The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1891-12-25

4nIiiHoUsTiMp On THE suBsrREAsURYl
Oonsnuler Win Gain ny The
~sub-Irsssury Plan.
Ataipping from the Palatka Times,
andy furnished the Union by j. NJ.
IseeJ
Tie public, + consumers, have been
ret a;;s.inst the Sub Treasury bill by the
cry that ID class legislation, and that
they are to be taxed to build warehouse
q and to advance money on produce.
Allowing Tor argument sake that this is
the fact, let us zee what the consumer
would gain by the advance.
Grain, as well as many other com
mulities, has to be stored after harvest
somewhere and by some one, and the
question is, who will perform this stor-
age business the cheapest-the Govern
ment, as under the sub-treasury plan,
or the grain monopolists.
II the government performs this work
in the cheapest way, then the consumer
gets the berefis OF this cheapness in the
diminished cost Of his flour and bread.
Ar a parallel instance, take the case OF
another universally required commodity
and its storage by a monopoly. This is
the standard oil company. l take the
facts with regard to this monopoly from
the National Economist, OF October 81,
i'll an article by Farmer Dean:
There are the oil producers on one
side, the Standard OIL Company in the
middle and the oil on the
other side. Just as there are the grain
producing farmers on the one side, the
spectators in the middle and the flour
and bread consumers on the other side.
Tie Standard Oil Company have
charged the oil producers Is per cent.
for the money invested in warehouses
and tankage. The cost OF tankags for Il
number Of years has averaged less than
20 cts. q barrel. Yet at one time they
charged the producer rs cents a barrel
till forced by the Pennsylvania legisla-
lure to reduce it to - cts. Il barrel,
which is equivalent to 30 per cent ON
the investment. They charge two per
cent. for leakage caused by evaporation,
and three per cent. for leakage when
they run the oil from the tank Of the
producer, although it is their own fault
If there is any leakage. "They gauge the
tanks OF the producer and make their
own gauge tables to suit themselves, de-
Quoting for dead wood to suit their own
IDEAS"
The fact, like all other monopolles,
the m~onopolists force the producer to
bear all the losses. while they themselves
make all the gains. The gains being
made out of the consumer-a.id the con-
sumner IS as much forced to pay all the
monopolists choose to demand as the
producer is forced to take as little as
the monopolists choose to give. Now in
the "class legislation contemplated in
the sub-treasury plan the producer can
be delivered from the ring Of the monopo-
lists, and the consumers will be benefited
thereby cven more than the producers.
Farmer Dean says: "Ten millions OF
dollars will build tankage enough to
hold the maximum stocks thus far, and
i oil shall be developed IN the future as
and in as rich fields as IN thclast
ten years, it would guarantee to the con-
OF refined oil in this country $50
water white oil at four cents per gallon
retail, and will save the people OF the
States alone 500, 900, 900.
The price OF oil is mentioned in this
article at Is cents a gallon; here we pay
20 cents and sometimes 25 cents or
more.
SO it comes to this that il the public,
through their government, should loan
money to the oil producers at two per
cent-theyfmight save on all the oil they
ln%d'vIduai ~ consume II, 16, OF 21 cts.
a gallon1 Eand if they advanced ten mill
ions ioIi the cost Of tank building the
a yingl b the people would be 500, 900,
oonali1blthink there is nc II who would
say that this sort OF ''class legisla-
ton" would be a good Investment Of the
Taxpayers money.
Let me Just remark &c. my friends,
that the Ponce de Leon at st. Augustine
belongs r1ghtfully in boutequalpropor-
tons to the defrauded oil producers and
to the defrauded oil consumers. Every
sto rekeeper, every householder, every
poor man and every poor woman burn
ing his or her little lightning bug has
helned to build that Flagler palace, and
not one of them could afford to spend
II day in it!
AS with the oil producer, so 1t is with
\ the grain producer and the cotton pro.
ducer-and SO on the other side it is
with the food consumer and the clothes
wearer, the raw materials OF which have
been clutched hold OF by the monopo.
lists. To release the producer from
these greedy clutches, is to release at the
same time the
There might be a fear that the monop.
oily Of the farmer would be the same in
effect as the monopoly OF a trust orring,
but this is an impossibility.
The whole time Of the monopolist is
spent In looking out all over the world
to see where he can buy cheap and sell
dear; studying how he can screw down
prices Oh the producer, on the one side,
and screw up prices On the other side to
the But the farmer has to