Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1892-05-12
ATTENTION OF FARMERS
ls Called to the Wheat Situa-
ton by the Railroad
Commissioners.
Figures Showing ExhOrbitant
Profits by Middlemen-
Facts Exhibited.
Work of the Board in this
Matter During thePast
Year.

Matter During thePast
Year.
Advance sheets OF the annual report
of the railway and warehouse commls-
sioners have been submitted to the press
by Chairman Walsh. It is we'll that the
information therein disclosed is made
public thus early, and every wheaS raiser
in the state ought to get posted on the
facts presented in the report. They re-
late to the most important Of Industries in
the state and show a condition of affairs
greatly affecting the interests Of the
wheat raiser and the general prosperity
OF the people. The problem Of grain
marke ting is the most serious one that
confronts the people of North Dakota.
The railroad commissioners are doing a
credltable thing in showing up the facts
connected with the present system.
The law Of the state makes it the duty
of the warehouse commissioners to es-
tablish all necessary rules for the weigh
ing of grain and for the management of
public warehouses;; to enforce the laws
regarding the same and to investigate all
claims of fraud or oppression in the grain
trade, and correct the same as far as lies
in their power.
The report says that soon after their
rules had been adopted, in accordance
with law, "the line elevator companies
doing business in this state informed us
through their secretary that our rules
were obnoxious to them, and unless they
were modified in certain respects the
companies wou]d not run their elevators
as public, but would run them only as
private houses; i. g., they would become
buyers only and would not store or
handle grain for farmers"
The rules objected to were the charges
OF 2 cents per bushel for elevating, in
surine and storing grain for twenty days
and not to exceed cents bushel for
six months; the record of the receipt,
grade, weight, price, ETC., of grain to be
kept in blank book; the daily reports
of amount received, the dockage price,
etc.; and the transmission to the COM
mlssioners Of the price paid at each
elevator, each day. which price is to be
based on the Minneapolis price of the
day before, deducting 4 cents'per bushel
for handling.
The board refused to eliminate the
above rules from their code of rules
adopted, and to permit the companies to
do business as they pleased without
restriction or any protection for the
people. The report continues on this
point:
'Your excellency and the people of
the state know the result. The elevator
companies carried out their threat by
refusing to comply with the law in any
respect-would neither store, ship or
handle grain for the farmers-and as
many farmers we're not satisfied with
the prices and grades offered by the
elevators, they demanded cars from the
railroad companies, and shipped their
own grain, realizing from 6 cents to 20
by the local elevators.
This entire elevator question has been
placed in the hands Of the honorable at
torney general of the state, with lnstruc-
tions to bring before the courts.
While the figures show That the bulk
of the wheat shipped out up to date has
been by the elevators, 1t also shows that
the farmers are beginning to realize, and
experience has demonstrated to them,
that they can ship their own grain with
greater profit and more satisfactory to
themselves than by dealing with the ele-
vators, and that 1t is only question OF
time when the figures will be reversed,
and the farmers will be the shippers in.
stead Of the elevators"
Regarding another important question
affecting the interests of every farmer,
the price received, much information is
furnished by the commission. They
have prepared tables giving the pricee Of
wheat at Duluth and London upon cor.
responding dates, together with all costs
of lake, canal and ocean freights, insur-
surance and elevator charges. The tables
show figures from 1884 to 1891. 1t is
shown by the tables that with the phe-
nominal crop Of 1891. there was an
average profit to the dealer,
not farmer, of thirty cents
bushel in transaction where bushel
OF wheat was sold in Grand Forks and
shipped to London. This excessive pro.
1T arises from dockage for dirt Of from
to 7 pounds, when half pound would
cover the actual dirt, the lowering ot
grades of the average farmer and false
weights. The commissioners Say on the
above showing:
"If there were competition between
the several elevator companies doing
business in this state, these profits woulc
undoubtedly be reduced, and the far