St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-11-13
THAT FOkE1GN OCTOPUS.

The Chicago Tribune furnishes the
farmers of Minnesota and the DakOtaS
some matters to think over during the
long winter evenings ahead of them by
quoting from the London Financial
Times of Oct. "a a statement concerning
the shares and debentures of the Chi
eago and Northwest Granaries COM
pany. There is, perhaps, not one farm
er in hundred who had ever heard of
such cOmpany.Or had even suspicion
of its existence. so that it will be
startling revelation to them when they
learn that they have all these years
been contributing to the support of the
most grinding monopoly that has ever
accursed the Northwest, and yet have
been in the prOfoundest ignorance of its
existence. Our farmers have all along
had a sort of indistinct knowledge that
they were being robbed by middlemen.
yet they have not been able to locate
the robbers. Perhaps the statement
printed in the London Financial Times
will throw some light on the matter.
Farmers of Minnesota. we invite your
careful attention to this statement, for
it is worth the time you will devote to
study of it.
The statement announces that the
shares and debentures of the Chicago
and Northwestern Granaries company
are ''over-applied for" and that the list
is closed.
The Capitalization is said to be 81, 2OO,-
900. in shares of $50 each, and the profits
are guaranteed to be not less than Is
per cent per annum.
The property comprises the Star ele-
vatOr in Minneapolis, flour mill at
Candy, and seventy-fve elevators along
the line of the Chicago & Northwestern
road in Minnesota and Dakota.
The business is reported in the pros
peetuS as having paid dividends of %
per cent in 1886, % per cent in 1887, and
so per cent in 1888.
The information is given that the
country elevator pays four or five cents
per bushel less than the wheat can be
sold for, and also that the company
does considerable business in selling
coal, salt and farm supplies TO the farm
erS at the same time the grain is bought.
1t is told that the certified profits. as
above noted, have been made on rates
which were little above so per cent of
the maximum rates allowed by law;
that the business incurS no mercantile
risk. as the grain is Immediately resold
either for present or future delivery,
while the company is protected by a
margin, as in banking transactions,
thus avoiding all elements of specula-
tive nature.
These aVerments have been made
subject of verification by experts sent
out from the old country.
And the public is also assured that
there is room for much further develop
ment.
Here is an actual instance of going
away from home to learn the news.
There isn't. perhaps, a farmer in
all Minnesota. or in the DakotaS,
who had the slightest knowledge
of what immense profits these ele-
vatOr people were making. Where
ever there has been an attempt to
restrain them by legislation they have
invariably come before the legislature
pleading poverty and threatened bank
ruptcy, until they succeeded in working
upon the sympathies of the poor, de-
luded granger representatives, and
usually obtained increased powers and
privileges. They have likewise sue
ceeded in pulling the wool over the
eyes of the grain and warehouse COM
mission. But here is statement not
intended for American eyes, which
gives the only correct information that
our people have had upon the subject of
elevator profits.
Now that these same English capital
lists, who have been growing rich OH the
sweat of American brows, are rapidly
acquiring ownership of our Minnesota
and Dakota mills, it is all the more i'm
pOrtant that the farmers of the North
west should take this matter into con-
sideratiOn and devise some means to
protect themselves from the rapacity of
this foreign octopus.