Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1870-11-18
The Evils OF tho Present System of
Handling Grain.


FROM tuc Dubuque llncs.
One of the most remarkable evil
dences that the American people
can be long suffering under gross
imposition and wrong, is found in
the fact that here in the West we
submit tamely to the villainous out
RACES perpetrated by the railroad
companies and warehousemen, in
spcctors and spectators Of Chicago,
in the handling of the vast amounts
of cereals that seek market in that
modern Sodom. For long years we
have submitted, almost without pro-
test, to the shameless exactions OF
railroad companies in insisting up
on delivering our grain to some ia
vored warehouseman in whom,
perhaps, we have no confidence, and
would not, of our own will, trust fol
a moment with our business. We
have allowed this warehouseman
and some dishonest inspector in
collision with him, to put grade
mark and consequent price upon
our property, when probably they
have an interest, through their out
side speculation, in making that
mark and consequent price lower
than our property's honest worth.
We have permitted them at will to
take that property and incorporate
it with other property, SO that it
must be impossible even to reclaim
it or prove the injustice they may see
fit to do us. We have submitted
quietly to take from that warehouse
man recei pit for so many bushels
Of grain, the value of which receipt
can at any time be reduced by him
self and his accommodating inspec-
tor, by "posting" a statement that
the grain in his warehouse is cheat
ed" when perhaps our grain, if it
ever went into his warehouse at all
which is not probable, although
we have paid twenty cents per bush
el for handling it--has long since
passed out of it. We have allowed
these warchousemen, by suffering
this system to continue, to put upon
the market, at will, grain receipts
cd Hbit"n, whose value, after they
had sold them, it was their interest
to reduce that they might buy them
back at a profit, thereby offering
them opportunity and induccment
to attempt to unsettle and reduce
values, to our great injury. We
saw, but a few months ago, that
they were ready to take advantage
of these opportunities by posting
wheat in their warehouses as heat
ed when there was not a 1.-THE
of the wheat in their elevators that
the receipts represented, and much
of what there was, when withdrawn
and sent to Milwaukee, passed as
perfectly sound. All this and more,
we have suffered, almost without
complaint-evils and outrages that
ought to have reused the whole
country to protest, to resistance, and
to continued effort for correction.
There ought to be some remedy
for this state of things-some rene
dy for the gambling, the 'ruinous
corncrs,' the outrageous fluctuations
in prices which it induces. The
possible correction lies in the utter
abolition of the present system Of
handling and inspecting grain, and,
instead, selling only by sample.
Railroads ought to be forced to de-
liver grain to whomever the owner
chooses to consign it. Warehouse
men will conform to the demand for
separate storage, and the grain
when sold by sample will sell as
other products sell, for what it is
worth, and the owner will get its
true value. What will be bought
will be for use and shipment, and
we shall not have the spectacle of
millions of bushels sold daily with
out in the least relieving glutted
warehouses. Warehousemen will
not be able to put indetinatc num-
bers OF receipts upon the market
that represent grain which they
have not in store, nor to be able to
post wheat as heated that has long
since gone forward to the Eastern
market. Let the farmers and grain
buyers of of the West agitate for
these or other remedies, and submit
no longer to the swindling to which
they are now subjected.