The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, October 28, 1918, Page 11

17$100,000; the Cudahys had another loan of $150, 000—a total of $674,531.27. This list of loans was so interesting to the sena- tors that they called on Colver for more, and he began'to read off a dizzying.array of sums that the big banks had turned over to the meat kings—often on unsecured notes—at the time the commission made its investigation. - It was the discovery of this ability of the packers to call upon the big banks from Boston to San Francisco, to furnish money for their operations in seizing control of the war-food market, that impelled the federal trade commission to charge that the packers were “deeply intrenched” in the most powerful financial institutions of the cquntry. 2 The Morgan banks had lent the packers millions. So had the Rockefeller banks, the Kuhn, Loeb & Co. banks, and the rest. And directors of some of these banks were in high position in the directorate and committees of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States. That proved, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that _;Wheeler. had not the slightest interest in looking “after the welfare of the Chicago packers! chairman of the board of the Irving National bank, - ‘New York. Its loans to the packers totaled $1,593,- © 760. The Broadway Trust company, of which he was. a director, lent the packers $100,000. James Cousens of Detroit, a director of the cham- “ber, was director of a bank which loaned $250,000 to the packers. _ The People’s National bank of Pittsburg, one of whose_directors was also a director of the cham- ber, lent $400,000 to the packers. William J. Dean of St. Paul was a member of the chamber’s committee which drafted the attack on the federal trade commission. His father, Wil- liam B. Dean, was shown. to be a director of the First National bank of St: Paul, whose outstanding loans to the Armour, Cudahy, Morris and Wilson packing interests, on June 380, 1917, amounted to $2,125,000. S Samuel McRoberts, director of the National City bank of New York, was formerly vice president of the chamber. The National City bank’s string of loans to the packers totaled $6,100,000. J. Ogden Armour is a director and large stockholder of .a criticism of - the federal trade, commission. - " Besides showing up the packers’ connection with the chamber, Colver declared that the chamber lied about the method of estimating the cost of produc- tion of coal, which the commission adopted. He testified that President Wilson came personally to the office of the commission three times in the summer of 1917, and one day remained more than three hours, going over the work of the commission= in determining the cost of production of coal. The president accepted the results of the commission’s studies; he fixed the price of coal in August, 1917, on the figures they furnished to him; later on, Fuel Administrator Garfield conducted independent in- vestigations and changed the prices affecting only 314 per cent of the total tonnage. So much for the chamber’s ‘charge of "“reckless” handling of the coal barons’ interests. Now President “Wilson has named for another ° five-year term on the commission the same Victor Murdock whom the chamber denounces as unfit for the place. He does not nominate any big busi- ness henchman for the vacant place on the com- ] the National City bank, and the periodical cir- mission. . I g ? Lewis E. Pierson, director of the chamber, is cular issued by that concern recently contained That’s the answer. B ; t Why Fl Mills Can Still Profit s Milling Rule Not Based on Facts and Federal Grades Favor Millers— . 205 g 35 ~ Trade Commission Report Proves Doctor Ladd’s Figures : / HE millers, according to the fed- - eral trade commission, are mak- ing millions of dollars excess profits. At one time they sold 1,000,000 barrels of flour at $1 per barrel in order to get rid ‘of nearly $10,000,000 -excess profits, and this was only- a part of the excess profit made - in the seven months that they had been under this ruling, which means either that the farmers were paid less than they. should’ have becen for some grades of their wheat, or else the consumers were overcharged for their flour. Doctor Ladd, president, and Thomas Sanderson, miller of the North Dakota Agricultural college, in Bulletin No. 3, Vol. V., dated April, 1918, three months before the federal trade commission report was ° made, called attention to the fact that there would be ex- ruling, if followed strictly, might have reduced the flour output for ourselves and our allies below the danger line, which shows the danger in the use of incorrect data, as this ruling based on an assump- tion that the grain trade has used and not on ac- tual