The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, March 1, 1917, Page 4

N ¢ Uncle Sam’s “Cold Shoulder” By Oliver S. Morris HE hope of-the farmers of the Northwest that the new fed- eral wheat grading system will” give them relief fro®a the present abuses pointed out by Dr. Ladd through his famous wheat tests may as well be dropped. I say this after attending the United States department of agriculture hear- ings on the new grades which took place at IFarge and Minneapolis. I went to report the proceedings for the Nonpartisan Leader and the Iargo Daily Courier-News. These hearings for the hard red spring wheat district lasted three days. Dr. Ladd's tests and recommendations were presented at the Ifargo meeting February 20. During the Minneapolis hearings February 21 and 22 and up to the hour of closing, the United States department men overlooked no opportunity to refer contemptuously to Dr. Ladd, to misrepresent what he has done and to belittle his recom- mendations. This was not done openly, but covertly. However, during the last 15 minutes of the last day, C. J. Branad, head of the government office of markets and in charge of the hearings for the secretary of agriculture, drop- ped veiled language and flatly stated that he was convinced, “as far as he had studied them,” that the Ladd tests were unreliable and the Ladd recom- mendations absurd. This was greeted by applause by the millers and elevator men who composed practically the entire audience at the Minneapolis hearings. It was consid- erable of a relief for them, and it dash- ed the hopes and confirmead the fears of the wheat producers of four states. THESE TWO MEN TO FIX THE GRADES With Mr. Brand at the hearings was Dr. J. W. T. Duvel, in charge of the government grain standardization work. The recommendations of these two men will be accepted by the United States secretary of agriculture, who is charged under the act of congress to fix the new federal grades, which are to supplant existing grading systems in the several states. 1 heard every word said at the three-day sessions and carefully noted the remarks of the government men. There is not the slightest doubt ‘in my m‘ind but that the Ladd tests will be ignored in toto when the new grades are promulgated, and that the farmers of the Northwest will get a system of grades differing in no material way, so far as the pro- ducers of wheat are concerned, from the existing Minnesota grades, under which the wheat of the Northwest is now marketed. The government men have drawn up a system of proposed grades for hard spring wheat. In presenting it to the millers and elevator men at Minnea- polis they repeatedly explained that on the whole this proposed system would make little material change in condi- tions so far as the whole crop was con- cerned each year—that the wheat un- der this scheme will go in the various grades in practically the same propor- tions that it now does under the Minne- sota system, and they produced much data to prove this and allay the fears of the millers and elevator men. COMPLETELY IGNORE TESTS BY DR. LADD There is little doubt that the pro- posed grading system already drawn up by the government men will go in effect next July practically as it now exists, with slight changes in detailed requirements of some of the grades to meet criticisms of the grain buyers and mills. This proposed system completely ignores Dr. Ladd's tests and recommendations and, despite the prot- estations made by Messrs. Brand and Duvel at Fargo to the contrary, is not based on milling tests, but on physical appearance of the grain. What the government has done has been to find by elaborate investigations what pro- portion of the crop has gone into the various grades in past years. This is the real basis of their grades. They have dropped the old system of a No. 1 hard, No. 1 Northern, No. 2 Northern, etc., and substituted a system which calls for No. 1 hard red spring, No. 2 hard red spring, ett., so that the old No. 1 hard is No. 1 hard red and the old No. 1 Northern is No. 2 hard red. They have made the requirements of the new grades more specific than the old, ‘but not so that any material dif- ference will result in the percentages of the crop going into the various grades. In other words, what Dr. Ladd has pointed out—namely, that the spread between the upper and lower grades is unfair and that, for instance, No. 3 wheat makes more and better flour than No. 2—has not been considered and not the slightest attempt made to correct it by grades based on milling tests. The other big point is that grain is now penalized for so-called “foreign” and . “inseparable” matter, high moisture content, etc., out of all proportion to the damage for milling purposes done to grain on account of these thifags, resulting in great in- justice to the producers. The new grades in fact make this unjust penali- zation more easy of enforcement. WELCOME HOME! KEPT YOUR PLEDGE TO THE ' PEOPLE AND ['M PROUD OF YOU: The hearings demonstrated perfectly how little the real factors that should govern the penalization of wheat were taken into consideration by Messrs. Brand and Duvel. Lost in ar mass of figures and technicalities of the trade and bound by precedent and custom, these men seem unable to look at the matter in simple justice. For instance, wheat that would otherwise be No. 1, the best milling kind, is thrown into No. 5 under the government grades if it contains more than 16 per cent Not Ashamed to Go Back Home YOU HAVE 7 . {/VO/VPARTI SAN NG/SLATOR u y House for L.add’s Tests Lower Branch of North Dakota Legislature Asks United States to Heed Recommendation BISMARCK, FeB. 23.—The house this afternoon passeds a copcurrent resolution petitioning the secretary of agriculture to recognize .the findings of Dr. E. F. Ladd. The resolutions are as follows: “To the Honorable David F. Hous- ton, secretary of agriculture of the ‘United States, Washington, D. C. “Whereas, there has been manifest- ed by the grain growers of the state of North Dakota a demand for a change in the present system of grain grading, and ‘“Whereas, the Honorable David F. Houston, secretary of agriculture of the United States, ordered a number of hearings to be held on said subjezt, and “Whereas, one of such hearings was held in the city of Fargo on the 20th day of February, 1917, and ‘“Whereas, at the said hearing were present—Mr. C. J. Brand, representing the United States department of agri- ‘culture; Honorable John N. Hagan, commissioner of agriculture and labor of the state of North Dakota; Dr. E. F. Ladd, president of the agricultural col- lege and state chemist of North Da- kota; A. C. Townley, representing 