér have been through crop failures, and many of them facing financial ruin, the farmers represented at this conference decided to take things into their own hands. They decided that in justice and reason they should not get a cent less for their grain this year than the prices quoted. They have simply got to have that much, they decided, and they are going to make the whole north- west ring with the' slogan, “Hold Your AMERICAN MILLS WILL BE ~ CLAMORING FOR WHEAT Grain will be scaree this year and high. Without this movement wheat, and prob- sbly other: small grains; would reach a “record price. But those back of this moyement want to be sure it will reach was looked upon. of most fortunate. The reports indicated that the general aver- age will be 5.to 6 bushels;.and that of a very poor grade. - Those who. attended: the conference in person and those: who sent in reports made.a painstaking. effort to figure the costs of production, each on his own Taking into_consideration the total area seeded. and’ the -expected: yield, farmers estimated: it had actually -eost them: from $1.25 in: some cases to.as high .as $2 in other cases to raise a single bushel. Some wrote that.$10: a-bushel would: not: cover their- costs, for: they would not harvest a bushel. Those who reported costs‘as low.as $1.25 2 bushel had mostly durum wheat, which was not hit as hard as spring-wheat by the rust. Hardly any with bluestem or marquis wheat -esti- mated: costs less than $1.50° per bushel. The barley estimates of eost: ranged from 40 cents on some forms to 90 on others, according as the _yield was high or low in proportion to the acres seeded. . The flax estimates ranged from $1.87%% to nearly $3;, the oats from 40 to 60 . cents. NOT ENOUGH GOOD WHEAT TO FURNISH SPRING SEED As to quality, the reports were so dis- couraging that the conference ‘decided that there would be scarcely any No. 1 and No. 2 wheat marketed, and they based their holding price on No. 3, as , they thought that would be the best that would be raised in any quantity. .The seriousness of the situation was indicated when a canvass of the reports and opinions of, those present showed that the farmers may have to import or buy No. 1 wheat for seeding next spring, with the prospect of having to pay $2 a bushel for it. Consequently the meeting adopted resolutions urging farmers not -to sell any No. 1 or 2 wheat, held: either from 1915 or grown this year, as-this would be needed for seeding. If those holding it did not need it; their neighbors would, it- was agreed. The Equity Co- operative Exchange was urged to put in use its -old warehouse at Moorhead. for the storing of seed wheat against the demand next spring.. President J. M. Anderson of the Exchange, who presided at -the conference, said that this would be done. it «No group of men facing great financial losses, amounting to ruin. or near-ruin in many cases, ever showed such, good nature_and good fellowship as this.con- :fevence of northwest farmers. It was " not a blue meeting. It was not pessimis- " tic. - Farmers smilingly arose in their places to tell of whole crops Wiped out S Handly 2 fad will b l'eveiLfl'dr ‘fellow sufferers. Men who are this year for his money outlay, even at ; prices, to say nothing of returns on/ his ‘labor or a profit. These prices wfl} mean nothing to the thousands of farm- ‘o-oooodopioiuoooodo ® a2 Kz seeing a whole year’s work and financial ontlay lost or all butlost were anxious " to.put as little si:mssas possible on their ‘@~ _gone , E -because 8o o WORLD. Con L g Shall the farmers have.something to say about what is a just price for grain or shall they continue to look to the speculators to fix prices? sentative gathering of Northwest grain growers here answers that -question e higher-price moveme:ltsin ht:: nutshell. Everybody goes for on can the state be driven inevitably to its last resort-com- _prehensive public control in the public interest.—NEW YORK ooooooooéidoooqbiooooooooo6..00.000oooooqoobodo&dooooo; personal side of it. When some farmer reported a 10-bushel yield he was hailed as a prince of finance and patted on the back. When another made a joke of the ' fact he had gone out the day before and put his gang plow to work turnijng tinder the whole wheat crop, without even try- ing- to harvest it, his fellows .Jaughed with him. LADD LECTURES ON_EVILS "OF MINNESOTA GRADES Immediate crop-loss woes, however,. did ‘not: prevent hearing: an. address by President -Ladd of the North ' Dakota Agricultural college. President Ladd - ~explained his experimental work: cover- - ing: -eight ."years: in -milling -wheat of various. grades: and testing- the bread from the flour. He explained how he had. proved the present: grain grades are. unjust, beeause, wunder: them, the ' mills get-a bigger return from the lower grades, for which the farmer gets- less, A repre- than they do from the higher grades of wheat. The upshot of the ‘address was a resolution condemning the present grading system and demanding- a-new system based on scientific milling tests that would give the farmer justice. The meeting also passed a resolution demanding that the Minnesota grain board of appeals enforce the law in the case of dockage on barley, failure to do. which is an abuse of present conditions pointed out at the recent hearing before the board, as reported elsewhere in the Leader this week. X The meeting was called to order by J. M. Anderson. In opening the session he reviewed