milling data which could have been had -from the North Dakota Agricultural college. It is now six months since this bulletin was issued and no changes have yet been made in the government ruling for the millers and the injustice to farmers and consumers is allowed to go on. This ruling was a wartime meas- ure to conserve flour. Instead it made it pos- sible for the miller to waste flour, the all-im- portant product for winning the war. The following illustration from the bulletin is given to show what the waste in flour or the ex- ELEVATORS AT NEW ENGLAND, N. D. cess profit will be for a small mill: A 500-barrel mill, securing the same milling yield as at the agri- cultural college and using wheat from all the grades and running 300 days, would make 337,500 pounds, or 1,722 barrels more flour than the milling ruling calls for. If this flour was put into the feed there would be no excess profit, but if it is left as flour it would result in an excess profit of $10,845. For a 50,000-barrel mill this would be $10,845,000. The commercial mills have secured as good milling yields as Mr. Sanderson did at the North Dakota Agricultural college mill,-and he ‘thinks that they should do still better. The federal trade commission in checking up the mills found exactly what Doctor Ladd and Mr. Sanderson had predicted three months before, show- ing that the North Dakota - Agricultural college milling data checks with the mercial mills. The bulletins results secured in ‘the com- : . ; issued by Doctor Ladd and Mr.. * & cess profits in milling unless Sanderson are the standard 4 some of the flour, was put in books on milling today. These @ | vé 5 ¥ the feed, due to the ruling bulletins give complete data | o i which governs milling, which as to milling value of the dif- B ' ad is as follows: ferent spring wheats and show_ i 196 pounds of flour must be just how the farmer has in 264 pounds of 58-pound wheat " pounds more wheat per barrel made from 268 .pounds of 57-pound wheat 272 pounds of 56-pound wheat 276 pounds of 55-pound wheat 281 pounds of 54-pound wheat 286 pounds of 53-pound wheat 292 pounds of 52-pound wheat 298 pounds of 51-pound wheat The data from the milling tests made at the North Da- kota Agricultural college show that the above ruling for the millers is too liberal. On’51- pound wheat it allows 15 ‘than necessary. On 52-pound more, and so on. The flour from- these 'extra . pounds of - ‘wheat must be put-in the feed to, avoid excéss profits.. This When Doctor La “to milling value, | enced by them are pretending to bring in reforms which will giv | for instance, is trying to gather in farm ~ demands a return to the Minnesota grades, h Doci ‘ : grossly 1 : : ‘_ " are just a trifle worse; so the fight'on them by such men as Burnquist means nothing for the farmer. The ' oints in a recent bulletin prepared by Doctor Ladd and Thomas the experimental mill at the North Dakota college. -~ . - mentioned. They are not tapping their heads any more, ‘organization, but they are.using a more subtle form of a "stOl.'Y‘.Qn'-;AtS}_lis_“_‘ »age gives some of the big Sanderson ~the milling: expert. These typical country elevators are absolutely unable to handle grain according to the wheat it~ allows~ 12 - pounds = federal grading system. Doctor Ladd, the North Dakota expert, declares that it ‘would - Y take from 86 to 178 bins to handle the trade at the country point. above have probably from 11 to 17 bins each. throw several different grades of wheat -together.- This is just one of the stupid, vicious. things about the’ federal grain grades. dd of the North Dakota Agricultural cdllege first took up the cudgels for wheat grading according the men with the “know how”. in the grain trade used to tap their heads when Ladd’s name was because Doctor Ladd has behind him a fighting farmers’ ttack on the farmers. They and the officeholders influ- e milling value grades. Minnesota’s governor, er votes by urging the milling value prinei oL The, elevators shown The elevator ‘operator must then which Doctor Ladd showed were so grossly unfair. many cases been unjustly de- prived of a part of the value of his wheat. . At the North Dakota Agri- cultural college Doctor Ladd and Mr. Sanderson have in- sisted on. milling until all the flour of good quality was se- cured. _ This explains why their results do not agree with the data that the grain trade, the bureau of markets and the milling division havé used. Why not base the milling di- vision ruling on real milling. data and cut out allowing flour to be put into the feed, or else have .excess profit, thus ren- dering justice to both? the . at the same time making sure (Continued on page 14) le and at the same time he ‘The federal grades farmer and the consumer, and .