The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, November 1, 1920, Page 10

New York Will Build State Elevators : First Units Will Be Even Larger Than North Dakota Terminal HILE opponents of the Nonpartisan league aré crying that it is “socialism” for the farmers of North Dakota to be building a 1,600,000-bushel state-own- ed grain elévator at Grand Forks, the — state of New York has decided to build two state-owned elevators, with a capacity nearly double that of the Grand Forks elevator. One of the elevators will be at Oswego, on Lake Ontario. At Oswego lake shipments of grain can be stored in this elevator and then transferred to canal barges. On the canal barges the grain can be taken to the Hudson river and down the Hudson to the ocean. The second elevator will be at Gowamus bay, Brooklyn, at the ocean end of the eanal-river route. Frank M. Williams, state engineer of New York, in a letter describing the elevators to be construct- ed, says: “The grain elevators to be constructed at Oswego and Brooklyn will be state-owned and operated. The capacity of the Oswego elevator will be approx- imately 1,000,000 bushels; Gowanus bay, 2,000,000 bushels. An expenditure of $1,000,000 for the Oswego elevator and $2,500,000 for Gowanus has been authorized and of these amounts $775,000 is now available.” ; By constructing these elevators New York hopes to keep her share of the grain business when the St. Lawrence river is opened to navigation. At present northwestern grain is largely hauled by the rail route to New York for export. The route from Duluth, through the Great Lakes to the sea, is now all open with the exception of obstructions to the channel of the St. Lawrence river. The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence river route, when fully opened, will be much cheaper than the rail haul to New York and if New York did not meet this competition it would lose practically all the ex- port grain trade. RAILROADS PUT CANAL . ROUTE OUT OF BUSINESS However, New York has a virtually unused canal system between the Great Lakes and the ocean at its disposal. Nearly 100 years ago the Erie canal connecting the lakes with the ocean, was the great- est highway of commerce on the American conti- nent. As railroads were constructed and grew in political power they were able to put the canal trade largely out of business. Wherever a railroad paralleled a river or canal, freight rates were put so low that the canal barges and river steamboats could not meet the competition. When the canal competition was killed, railroad rates were put back “again.’ By méthods such as these the railroads have been able to force the Ameri- can public to pay high railroad freight rates while cheaper- canal and river routes lay idle. -The opening of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence route has been fought by the railroads for years and also: by New York commercial interests. It is now apparent, however, that the opening of this route can not be delayed much longer. To hold any considerable por- tion of the grain trade New York must develop the canal route which has so long lain idle. Private enterprise could not be induced to build the needed elevators at the two terminals of the canal route. ‘- The rail- roads are still powerful enough to prevent any such action. So the state of New York is going ahead to build the elevators, for the benefit of the New York grain traders and exporters, just as the state of North Da- kota is building its terminal - elevator for the benefit of the farmers. : : The city of Norfolk, Va., is another convert to the need of publicly owned and controlled - M Elevator at Grand Forks This map shows the-location of New York’s state- owned elevators at Oswego and Gowanus bay, and how wheat will be taken from the Great Lakes to tidewater by the canal-Hudson river route —~when the elevators are completed. marketing facilities: For the last year Norfolk has been operating terminals and warehouses, built at a cost of nearly $40,000,000 by the war department. Following the war they were leased to the Norfolk port commission. The port commission is paying the government 2 portion of all fees collected.” The port commission has spent approximately $1,000,000 additional for waterfront property that will be néeded for new piers and warehouses in the near future. A letter from A. G. King, port director, states: “The enterprise has been in operation for about New York’s 2,000;000-bushel sta;te-owned terminal elevator at:Gowanus bay, Brooklyn; as it will look when completed. Drawing by New York state engineer’s ofi?:e. i PAGE TEN one year and is felt to be a success. No great amount of revenue has accrued to the city; however, this is not the intent of the operation, the main ob- ject being the development of the ports of Hampton Roads and the building up of a great export and import trade through these ports. “You may also be interested to know that an ap- propriation has been made and the order placed for flour-handling machinery to be installed at the municipal piers, which installation we hope to have ~completed in December of this year. The city is also contemplating the building of a grain elevator, but details on this have not been definitely decided upon.” It is interesting to note that while business inter- ests of the Northwest call it “socialism’” for the . farmers to want a publicly owned terminal elevator in North Dakota or Minnesota, the elevators of New York and New Orleans and the public ware- house facilities of cities like Norfolk are built at the request of the business interests of these places. The difference is that a terminal elevator in North Dakota or Minnesota could be used to store the farmer’s grain, before it passes into the hands of the middleman. It could thus be used to hold grain for the farmer until a fair price can be secur- ed for it. : On the other hand, publicly owned terminal ele- vators at New York and.New Orleans handle grain that has passed out of the hands of the farmer and into the hands of the middleman. It is all right to - 'use public funds to build up the business of the mid- dleman. That is “good business.” But ‘it is not right to use public funds to build up the business of the farmer. That, according to the anti-farmer business interests, is “socialism.” : Beef Produced at a Loss Cattle feeders in De Kalb county, Iil., lost $7.89 on each steer fed in the winter of 1918-1919 and $34.78 on each steer fed the winter of 1919-1920, investigators of the United States department of agriculture report. Following are the various items of cost for the average steer for the two seasons: : 1918-19 1919-20 Original cost of feeder......... $ 81.92 $ 78.75 Operating expenses 108.09 110.18 ; o A, Gross cost per animal ...... $190.01 $188.93 Manure and pork credit ........ 23.85 20.45 Net €ost cioiure.s, T $166.16 $168.48 Sale price ... 4 weene 15827 133.70 Loss per animal ...........$ 7.80 .§ 3478 Purchased feeds were charg- ed at the actual cost to the farmer and farm-grown feeds at the market price, less cost of getting the product to the ship- ping point. De Kalb county is only 60 miles from Chicago, conse- quently mill feeds could be purchased much more cheaply than in most of the cattle dis- tricts which are more remote from the mills. The survey covered 2,668 _ head of cattle during the win- ter 1918-1919, and 8,543 cattle during the winter 1919-1920. dne of the most favorable dis- tricts in the United States for producing fat cattle, the re- port of the government experts showed that during the 1918- 1919 season only 40 per cent a profit, while during the 1919- 1920 season only 5% per cent a profit. Ninety-four and one- loss. And this almost under the shadow of the ' packing - trust, with their profits of mil- lions of dollars every year! - Although this is regarded as ~ . of the cattle were produced at - - of the cattle were produced at - half per cent were fed at a-