The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, August 25, 1919, Page 10

['¥ in which the inspection is made. ‘pervision in a large market. - censed inspectors within each district. - person who calls an appeal to the sec- ‘sary information regarding the grain - ~“jointly by all the persons interested in ~ facts regarding the grain that are ‘stated in a complaint, and may be sused in' cases in which all ‘parties ‘agree to refer the question of deter- . - tary of -agriculture. T _peal. be taken? Method of Grade Appeal Procedure for Questioning Decision Made by Licensed Inspector (From a Government Bulletin) 2| ULLETIN No. 52 of Service and Regulatory Announcements put out by the department of agri- culture tells how to make an appeal from a wheat grade es- tablished by a licensed inspec- tor. The information is put in question and .- answer form as follows: Q. What is an appeal? A. An appeal is the action taken by a person interested in the grading of a car or other lot of grain, who questions the grading of the licensed inspector, by calling upon the secretary of agri- culture through a federal grain supervisor to de- termine the true grade under the United States grain standards act. Q. What is a licensed inspector? A. He is a grain inspector who has been licens- ed by the secretary of agriculture to inspect and grade grain according to the federal grades under the United States grain standards act. Q. Is the licensed inspector a federal employe? A. No. He is merely licensed by the secretary of agriculture. His compensation is derived from fees charged by him for each inspection, or he is paid by some state grain inspection department, or by the inspection department of some chamber of commerce, grain exchange, or similar organiza- tion which employs him. Q. Is the appeal from the inspector’s grade taken direct to the secretary of agriculture at Washington, D. C.? A. No. It is filed in an office of federal grain supervision in the district in which the grain is inspected. The federal grain supervisors in charge of these offices are the authorized agents of the gecretary of agriculture to entertain appeals. Q. What is the value of an appeal? A. It insures the interested persons in case of doubt that the true grade of the grain is ascertain- ed and provides a means of determining whether a particular inspection is a correct application of the federal grades. The grade determined and certified by the secretary of agriculture through .,‘hls authorized agent, the grain super- visor, supersedes the inspector’s cer- tificate. Q. What is an office of federal grain supervision ? A. The United States is divided into 35 federal grain supervision dis- tricts, with headquarters for each dis- trict at an office of federal grain su- Each office supervises the work of the li- Q. How is an appeal taken? A. It is taken by filing a state- ment in the form of a “complaint” or “stipulation” with the office of fed- eral grain supervision in the district Q. What is a complaint? A. It is a written statement by the retary of agriculture giving the neces- and the transaction involved. Q. What is a stipulation? "A. It is a written statement made .an_appeal, setting forth the same mining the true grade to the secre- Q. Is there any time limit for taking an appeal? When can an. ap-, 5 ciate good appearances in, the farmer’s place of business. farm itself, however, on the farm has merits. one farmer uses a good-looking ‘bulletin board for this purpose. _board with the stenciled black letters fits in well with the farm background. Ang A. An appeal must be taken before the close of business on the second business day after the day of the inspection or the reinspection from which the appeal is desired. Another important condition is that the grain must not have left the place where it was inspected and must not have lost its identity. Q. What if the person desiring to call the ap- peal is located in another city at a considerable distance from the market, or place of inspection, and could not secure and fill- out one of these forms and submit it within the time allowed ? A. He can notify the office of federal grain su- pervision himself, in advance of filing the com- plaint but within the time allowed to take an ap- peal, by telegraph, telephone, or otherwise, in order that the grain supervisor can proceed with an ex- amination of the grain. visor may extend the time allowed for filing the complaint and it would only be necessary to file the complaint or stipulation within the time so al- lowed before the grain supervisor issues the grade memorandum. Or he can arrange with an agent in the market to take the appeal for him, in case he disputes the inspector’s grade. Q. What if a person desires to call an appeal on grain which has been inspected at a small mar- ket, and