The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, December 10, 1917, Page 11

N2 PO N shape our copper is even worse. The Boston report to Henry Kost & com- pany of Minneapolis on October 27 contained the following: SAME THING IN : COPPER PRODUCTION “Estimate that this year's curtail- ment may reach 500,000,000 pounds, Domestic consumers in need of imme- diate requirements have secured small slfotments through metal. committee. Deliveries at higher prices on old con- tracts continue. Quite probable that 1919 first quarter copper will be ad- vanced to 25 cents or higher in order to stimulate production.” » Our annual production of copper has averaged only about 1,500,00¢,000 pounds. Thousands of men have been idle in copper fields for months since the war started. Various reasons are assigned, but it ought to be clear that prolonging strikes was the only method the copper operators would havd to curtail production enqugh draw higaer prices.: Any other method would have been too obvious. How much stimnlus does a copper profiteer need? The government recently set the price on copper at 2314 cents, A recent finman- cial report gives the cost per pound of producing copper for the Calumet and Hecla Mining company as follows: Cost Selling Price 1914 11.36¢ 14.01¢c 1915 9.33 18.11 1916 11.63 26.48 The 1917 cost for this company could hardly have been over 13 cents and copper has sold as high as 87 cents. Although copper costs are hard to get at, the above experience of enormous profits is borne out by the reports of other copper companies. The following taken at random from 1916 reports show net profits averaging 54 per cent of the year’s sales: Ratlo of Net Net to wales Profit Sales Ingpiration Cons. opper Co.. 833 496,343 $21,530,523 64.3 Rey. Consoli- dated Copper Co. .20,060,783 11,860,150 68.9 Cogper ‘R a. ‘g O .13 840,167 6,078,190 46.8 Chino Copp CO. oicesisse 19.219.767 12,517,876 €0.0 Ahmeek ining Co. Mich. .... 6,235,491 8,449,710 §5.0 Nevada s, Copper Co .24,366,292 14,370,269 68.5 North utte Mining Co..... 7,120,259 2,479,695 34.8 Twenty-three and one-half cents is at least 10 cents a pound over costs; it confirms the monopoly prices of the previous two years and this 10 cents a pound hasn’'t stimulated production. The operators were so0 doped with profits in 1915 and 1916 that in 1917 a larger quantity of this dope was need- ed to produce the necessary stimula- tion. “The habit grew by what it fed on.” Will Uncle Sam, the physician, prescribe the expected increase next January or will he take steps to cure the profit habit? The profiteering in natural resources since the war started has not yet been felt in its full extent, Our business system is full of high -priced stuff which must be worked off on the con- suming public. Even if we were to na- tlonalize our resources at once, the evils of their profits would remain with us for another six months. In other words we have lost a year in war preparation, so far as mnational re- sources are concerned. On the other hand, had we nationalized these re- sources at once following the best ex- ~ perience of Europe, we would now be entering a period of strenuous price reductions and abundant supplies. The American people are paying a terrible price and running a terrible risk to maintain the divine right of monopo- lists. Some day they will see this is as stupid as the divine right of kings. Shall Dairymen Earn Costs? They Are Producing Milk for the Big Cities Now at Less Than Cost As Cow Testing Association Figures Show ATRY farmers are well equip- ped with facts to show the cost of producing milk, much better equipped than were the wheat farmers when the markét price of their product was arbi- trarily set below the cost of produc- tion. 'What have all these cow testing associations been good for if not now to ‘trot out their information for the general public and for the numerons investigating commissions at work in many cities? If wheat farmers had been keeping eost accounts as carefully as many of the milk producers, they could have made a better skowing for a higher price of wheat. Too few knew what it actually cost them to produce wheat on their own farms, The United States government knew, and several state experiment stations knew and both government and states had published bulletins showing it cost from $10 to $17 per acre, from $1 to $1.50 per bushel to raise wheat five years ago. Most of the wheat farmers counted as cost only the cash they spent. They left out im- portant items such as income from in- wvestment, taxes, their own families’ labor etc., so that their cost figures were inaccurate. Not so with the dairymen. PAINSTAKING FIGURES IMPARTIALLY GATHERED Those dairymen who have belonged to cow testing associations know how , much it costs them for the milk they produce