Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-09-22

Especial Telegram TO the Globe
CHICAGO, Sept. 2l.-The dispatch giving
particulars OF -four fights between milIers
at MinneanG'is AMI the railroads caused
consldel,.tl, comG.eDt III Chica 20. Peo-
pie IN commercial circles here seem to be
rather widely aware OF the fact that con.
test has been brewing in that great quar-
ter for several weeks past. It is under
stood oy some parties interested here in
the grain and flour movement that The
millers in that city are in great trouble.
They have had a practical monopoly of
the wheat business in Minneapolis for
years past either by an understanding with
the railroad officials or otherwise, by
which means they have been practical
ly able to dictate the prices farmers should
receive for every bushel of wheat they
raised and the farmer was unable to move
his grain unless he should accept those
prices. Under the stimulus of
the excessive profit permitted by
the arrangement, and by system of
through freights which gave them peculiar
transportation facilities as compared with
millers in this section, they have grown
rich and built up vast milling system
there which is now so great as to have be-
come top-heavy. The milling facilities
have already outgrown the current demand
for consumption, and In order to keep the
mills going it has been found necessary to
establish agencies broadcast all over the
east and Europe for the purpose of get
ting rid of the -four, which is now offered
on terms that do not give much profit
| owing to excessive competition between
| themselves and the millers of other Sec
lions. 1t is said also the mills have been
cropped together in such way for the
purpose of utilizing the water power that
insurance men have taken the alarm. and
are unwilling to write policies on the
| property except at rates which are vari-
ously stated by outsiders as from to
per cent. per annum. The explosion in
the Washburn mill in 1873, opened the
| eyes of underwriters, and they now look at
milling property with much more wary
eyes than they did few years ago. Inas-
much as an explosion in one of the mills
at Minneapolis endangers not only the
stability of that structure but of
almost every one in the vast system
| there, it will be seen that
catastrophe near the falls of st. Anthony
might compare in magnitude with the loss
suffered in the Chicago fire. On the heels
of this comes the extraordinary develop
ment of the wheat raising industry in the
| far northwest. The trouble with tbs Min
neapolis millers is they cannot control
that wheat, and the demand of the owners
of that grain for market at fair Transport
tation rates bids fair to kill off the combin-
alton by virtue of which the millers have
hitherto controlled the Minnesota wheat
raisers. The arrangements, as they are
understood by people in Chicago, who
talk 3. on the subject, are
that the wheat of the northwest can 60
to Duluth and reach the seaboard
at a price which makes it cheap as COM
pared with Minneapolis flour, but more
than that, the millers of Rochester, n. Y.
are able to take the wheat, grind it and
supply flour to the people Of the seaboard
| and Europe at a cheaper price than wheat
could be laid down on the other side to be
ground by English millers. Rochester
millers are already taking certain kinds of
wheat from Chicago for the purpose of
mixing with this Duluth wheat, and there
is reason to think about all the export de-
mand that has made such noise in this
city for the last week or two
has been simply the filling of
these orders from Rochester millers. They
can take relatively cheap grades of wheat
from Chicago and mix with the good wheat
| from the northwest and make flour which
is very much cheaper than anything that
can be made by the Minneapolis millers
from Minnesota wheat on what would 9TH
erwise be equal terms. When against this
is set down the large cheapening in the
cost of transportation from the western
end of Lake Superior to the eastern end of
Lake Erie, it will be seen there is probably
very grave reason for Minneapolis millers
fearing loss of the supremacy which they
have so long enjoyed, and entertaining
doubts as to their ability to survive an ex-
is!ence with eastern competition.