there is no office of federal grain super- " vision located there? A. He notifies the office of federal grain super- vision in the district in which the small market is located. Q. Can any one prevent an interested person from taking an appeal to the federal. grain super- visor? A. No. In all transactions under the United States grain standards act, any interested person has the privilege of properly calling an appeal, and no one can legally prevent hlm from having his appeal heard. Q. Is there any cost involved in calling an ap- peal ? ; 2 . A. Yes. The party filing the complaint is re- quired to make an advance deposit of $3 per car in the form of a check payable to “Disbursing Clerk, U. S. Department of Agriculture,” or a money or- der, which, however, should be filed with the grain supervisor. If the inspector’s grade, from which the appeal is taken, proves to be incorrect, the en- tire $3 is returned by the department and the ap- peal service is rendered free. The days of advértlsmg' medmnes, chewing tobacco and circus performances on farm buildings are passmg, but none too rapidly to please these who appre- - Both the board:itself and the material advertised are appropriate. tor. let it be_ noted. tog that such ‘advertising wrl!'probably ST inerease Eéles_ fien produets are. ready : In this case the super- - Advertising the .The above picture shows how The Grain Grades Fight . Damaged Crop Strengthens Agitation for Better System -,]OOR quality of much of the wheat harvested this year, as judged by federal grain stand- ards, is already adding strength to the Neonpartisan league fight against these grades and for grading according to milling value. Not only spring wheat but much of the winter wheat is' under normal c¢ondition and the great bulk of the crop will grade under No. 1 To the farmer’s loss from natural enemies will be added the loss from this unfair grading system. As Doctor E. F. Ladd, the well-known North Da- kota expert, points out in his studies on the ques- tion, the federal grades discriminate unfairly against wheat of the lower grades. With a larger percentage than usual of our crop falling below No. 1 this fall, the injustice of the grades has become more apparent. The claim that the grading does not fix the prices as put forward by the bureau of markets is merely a pretense.: In practice elevator companies and millers use the grades to secure the lower qualities for less.than what these lower grades are worth to them. When a milling company buys, it buys according to milling value, taking care to get the cheapest mixture of different qualit; wheat that will produce its prod- - uct. But when *he mills and elevators deal with the farmer they ouy on a fictitious basis which has iittle relation to the use to which the commodity is to be put. - Thus even if the federal grades were properly applied there would be great injustice done-the wheat raiser. And to this we must add the fact that they can not be applied in the interest of the farmer. The farmer does his business in general with the local elevator. This local elevator prob- ably has at most 18 to 24 bins, where the federal grades would call for about 84. Thus the:local ) elevator has to put several grades into one bin. ‘Who does the grading at the elevator? The ele- vator -manager, of course, whose interest lies' in - getting the wheat from the farmer at as low a Underg-radmg is one of the ; tncks ‘he can use and it is unfair to human nature i A FARM AD ON THE FARM : I figure as possible. to expect him not to use it. Some line elevator companies make a practice of paying their managers only a nominal salary so as to force them to resort to trickery. Suppose, however, the elevator man- ager is inclined to be fair. It is still impossible for him to do scientific ' grading as called for by the federal system.. The amount of detail in- volved: makes 10 samples a day's work, and during the rush season wagonload after wagonload pours in are driven from the scales. -The most must guéss with a big margin in favor of the house as a guarantee against with guessing the weight. The right of appeal from local grading is of little use to the farmer. In selling to the elevator, the grain is tity thus lost. It is a difficult process for one not accustomed to outside business transactions, and the grain trade makes ‘a point of keeping the farmer away from it. Dakota has been able to remove some {The white the findings of: the state grain inspec- But no state can make an un- workable and jus on him as fast as the empty wagons . he can do is to guess the grade. He- loss. Grade guessing is in a class - mixed with other grain and its iden- The farmer legislature of North - injustice by providing state inspection and legal compulsion for acceptmg. - ‘workable - and- _unjust’ :federal aystem by V&