St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-12-15
FOR THE FARMERS.
Capt. Cross Wants the Railroads
and Elevators to Divide the
Chances

Capt. Cross Wants the Railroads
and Elevators to Divide the
Chances.
Capt Judson n. Cross of Minneapolis. has
plan for helping out the wheat grower. the
man who is at the mercy of the railroads.
elevator companies, and bulls and bears.
His plan has the merit of honesty. at least,
and possibly more. 1t is certainly plausibly
explained in a letter which he has sent to
the railroad and warehouse commission. In
brief, he thinks the state should fix. railroad
and elevator charges OIL wheat on sliding
scale.
capt. Cross finds. in his own experience as
owner of wheat farm, this fact: That the
price Of wheat i'll fat year is proper
ionately below the price in lean year. so
that the farmer realizes from his crop
year as he does in ..fat" year
lie also finds that every man who touches
wheat from the time it leaves the farmers
wagon until it goes to satisfy an appetite
craving for bread-lhe elevator man. the
railroad man, the terminal elevator man. the
miller, the common carrier on land and
water the exporter, the foreign cOnSgnee,
the baker and the bread seller-handles it on
fixed margin of profits. And their margins
of profit are estimated just as high i'll lean"
years as i'll fat" years The farmer alone
mas TO depend upon chance. or luck, for his
profit. After reciting these facts ut length i'll
his letter TO the railroad and warehouse com
mission. Capt. Cross SAYS:
81 have called the attention of this honor
able board to these general facts only as
prelude to a suggestion which | desire to
make 10 this honorable board as possible
recommendation to the legislature of the
state Of Minnesota, in order that it may
take into consideration a more equitable
plan for the division of the proceeds of the
product of The farm and especially of the
product of wheat as between the farmer, the
elevator companies and the carrying COM
panies. In q general way INV plan would be
TO have the legislature fix scale Of prices
for the carrying of wheat from any part OF
Minnesota 10 the two great terminal points in
Minnesota. of water navigation, the head of
naviga ion on the Mississippi river, and the
head of navigation Oh Lake Superior. and
for handling the same by all elevators within
the state on the basis purely of the value of
wheat. That is to say,l would fix prices for
the hauling and handling of wheat SO that
the railroad companies and warehouse com
panles would earn about the same amount
in year when Minnesota raises 40.0e0,G0l
bushels of wheat as they would in year
when Minnesota raises 00O or 30 00O Goa
bushels of wheat so there would he no in
justice done to the railroad companies nor to
the elevator companies.
when Minnesota and the two DakotaS
raise 10000 900 bushels of wheat, the farmer
is necessarily compelled 10 take p or 3 per
cent less per bushel for his wheat than when
bushels. When there is less wheat to haul
the farmers generally get larger price, aud
can afford to pay higher price per bushel
for handling and hauling than they can
when there is a larger amount of wheat and
a lower price. What the railroad company
needs is an average amount or earnings from
year to year, and with great crop of wheat
and lower prices for hauling, they would
earn as much as they would with lesser
crop and larger prices
Let the state legislature, through your
honorable board. devise system of equaliZa-
lion between the farmers and the handlers
of their produce SO tar as the stale can do 1t
and there is no question that it can do it
on equitable principles as well as on legal
principles, as it now does. OF course, there
would be many knotty problems to be solved
between the board and the railroad COM
panies and the warehouse companies. but
these can be solved as all other questions
have heretofore been solved.
what the farmer needs most is that, in
some measure at least, those who haul and
handle the grain which he raises, as much
for their benefit as his own, shall share with
him the uncertain prices of the great staple
and shall take their chances at the end of
the season on the market value of the crop.
1t is exceedingly bad for railroad company,
with fixed charges and fixed expenses, to
have lean" years and fat years. | am well
aware, and for this reason alone it would be
better for the railroad companies to have the
matter of their bulk earnings equaliZed i'll
the lean years and the fat years. 1t
will be very easy TO ascertain the aver
age price of wheat for ten years pre-
ceding any year and fix the price of
carriage in future years on the price of
carriage and the price of wheat i'll past years
as a standard. During the carrying months
of every crop year your honorable board can
iix the carriage price on a percentage OF the
standard ut any given point in the state, ac-
cordng to the average price of wheat at the
terminals during the preceding month. for
any given month; or, possibly, it might be
sufficient to fix the price according to q per-
centage OF the standard once in three
months. Practically this would probably be
sufficient.
AT first thought this general plan which
have outlined, which would need, of course,
much calculation and harmonizing of inter-
ests TO put it into practical operation, might
seem to be an impracticable plan; but am
sure there is nothing which would give
greater satisfaction to the farmers of the
state and of the Northwest than some such
equitable sharing of the high and low prices
of wheat in the lean and fat years.