from each particular cow. These associations have spread rapidly during the last two or three years. That is why the farmers are now in- insisting on better prices. They see they have been selling at a loss much of the time. These associations are groups of farmers who join together and pay an expert, usually a graduate of some agricultural college, to visit their herds regularly and test the milk. The farmer's part is to weigh carefully the milk at every milking, the amount of feed fed to each cow and compute '!'v‘ ‘ghe time he spends. This is set down at the moment of the weighing on a sheet pailed up inside the barn, a column for each day of the month. At the end of the month the association tester figures up from the daily weight gheets how much milk each cow has duced, and.from his own tests can" just how much cream was pro- quced from each cow; also how much feed each one consumed. The labor e is averaged per cow, 'and when m finished, he hands to the farmer 8 balance sheet showing an exact rec- . ord of each cow's performance and her profit or loss down to pennies. i It 18 upon such imparual and accu= pate data- that the farmers of the gountry have -been. basing their de-' gnands for- $3.50 to nearly $4 per 100 unds for milk. Many farmers, after onging to a cow testing association gor a year or two years, have become so impressed with the need of keeping @ost accounts that they continue to keéep them of their own accord, even where they forego. ‘the expense of be-._ fonging to the association, PROSECUTE FARMERS FOR ASKING COSTS When the 16,000 milk producera sup= plylng Chicago were called on the care pet by the officials for haying declded to ask at least the cost of production, they were ahle to tell what those costs were, They found that it actually cost them $8.42 per 100 pounds for October, and they wanted $8.71 for November, when costs would be increased. Dis- . tributors refused and there was a 24- hour milk strike in Chicago. A compro- mise was reached at last at $3.22, and farmers are furnishing the city milk at a dead loss. Meantime they are being prosecuted under the anti-trust law for having united to demand cost of pro- duction. . ‘When the Milwaukee producers were hauled up for investigation they show=- ed a variety of figures, but these rang- ed around the same total, $3.63 -per 100, $3.76, $4.69, and some submitted costs- of $5. They were not, however demanding that much, realizing that some might be producing at too great a cost. The effort was to arrive at average costs and get that and a reasonable profit on average costs. The producers were not trying to com- pel the public to pay a profit on the most expensive and least profitable dairies. The experiment stations came in with impartial facts just as some of them=did in the wheat investigation, but up to date they have got the same - consideration for their cost figures on milk as on wheat. From University farm, St. Paul, which is connected with the ' agricultural department of the university, cost figures were introduc- ed on 260 cows for a whole year and showed that it actually costs $2.52 for the year to produce milk. This is less than was being received. For the five winter months the cost. was found to be $2.99, both these figures allowing for a 10 per cent profit. Producers are getting only $2.50. The Illinois station went into great detail, finding exact costs on 1000 cows, tiguring in all feed at going prices, and discovered that it cost for October 1917 $3.43 per 100 pounds for the milk being sold in Chicago. The producers were getting one cent less than this, and are now being prosecuted for not having agreed to still lesa. 2 HIGH FEED COSTS DISSIPATE PROFITS “Even if the milk producers for the Chicago whole milk market get $3.43 per 100 for their milk during the com- ing six months, as they are asking, the short hay crop and frosted corn in that region, the unheard of high prvices for mill feeds and the scarcity and high price of labor will cause profits to van- ish unless due consifleration is given to all the economies of production,” says Wilbur J. Fraser of the University of Illinois. If consumers could be made to study figures shown by the cow testing asso- An up-to-date, thoroughly efficient dairy barn, like those from which the big cities are drawing their milk supphes. The milk producers who operate such ‘plants know accurately what it costs them, but their cost figures have been dis- _‘ugard_.ed and thus far they have been compelled to sell for less than cost. Annual Seed Contest One of the most interesting agricul- tural events in North Dakota is the an- " mual pure seed contest held in conjunc- tlon with the Tri-State farmer's con- vention, this year from January 15 to 18 inclusive. The advantage of a sup- ply of pure seed is two-fold: An ad- vantage