The Benton democrat. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1871-18??, 1873-04-12


for sea, and the figures will stand thus !:
One bush wheat ON board ships 104
Int. one per cent per mo. mos 06.2
Insurance 3 per cent? OBJ
Freight, $25 per ton, off, 250 fbs.. 66.6
Com. at Liverpool ~ ..,...... Q.3
Total cost of one bush wheat p S3.2
We will now reduce the price of ocean
freight to $40 per ton. This will make
Ii cents difference in the cost of bushel
of wheat delivered in the Liverpool
market; $1.S3 minus l3c equals 81 20,
so that upon this last figuring we find
that the shipper can get 81 IA for a bush
ell of wheat that has cost him $1.70.
Four cents bUshel profit; and to arrive
at this we must put the ocean freight at
$40 per ton-as low as any of the Port
land papers put it, think. Let US look
for amoment-at the prospect for ocean
freight next season. lift is understood
that the farmers are going into the
shipping business for themselves, is it
: not likely that these old shippers will
want to make money in some way !?
They will be likely to make an effort to
charter all the ships coming here las, i
think with success), and we will be COM
PEELED to re-charter from them, and prob
ably at so high figure that we would
make losing business shipping wheat
to foreign ports.
1t is limited by some that the farmers
of Oregon had better. hold out the idea
that they intend to ship; so as to scare
the shipper, and make him pay us a
higher price. L am of the opinion that
this course viii, if attempted, prove
failure, if not disaster. 1t is best to
make no false motion for it is not like
ly that the speculator will scare worth a
cent, by any kind. of hans5ug we may at
tempt to set up.
From the beginning of the farmers
meetings here and elsewhere in the val
ley, have had no idea but what the
shipper was paying about as high price
as he could afford, or was going to pay
for our surplus products. If we had re-
ceived here at Corvallis the highest price
for all our wheat, say so cents, the ship
per could not have made very large
profits, if, indeed. he had made anything
at all, outside of the price of his freight,
on the Corvallis wheat. And the same
is true of wheat bought at other points
in the Willamette valley. The cause for
low prices is here in our midst. We
allow too many middle-men, and pay
them too much. Freight has been too
lower if we take the proper course.
The fault is with ourselves, and the
remedy in our own hands. We can, if
we will, always get good prices. There
are some who always do. It has been
said the farmers could do nothing for
themselves by holding meetings. I
think we can do much. We can gain
information and this lis what we need,
and after we get it, act upon it.
The whole system of wheat storing in
Oregon is wrong, because it has ten
dency to get the producer lower price,
and make it no cheaper to the consumer.
There is nothing wrong in the mere
matter of centsa btlshel for storing and
handling. If this is all the warehouse
man gets, he will not get rich very fast.
But he is generally the paid agent of the
buyer, and it is his business to get the
producer as low a price as he can; or, in
other words, to buy for his employers as
cheap as he can. And it is but reason
able to suppose that the man who is the
most successful will get the highest price.
1t is so in all branches of business, and
I presume it is in this. Then the ware
housemen are so anxious to accommo-
date the producer that they take grain
in bad condition, and mix it with that
in good condition, making the whole of
quality, which has very strong
tendency to lower prices
w. B. and Jas. Hamilton made the
following statement, in substance. to me,
at my request, on Saturday, Mach 8,
1873:
The amount of wheat stored by us the
past season was 55,074 bushels, at our
warehouses in Corvallis. The amount
weighed out does not exceed the amount
weighed in, so there is no increased
weight.
They have never received one cent for
storing, buying, sacking and delivering
on board the river boats, except cents
per bushel for storing. The cost of
their warehouse and wharf was $1,000.
This building will hold about $4,000
bushels. The average price paid for
wheat at Corvallis this season has been
about 65 cents per bushel.
They (the Hamiltons) bought for Com
stock & Co., and this company bought
for Hewett, Wilson Sc Co., of Portland,
who are agents fora heavy English COM
pany, the principal shippers from Ore
gon. Comstock & Co. were paid some
thing for buying wheat, and they gave
us part of what they got. That is,
they paid us the cents per bushel stor-
age Comstock q Co. made strong
effort to keep the price of wheat down,
so that they could afford to buy.
Hewett, Wilson & Co. gave us orders
to send tile wheat down by Holladay's |
boats, and not by the opposition line.
If we were the agents fer the farmers,
intead of being the agents for the buyers, |
we could do some better for them J; or, if |
the wheat was under our control, we |
might, at times, get better prices.
Mr.Hyland says he stored Is, 900 bush |
els, and thinks there is an increase in |
the weight of wheat from the time it is |
in at harvest until it is weighed I