St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-10-01

est of all schemes to corner the wheat |
market proclaim that they have sprung
it to help out the farmers.
But the people of the state will not
stand this sort of treatment, British syn
dictate or no British syndicate. The
Pioneer Press, after its discovery last
spring that somewhere between the
producer and Minneapolis there has
been loss of about 10 cents per bushel
| on wheat, probably by sense of duty
! to its party if nothing else, has been de-
| Tending the wheat ring. 1t refuses to
! believe that there is a combine as proved
| in the GLOBE. This far the Republican
organ was willing to go, but when the
elevators announced that hereafter they
alone will know the amount of grain
| in store in the Northwest, the Pioneer
Press could stand it no longer, and in a
powerful editorial denounced the whole
| scheme.
Suppose" said this editorial, ''the
public is excluded from all knowledge
| of the amount Of grain in store in the
very granary of the country. 1t is ev
! dent that the elevator companies will
know, and that they can use their
knowledge. if they choose. as the basis
| of speculative operations in grain that
would be destructive OF settled market
and most disastrous to the farmer"
THAT secrecy" continued the writer,
''may breed unlimited speculation and
multiply many times all the evils com
planned of by the farmer as resulting !
from gambling in farm products is con-
eeivable, just as the idea that publicity |
can permanently lower prices is not"
This editorial SO completely exposes |
the designs of the combine that it |
should be read by every farmer and !
business man in the Northwest. 1t fol- |
lows:
1ynoily Endefensirse.
The refusal of the private elevators at |
Minneapolis, and of the companies that |
hold large amounts of grain in elevators !
at interior points in the Northwest, to |
furnish information for public reports |
is step backward; and the reason as |
signed for it is one that we should have !
thought banished from every intelligent /
community in the nineteenth century. |
The idea that publicity can harm any |
| body, that secrecy can work some myS- |
| ferrous jugglery by which prices may be !
affected permanently, is so absurd that |
| we should have declined to believe 1t to
! be entertained by the very competent |
gentlemen in the elevator business in
Minnesota and the Dakotas, if they had
not assigned it as their reason for re-
/ fuSing to furnish reports of grain in
| SlOlC. AUu CSCli nOW VIC llluOb NC VII
; Sldered reluctant to accept such libel |
on their intelligence. and consider it
more probable that they have other
| reasons, which they prefer not to state,
! than to believe that they are converts
to the system of century or two ago.
1t has been the custom now for sew
eral years for all the elevators, public
and private, to furnish statements of
/ grain in store, from which commercial
] 10
daily OR weekly estimates Of what is in
sight.
The ssVisible Supply''
has come to be an important factor in
| rading, and the extension OF reports to
cover the whole country as nearly
as possible was as much q tri-
umph of commercial progress as the
building of telegraph line to open
communications with regions hitherto
| cut OIL from the swift dissemination of
news. Now, however, the elevator COM
| pgnies have put a stop to this; and their
reason is the ridiculous one that the
! publication of grain stocks held in ele-
vators has tendency to depress prices
| ket. 1t is difficult to reason
against this. just as it would be
hard to argue with a man who
should say that an opera house should
never expose diagram of its interior.
because the people would see how many
vacant seats were there, and refuse to
! buy except at a discount. AS far as the
complaint is concerned that the govern
ment crop reports are libel on facts,
! there is reasonable ground for objection.
For the statlstician of the agricultural
! department has made
| That Work VaIueless
in the eyes of well-informed people for
many a year. But there are more ac-
| curate reports than his; and, for the
compilation of these, reports from the
! elevator companies are Indispensable.
Now let us see. first, what is the logic
of the elevator managers, and next. what
must be the consequence of persistence
in the course they have chosen. OF
course, the proposition that prices of
commodity can be raised or lowered per-
manently by publicity is the height of
nonsense. The amount of wheat sold
and the price paid are, determined by
| the demand and supply. There will be
no greater demand for loaf of bread if
! the world does not know how many
bushels of wheat are in North Dakota's
elevators than If 1t does. If publicity
has kept the price Of wheat low for the
last year, then knowledge of the fact
that there was plenty of wheat to be
bought must have prevented some con-
sumner from buying and eating it.
This Is Too Trivial
for further consideration. But the re-
fusal to furnish these reports does, as
far as it operates, create very real and
serious danger. Suppose the public is
excluded from all knowledge of the
amount OF grain in store in the very
granary of the country. d. 1t is evident
that the elevator companies themselves
will know, and that they can use this
knowledge, if they choose, as the basis
of speculative operations in grain that
would be destructive of a settled mar
ket and most disastrous to the
farmer. That secrecy may breed
unlimited speculation and saui-
compIaissged OF by the farmer as: as result suit
ing from gambling in farm products is
conceivable, just as the idea that pub
licity can permanently lower prices is
not. Public opinion will not tolerate