to the growers who have it _for sale and are thus afforded & ready ' market; and to the farmers who want it to plant and can thus know where to get it. In order to-be listed. farm- ers must join the seed growers’, asso- ‘,da.tion. Fei f Samples of seed shounld be torward- ed to the pure seed lahoratory: at Fargo, N. D, early. All must be analyzed before the date of the exhi- bition. There are cash prizes, ranging from $10 downward, and gold medals and other prizes. . Farmers sending geeds are requested ‘to tell how much they have on: hand and: this data will be filed -for use in answer to inquiries gent to the college. The North Dakota Agricultural college annually receives hundreds of requests for pure seéd of all kinds, particularly the cereal grains, and lists of those who can supply them are sipplied to these inquirers, thus affording them an opportunity to deal directly, but with the prestige back of the seed that it has been tested, analyzed and found good by competent authorities, In the forthcoming contest it is de- sirable that contestants grade and clean their small grain ‘thoroughly, This 1= a contest to show how perfectly farmers have prepared or will prepare grain which s to be sold for seed. Bamples of slightly more than a pound are wanted. Each sample must be en- closed in a separate bag. Cloth bags should be uged. In case a number of different samples are being sent, each one must be securely tied to prevent possibility of mixing. PAGE ELEVEN ““yery efficient ciations they would soon learn that the farmers who produce their milk are not profiteering, a delusion that city news- papers have been keeping up in all the big cities. One farmer with 15 cows in 8 Wisconsin association, a farmer who had never suspected but that he was making money, found when the. tester finished with him, that 10 of his cows were_an actual loss to him of $1.58 to $27.52 a year, the 10 causing a loss of $141.23. The five cows that “paid” yielded him from $1.41 to $10.21 per year, a total of $28.84. Subtracting this from his dead loss on the other 10 hiy loss per year was only $112.39. MILKMEN DON'T ASK PROFITS ON INCOMPETENCE This case is typical of that of many farmers who have been producing milk, and illustrates one of the reasons why the price received by farmers does not pay them. In 104 testing associations in Wisconsin, in which this herd was one, there were seven other herds that did less even than this -one. While farmers are not asking that producers pay them enough to earn profits on such herds, they are asking that they be paid enough to earn reasonable profits on average herds. Other lines of business, for instance the railroads, ask that they be paid enough to earn profits no matter how inefficient or ex- travagant they may be, and are right now asking a general 15 per cent in- _ crease to pay dividends on incompe- tence and poor service. Even when a cow pays $5 a month, the dairyman is not making much money. But that is better than many can do. Another herd in this same ‘Wisconsin association illustrates a lit- tle better condition. The dairyman had 13 cows and they paid a yearly profit of $22.68 to $69.70, a total profit on the herd of $553.84. This gave an average per cow of $42.60. This makes the profit per cow per month, $3.55. To earn that $3.55 the dairyman had to milk the cow 60 to 62 times, feed her, care for her, and include dividends on his investment. This was an especially good herd and its owner was praised for his good work in having bred it up, and yet after all he only earned $3.55 a month per cow—and the farmers’ enemies call this profiteering! There are still several state com- missions in various parts of the coun- try investigating the cost of producing milk, The farmers have nothing to fear from real Investigations, and the fact that there are several in progress 'ves hope that the farmer’s costs will allowed to be shown in some of them. Consumers of the cities do not want milk at less than cost, no matter how much they appreciate a bargain, and when the facts are fully establish- ed they will find that the farmers have been selling milk at less than cost. The distributors get 40 per cent of what the consumers pay, the producers 60, and this distribution cost is another side to the story. The Leader next week will have something to show in regard to this feature. DRIED POTATIES MAKE GOOD . PORK Dried pressed potato, used in combi- nation with feeds rich in protein, is in producing rapid gains and a high finish when fed to swine,” United States department of agriculture investigators have found in a search for a suitable way to dispose of cull or surplus potatoes. An experiment on which this con- clusion is based is desCribed in bulletin 596, just issued by the department. o e s Sk B N T AT — - s RSN 2 " - R -] i