The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-06-17
McNEAR ON THE DEAL.
The Big Dealer Gives Another Aspect of
Its Operation.

The Big Dealer Gives Another Aspect of
Its Operation.
'sThe alarmists will find themselves
without an occupation if they turn their
attention to the present condition of the
wheat Market" said George w. McNear
yesterday.
perhaps I had better modify that"
he continued, "and say the outlook for
wheat. The producers have no occasion
to get alarmed. l know the CALL is &C
cepted as the most authentic guide among
the farmers of the State, and | should like
very much to have them properly informed
on the true situation. There has been so
much said about the effect of the syndi-
cate wheat deal on the condition of the
market, that the producers have gathered
the idea that they are TO suffer loss through
that transaction; that the market is going
way down and that the buyers, shippers
and ship-owners are going to clean up a
fabulous profit.
Il think the men who grow the wheat
should know the truth, that is, as far as
any one is able to give it to them who is
engaged in the commission business.
Understand, this is not the truth from the
shippers view point alone, but as it affects
the industry and the market. There has
been talk about the shippers chartering all
the available vessels before buying this
syndicate wheat in anticipation of the
coming deal. Well, what was more nat
ural? Was it not necessary 1t would
certainly have been very foolish for any
shipper to have bought an immense guam
tity of wheat without knowing whether he
could secure enough tonnage to handle
portion of the wheat, at least. l bought
60, 600 tons OF the Fair wheat, and during
the last five days l have sent off five ship
loads, or about 13, 900 tons. One ship was
loaded at Port Costa yesterday. Again
they talk about the shlp-owners making
the largest money on the carrying of this
wheat.
"Lct me give you some figures. The
average tonnage of the ships that carry
wheat is about $500 tons. Suppose a ship
carries 1000 tons at So 40 a ton, That
amounts to about s32, 000 The smaller
ships get about s24 600, and it costs them
at least $4,000 to get in and out of this port.
When you come to add the same amount
for the port where they unload, and in
clude the wages of thirty odd seamen, you
can see that there is not much left for the
ships owner. An extensive ship-owner,
who lives here, told me the other day that
he had not drawn down dividend from
his ships in three years. They figure that
IS shillings ton is not living rate for
carrying wheat, and if the shippers had
bought this syndicate wheat without secur-
ing mum Der OF ships, we would have been
at the mercy of the ship-owners, and they
would have put up the rate on US to 40 or so
shillings. Instead of IS 40 ton, we would
have had to pay $40 and S12.
1T does not seem that an explanation
was needed to show what the result would
have been. If the shippers had been
caught IN such a squeeze they certainly
would not have kept up the market for the
coming crop. AS to the Chicago quota
tons, all that l can say is that it is impos-
slble to institute a com parison The
Chicago market is necessarily speculative.
Its quotations are not governed by the
same causes and conditions which operate
here. We can take only the Liverpool
market for our guide. As matter of fact,
it controls the markets of the world,
though Chicago, for obvious reasons, is
less beholden.
Speaking. not merely as a shipper, I
must honestly say think the outlook for
the farmers in wheat is very encouraging.
The movement of this immense body Of
syndicate wheat is the best thing that
could have been done for the market. AS
long as it remained in an intact bulk il was
constant menace to the market. I e1-
pect to have all my wheat shipped by the
end OF the fourth month from now, and l
am pretty sure the rest of it will be out of
the country by that time. You see by
securing enough tonnage for our immedi-
ate needs, We were placed in an easy posi-
ton where we could wait for ships return
ing to this port. Otherwise we must have
been at the mercy of the ship-owners, and
the farmers would have been the ones to
suffer ~