40,000 North Dakota farmers; J. C. Crites, representing the Equity Co- operative exchange; A. G. Bemmels, cf the Bemmels flour mills of Lisbon; O. Brown and N. Malcolm. representing the Stark County Grain Growers’ asso- ciation; S. J. Nagel and O. McGraff, representing the Morton County Grain Growers’ association, and C. O. Kell, representing the Burleigh County Grain Growers’ association, as well as many other individual.farmers, and “Whereas, at the said hearing it be- came apparent that the information secured by the milling and haking tests at the agricultural college mill at Fargo is not being considered in estac- lishing grades of wheat by the United States department of agriculture, and “Whereas, the proposed standards for grades of wheat to be established by the United States department of agriculture are eminently unreason- able, unfair and unjust, for the reason that they impose a penalty on the pro- ducers of wheat in North Dakota, and “Whereas, the percentage permitted by these proposed standards of insep- arable foreign material is entirely too low ‘to admit of a proper and just grade, and “Whereas, the aforesaid representa- tives of the people of North Dakota emphatically protested against said standards at said hearing, “Now, Therefore, Be It Resolved, hy the house of representatives of the state of North Dakota, the senate con- curring therein, that we emphatically protest against table 1 on page ¢ of Bulletin 19, issued by the United States department of agriculture. for the of- fice of markets and rural organization, becoming the standard for the grading of wheat grown in North Dakota, and, be it further “Resolved, that we earnestly re- quest the United States department of agriculture that the findings of Dr. E. F. Ladd, thru a series of milling and baking tests, be a basis for establish- ing grades applicable to wheat grown in North Dakota, and ‘“Be It Further Resolved, that a cony of these resolutions be filed in the office of the secretary of state of North Dakota and that the secretary of state be instructed to forward a. copy to the Honorable David F. Houston, secre- tary of agriculture, Washington, D. C., and a copy to be sent to each of the senators and representatives of the state of North Dakota in congress as- sembled.” FOUR moisture. In other words it is knocked down in grade so the farmer will get 20 to 30 cents per bushel less for it under the average price conditions for grades No. 1 and No. 5. Yet, the gov~ ernment men and the millers. present admitted it costs only 3-4 of a cent per bushel to dry wheat with 16 per cent moisture down to 14 per cent, the re- quirement for No. 1. There is a very slight loss in weight of wheat once damp and then dried. Taking this into consideration also, the 16 per cent moisture has damaged the wheat at most not more than 5 or 6 cents a bushel, which is the amount of money it would take to get it back into con- dition. Yet it is thrown from No. 1 to No. 5 grade, at a loss of 20 to 30 cents a bushel to the producer. Mr. Brand made a strong point of the alleged fact the government could not take into consideration the difference in the price of the various grades as it works out on the market, but will only fix standards of quality and con- dition, letting market conditions of supply and demand fix the prices of the various grades. It was nothing to him, he said, what the difference in price was between No. 1 and No. § or any other grades. It was merely up to him to fix the grades so that each grade would mean a certain specific thing, and when wheat was labeled ac- cording to its grade, thus giving the trade the information as to what qual- ity it was and what condition it was in, the government’s responsibility ended. REALLY THE PRICE IS BEING CONSIDERED This view of the matter is technical and constitutes a denial of substantial justice to farmers. If, as Mr. Brand says, the present act of congress bars Iooking at the matter in simple justice, then it is up to Mr. Brand to ask con- gress for more authority, and he will find the Nonpartisan Leader and the senators and congressmen representing the Northwest, almost to a man, ready to assist him in getting a’law that will allow the consideration of the 'actual facts in grain marketing and permit grades that will reform the abuses. But in this very thing Mr. Brand is not frank. He Treally has taken into consideration the price in fixing the grades. He has fixed the grades to dis- criminate against certain classes of wheat, throwing them into special grades or subclasses for the sole pur- pose of singling these grades out so that a low market price may be fixed upon them. The millers have seen to that. He has considered prices and he has built his grades on the fact that the market will always give a lower price to grain in a grade that the trade has learned may gontain wheat that is dis- criminated against for some reason in the rules. An elevator man at one of the Minneapolis hearings brought this mat- ter out strongly. “Et's all right for you to say you do not consider price, but you know and we know that if you label wheat No. 4 or No. 5 it is not going to get tife price of wheat labeled higher, even though it may be worth as much as wheat in a higher grade. The mere fact that it bears a lower number fixes a lower price for it in the market. So that the difference in price between the grades under various market conditions is al- ways a factor to be considered.” BRAND GIVES POOR ANSWER TO QUESTION This particular elevator man was arguing against putting No. 1 wheat in No. 5 grade simply because it contained more than 16 per cent moisture. He said that no matter if it would only cost the miller a few cents to dry the wheat properly, the market price of it would be the market price for No. 5, which was 20 cents lower on the average than No. L. The government men insisted em- phatically that their grades were based on milling tests, yet they did not ex- hibit at the hearings data on any mill- ing tests, except one table, called the Howard tests, which the government did not make and which, when ques- tioned, they disowned. When asked why actual milling “ests could not be used at least on appeals, Mr. Brand said it would be unfair, as the grading in the first place would be by one standard and the regrading on appeal by another. Yet he claims the original grading under his plan is on a system based on milling tests. If that is true, why would actual milling tests on ap- peal be using a different standard? It is a few of these things that Mr. Brand and his associates are going to have to explain to outraged producers who are sick and tired of being gouged.