Evening star., 1895-07-12
A Story About the Agricultural De-
partment Denied.
NO CHANCE FOR 4 LEAK AGE
How Others Get News About
Crop Reports.
MR.. DABNEY'S STATEMENT

A telegram from New York states that
there was much kicking among the grain
men on the produce exchange yesterday
over the alleged leakage of the government
crop report figures Wednesday. Insiders,
1t Is alleged, are Just about twenty-four
hours ahead of the rank and file of traders
in getting the report, or at least figures so
close to the actual condition that they can
work on practically sure basis. A promi-
nent broker, who is indignant at the alleged
tips from Washington, came into possession
Wednesday noon of figures on the condition
of spring and winter wheat. said to have
come direct from Washington. He mad re-
ceiyed them through friend and refused
to give names or figures, but to assure the
doub.ers that he had "sure tip" the
figures were placed in an envelope, sealed
with the signatures of two brokers and put
away. Yesterday morning the figures were
compared with the official conditions sent
out in the crop report. On spring wheat
the tip was 1O1 against 1922, government
figures. and the winter 65 against 6o.S,
official. The significance and Importance OF
this will be appreciated when II Is stated
that the best local guessers were Tor con-
ditions of 09.S and 12O for spring ana WIN
ter 1t was said that the northwest also
had straight tip on the government re-
port, for they were heavy sellers In this
market Wednesday.
The officials at the Agricultural Depart.
ment take very little stock in this story OF
a leakage in the government stock report.
They say that the system In the dlVlsion
of statistics is such that leakage 1s next
to an impossibility. The figures are han
died by a number of different people, SO
that any leakage would be the result onIy
of colluson between the entire force OF the
office The final figures from which the re-
port Is compiled are handled In a separate
room, and are seen only by the chief statis-
tician, Mr.. Robinson, and his assistant
The report was sent out wednesday pre-
cisely at o'clock.
Mr.. Dnbney's Statement.
Speaking of the matter with Star re-
porter this morning Assistant Secretary
Dabney said: ..
at is the same old story that is raised
every once in while. but never vouched
for. We deny it absolutely. If these reput-
able brokers in New York say those figures
came from Washington. let them prove 1t
once That surely ought to be no difficult
matter. If all the facts are as stated In
that telegram.
.'The truth is that there are plenty Of
other people outside of this department
who are engaged in the work of preparing
statistics of the crops In the interest OF
the exchanges. They sell their inrorma-
tion. The crops are all in the open sunlight
and cannot be hidden. They can figure on
them just as well as we can. and there Is
no earthly reason why their figures should
not be as exact as ours. Only 1t enhances
their value to say that they came from the
department. For example, there are a
number of people, formerly In this office.
who are now in Chicago engaged In max
ing up crop reports for the exchanges.
They have correspondents all over the
country. doubtless. In many cases, the
same correspondents that the department
has. When they left here they undouhted-
ly had lists of our correspondents and
have presu mably made usa of them since,
although we have endeavored to change
our correspondents as far as possible since
there Still. the crops are the same who
ever reports them, and their reports might
reasonably be expected to be as accurate
as ours. If man has a set of these fig
ures 1t Is money in his pocket to say that
they emanated from the Department Of
Agriculture. The truth Is that they don't,
and that is all there is about it."