Morris tribune., 1896-04-01
An Answer.
To the Editor of the Tribune.

8 worked on the sellers OF grain who
: are So unfortunate as to find Morris
their nearest market, and as | have
been named as one of those most to
blame for, the terrible condition OF
this market, [ wish to ask you to
favor me so far as to allow me to offer
my side Of the question through your
columns.
First, the claim was made that
until the advent of an independent
buyer Dec. LIST last Morris was the
poorest grain market in this part of
the state" Now the facts are that,
excepting one town, Cyrus, where
money was lost nearly every day by
the buyers, Morris buyers were pay
ing as mnch or more for grain than
any other market in this section.
The claim is also made that wheat
can be shipped to Minneapolis and
sold for an expense of y cents
bushel, when it is fact that it costs
about 81 cents a bushel to ship and
sell wheat in Minneapolis. This can
be easily proven by asking any ship
per, whether he is farmer. or
grain dealer, to show the returns on
any shipment,
speak Of the farmer as a shipper
not because there has been much
grain shipped by farmers, bat because
the three or four cars that have been
shipped from Morris of this crop
(and that is all that farmers have
shipped) will prove the truth Of my
statement as to the expense Of ship
ping, and it will also show that Nor
ris buyers must have dealt fairly by
the farmers OF there would certainly
have been more than this amount
shipped by farmers when there has
been nearly or quite $4,000 bushels
bought up to this date in Morris of
this crop, and the few shipments
made have resulted in the shippers
being more than satisfied with the
treatment received by them from the
town buyers.
As to the matter of excessive dock
ages taken by us, I can only say that
in two of my elevators which weigh
ed up on Feb. 1st last the two houses
fell short nearly 1000 bushels on
wheat bought this crop. So that my
dockage, if excessive, as claimed, was
certainly far too light to enable me to
sell as many bushels of wheat as
paid the farmers for. The price paid
for wheat has been, as any one knows,
from 8 to IL cents below Minneapolis
prices Most Of the time about 10
cents less than Minneapolis, and with
loss on dockage. Il any one can
work on less than this difference [ |
should like to see them take the job |
My elevator on the Great Northern
railway is now and has been for three
years for sale to any one at three
fourths what it cost me to build it.
and [ should be much pleased to have
some one to take it at that price and |
cause the wheat here in Morris to
bring to the farmer its full value
Mr.. Mclaughlin, who was the party
that was going to raise the price 2 or
3 cents over Morris buyers Dec. LIST,
and thought he could on account of
& inducements offered him by some
O. our headed business men who !
{ i'd not control all business in their
+ onctive lines, and so wished to
ca favor with the trade by doing
sousthing wonderful for the farmers
by raising the price on grain here,
bought wheat about month and got |
Surely if there had been
such profit in the business he would
have continued buying instead of
spending nearly another month in
doing nothing except trying to post
every one as to the great wrongs done
the people by the awful combine" of
" Wheat sharks" AS to claims of I'M
der grading wheat: [ bought of Mr..
wheat for No. 2 and No. 3
aud I shipped it by itself and it grad
ed rejected in Minneapolis. This
same grain Mclaughlin took in and
mixed with other wheat and shipped,
and got lower grade than he took it
in for. Under our present law the
weight and grade of every car is
matter of record at the point where it
is delivered, and this record is open
to the inspection of every one.
Further Country elevators as
well as city elevators are under the