St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-10-13
REFORM DEMANDED.
Hon. Cy Wellington Pours Hot
Shot Into the Wheat
Robbers.
Farmers of Stevens County
Turn Out in Great Num-
bers at Morris.
A Free Market Demanded By
the Pr poducers Of the En-
tire State.
Arguments So Clear and Fair
That They Carry Convic-
ton to All.
Special to the Globe.


MORRIS, Minn.. Oct. 12.-The farm
ers of Stevens county turned out in
great numbers this evening to hear
lion. Cy yelling ton. of st. Paul, and
more enthusiastic political meeting has
never been held in the county. The
exposure of the wheat ring has
thoroughly aroused the farmers of the
county, who have long been protesting
against the robberies of the ring. Mr..
Wellington delivered a powerful and
eloquent address. a part of which was
devoted to the wheatquestion and other
state Issues. His analysis of the evil
dence that has been brought out against
the elevator and railroad combine was
effective and convincing. The farmers
of Stevens county have been protesting
against the wheat combine, having
known for long time something of the
real state of things. Mr.. Wellington's
burning words on this subject fell on
soil that has long been ready for the
seed, and the harvest will surprise the
wheat ring and its defenders, the Re-
publican leaders and managers. The
great national issues disposed of, MIR,
w CillHS tOIl Sdlu.
The Great Wheat Trust.
But when the farmer has paid the
cost of transporting his wheat from the
point OF production to its ultimate mar
ket, he has still to meet another foe, and
this is the enemy that is his most bitter
and malignant one. Under the present
system of wheat handling, and under
the So-called warehouse laws of the
STATE Minnesota t>l
TO organize combination to control the
price OF wheat that is so gigantic in its
dimensions. so broad in its operations
and so perfect in its details that today
the farmer has no more to do with the
selling of his wheat than the slave of
the South had to do with the marketing
of the cotton that his labor helped to
produce. This combination, like all
other trusts that have been formed
within this country, consists of certain
corporations, banded together sor one
common purpose, namely. to so control
the handling of wheat in the Northwest
as to purchase it at their own. price.
within certain limits. and, within those
limits, to give the farmer the lowest
price, without re gard to its value In the
markets of the world.
Ihe appearance of the now notorious
Woicott pamphlet has excited renewed
Interest in this question, and still it is
but another statement of what has been
known to every business man i'm the
Northwest for years. There is no local
station along the line of the roads but
what can produce its, victims, whose
cries of complaint have been heretofore
unheard; men hauling their wheat into
the elevator and receiving a grade less
than the wheat called for, cheated in
their weights and deprived of any re-
dress-that is any practical redress
and the number of the sufferers includes
practically every wheat raiser in the
Northwest. Year after year these
Complaints Have Been Heard
at every session of the legislature of
the state of Minnesota; something has
been attempted i'll the way of a law to
relieve the producer from this injustice,
and it is worthy of remark that all the
legislation that has found its way upon
our statute books upon this subject has
been practically dictated by the very
Interests that are combined together to
control the markets. They have their
advocates both i'll the senate and the
house. their lobbyists OH the outside,
their paid attorneys to draft the laws to
be proposed, and in many cases the law
has been proposed by some person pre-
eStS.
Ii you will examine the system of
grades SO established. you will find that
it is admirably calculated for the pur-
pose of cheating the producer. 1t is a
Weil-knOwn fact that whenever the
wheat is shrunken little, that is the
time the elevator man and miller makes
his money, and the reason is obvious.
Though the wheat may not, according
to the test, weigh more than fifty-twO
or fifty-four pounds TO the bushel, nev-
ertheless the farmer must furnish sixty
pounds when he sells the wheat. Nature
in its operation appears to have formed
the gluten before it fills it out with the
starch. and sixty pounds of this shrunk-
EN- wheat has a larger proportion of
gluten than the same quantity of the
full, plump berry of last pyear.
So the miller and elevator man,
when this wheat comes in, turn it
into -four, and this -four sells for the
same price as that made from the best
No. hard, which costs Is to 20 cents
more. Again, take the grade of No. 1
hard. 5S pounds to the bushel The
next lower grade may weigh 81 pounds
and 13 ounces, and be worth for flour
purposes, within half cent of
she price of No. l hard, yet
when the farmer brings this
wheat to the local elevator five cents
must be deducted from the price be-
cause the wheat does not weigh within
hree ounces as much as it should under
he grades established by the legisla-
ure and the warehouse commission.
ALI Against the Farmer.
The whole operation of present leg
Station is inimical to the interests of
he farmer and producer and subserves
he interest of the buyer, the miller and
he elevator man. When l use the
erm elevator" l mean to be under
TODD as referring to the interest that
purchases practically all the wheat of
he Northwest.
Passing from the question of grades
o the manner in which the wheat is
andled. we are confronted by certain
acts, the mere statement of which leads
0 the conclusion that-a great wrong has
een in the past and now is being CON-
nitted. Without making personal at
ack upon the crediblity or honesty of
Ir. Pillsbury. there are certain things
hat must be conceded by his warmest
dvocates, and when these concessions
re made the conclusion that fol-
1ws is irresistible and not to
is credit The letters published
4 the Wolcott pamphlet, one
D Arnold of Larimore, and the other
D Stuart, of France. were both dictated
y Mr.. Pillsbury, and yet it is cOnteud-