the work of the Equity Cooperative Exchange and told of the recent hearing on grades before the board of appeals. . Getting down to the subject at hand, he said: “We had similar meetings to this in 1907, ’08, '09..and ’10, when the Equity movement was in its infaney in North Dakota and ‘when we: had nothing like the present organization and means of publicity” to make our recommendations’ effective. We did some good. The fact that - farmers. had met and.estimated costs of production and what they ought to get for their product had some-effect. These meetings undoubtedly helped, but the. custom ' of holding them died out. We now. think it time to revive them and make them really- effective. e s FARMERS’ MA{!KETING BOARD, PLAN OF J. M. ANDERSON “What we would like to see is the organization of ‘a marketing board; rep- resentative of all the farmers of the . northwest, to act' in consultation with and 'advisory to the ‘board. of -directors of the Equity Cooperative Exchange. It ig to be hoped that some.such move will grow out of this meeting here today. It could’ be organized through a meeting of representatives of : all the farmers’ elevators of the northwest, and it could ....O......_51\.\’_!.."’.,"‘..“....‘.,\............‘.—.Q..O....’.‘,’. s i :,;" 'THE REMEDY—STATE CONTROL g Replying o the farmers’ complaint that everything they use up, the city milkman, threatened with a higher cost of k, says, “Well, we are paying more for everything too.” This . “put one across.” - After such hold sessions when necessary with us at St. Paul. It would be an advisory marketing board for all the farmers, It would advise farmers as to market conditions at home 'and abroad, keep _track of the crop, estimate costs of pro- duction and recommend when to sell and when not to sell.” “This marketing board should have its own system of crop reporting,” sug- gested C. J. Lee of Valley City. “It shoud ofganize a system of crop repért- ing - like: the government's, but it would be conducted for and - by - the farmers, independent of all other crop estimating bureaus. 1 “believe the government reports are honest.’ I am a -government reporter in Bdrnes county myself. But the trouble with the government report is that it is often delayed and represents conditions existing weeks before it is published, since when great changes might take place, as this year, for instance. ' The goVernment reported a yield of 65,000 bushels for North Dakots August 8. Now we know it won't be anywhere near that.” J. C. Berg of Hendrum, Minn., said . that the government reports did not take into account plant and soil conditions that would. work in the future for the betterment or cutting down of a growing crop. He said that good crop men knew the present wheat erop was gone the last of last June, yet the government report dated August 8 had not taken into conw sideration what was - liable to happen before the harvest and hence it was way off, ‘being much too high. GROWERS IN AGREEMENT ON RIGHT WHEAT PRICE After some discussion of the organiz~ . ation in the. future of such an advisory marketing board as had been suggested by Mr. Anderson, the meeting began hearing reports of crops from those \present, together with estimates of cost of production. In the meantime the written reports were compiled by a com- mittee, so that all the data was available when the conference got down to the business of recommending prices for the farmers to hold for. There was little disagreement, after all the facts were discussed, as to the prices to be recommended in the case of all grain except wheat.' A few at first Sried to get through a motion to set the wheat price for No. 3 Northern at the terminal at $1.50, but this motion lost. After some more discussion a motion unanimously passed recommending $1.60. The farmers were not unmindful that' they might ‘be courting an “anti-trust” prosecution by attempting to fix and recommend prices to farmers, advisi the holding of crops. till these prices could be restrain of trade were referred to several times. “I think, however, that we have as much ‘right to meet and-fix prices as the ‘Minneapolis Chamber of Cammerce,” said Mr. Anderson. “As you know the Chamber causes to: be printed a grain bulletin, containing the prices that all country elevators are supposed to pay ~farmers for wheat. This is issued each day and ‘rigidly enforced. We all know that. Efforts of farmers to stop this price-fixing by the:Chamber have availed nothing. So I guess we can fix some prices if we want to.” s The effect of the possible importation of Canadian wheat' was also discussed. It was pointed out by several speakers that the duty was only 10 cents a bushel and that if the price the farmers will be - urged to hold for is more than 10 cents. above ‘the Minneapolis market at any ‘time, and wheat gets scarce, mills will’ import 'to keep running. But the major- ity present thought the 10-cent duty wasg enough to keep out Canadian grain in: - large amounts, even if the “Hold Your Wheat” slogan is 'enforced. It'‘was’ pointed out that the Canadian crop was: " ‘crippled also,” but perhaps not as badly: The Can- as the crop. over the line. adian price, it was thought, would be high ‘and, with the duty added, the “wheat could not profitably be imported ‘at less than the farmers will be urged to hold for, 5 & i X obtained. The statutes om™ ot | o e L S N A5 S S A B S A ST e v our Wheat”, They Urge rs’ Meeting at Fargo Decides Dollar Sixty )