St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-03-02
MANY GET BETTER PRICES BY
GOING TO NELSON. HENNING
AND DEER CREEK.
SOME WHEAT SHIPPED DIRECT.
No Competition Whatever ut Dalton
-DOnneIIy In Exactly the Same
Boat.

PASSED under the cOnlrOl OF Ine line
companies. This has been the occasion
for regret for many years, as every one
now admits that the former owners of
the warehouse "Sinned away the days
of grace" of the people of this section
when they lost control of the only GER
tain regulator of the local grain mar
ket-an independent elevator Had
this house, or a smaller one even, been
at the disposal of the business men Of
Alexandria, the farmers tributary to
this town would have received at least
$1,000 more for the wheat they market
ed here from the crop of 1895. Well post
ed men here say that amount only rep
reSents one-half of the loss the produc-
ers were compelled to suffer; but, be
the amount $4,000 or $4,000, the cause
was the same-no competition. AT Mel
son, five miles east Of here, the prices
were always two and most of the time
three cents higher than at Alexandria.
The reason for this was that there has
been strong competition all the time at
Nelson. On the north the farmers of
the northeastern townships of Douglas
and the southeastern towns of Otter
Tail hauled their wheat to Henning and
Deer Creek, where the price was usual
ly three cents above Alexandria. On
the south the same was true of the mar
kets of GlenWoOd and Willard, so this
town lost in every direction. 1t is es~
timated thatmore than One-third Of the
crop raised in the country tributary to
Alexandria was hauled to other towns,
where the farmers received fair prices;
and the loss mentioned above fell upon
the producers of the remaining two
thirds of the crop. The Business Mems
union took the matter UP and endeaV-
Ored to open up the market, but were
unable to lease a small fiat house, own
ed by some of the citizens of the town,
because they wanted a higher rent for
it for part of the season than it would
have cost to build a new one, had a site
been available. There was opposition
to the leasing of the house on the part
of the owner of the mill, as it would
have raised the price he must pay for
wheat 1t is stated that his friends
were instrumental in defeating the eff
forts of the majority of the business
men until the bulk of the wheat had
been marketed.
Before the independent house at Alex
andria was bought by the Minneapolis
wheat men the local market was one of
the best in the state. 1t was thorn in
the flesh of the millers and wheat buy
ers of Minneapolis, and they were de-
termined to remove it. They quietly
bought up a
MAJORITY OF THE STOCK,
for which they paid a good round sum.
When the other stockholders learned of
this they were very angry, and efforts
We're made to defeat the plan, but the
Minneapolis men had been too sharp
for them, so they finally disposed of
the balance of the stock and Pillsbury
& Hulburt became the sole owners Of
the house. Then the margin between
11,.io
oils was increased and the people real
lied that they must take their medi-
cine and be satisfied with whatever
terms the new owners of the elevator
chose to name. The house has changed
ownership twice since that time, and is
now operated by the Minneapolis &
Northern. 1t has a capacity of 10000
bushels, and the same company-the
Minneapolis e Northern - controls
another house, capacity $4,000, which is
used only for handling coarse grain.
The st. Anthony & Dakota is the other
house that has been buying wheat, and
1t has a capacity of $4,000 bushels. Then
the 20 barrel mill, owned by G.. G. S.
Campbell, has an elevator with a ca
pacity fol 10000 bushels or more. These
were the only buyers during the fall
and early winter when nearly all Of the
wheat was marketed. The elevators and
mill gave the same grades and paid the
same prices for wheat. There was no
competition here, although the sur
rounding markets were paying from
two to three cents more than AleXan-
dria for the same wheat.
The business men sought relief and
appealed to Mr.. Campbell the miller,
to raise the price. He told them that
he was the employer of more labor than
any one else in Alexandria, and they
had no right to ask him to pay more for
ha WI hic mill
it would mean $40 day to him on the
wheat he used, and he did not propose
to pay that sum or any other in excess
of what he had to. Then the Business
Mems union took the matter up, and
appointed a committee to try to bring
about change in the market. This
committee made an unsuccessful at
tempt to lease the fiat house owned by
L. J. Brown, Christ, Ritter and F. B.
Farnhosen. These gentlemen did not
take kindly to the proposition and NAM
ed a rental that was considered prohib-
itCry. The union discussed the matter
at several meetings and also considered
the proposition to build a loading
platform on one of the sidetracks of the
railroad. Meanwhile only part of the
Wheat was coming to Alexandria and
the merchants felt the loss of trade, be-
cause the farmers were hauling their
grain and making their purschaseS in
other towns. Two of the merchants, J.
G. Hurlburt and ]. B. Cowing took in
the wheat tickets in cash or trade, CIV
ing a premium over the elevator and
mill prices This, however, did not have
the desired effect, as it was not gener-
ally known, besides the farmers COM
planned of the excessive dockage at
Alexandria. Some wheat was
SHIPPED DIRECT,
and the shippers melted nearly four
cents bushel over the local prices.
The greatest diversion of the wheat
was to Nelson, five miles east, where
there was competition between the Mel
son Union Store company and the Inter-
state Grain company. 1t is estimated
that 900 bushels Of wheat was mar
keted there that would have been sold
at Alexandria had the prices and dock
age been uniform. Farmers close to
Alexandria hauled to Nelson, and many
of them drove through this town when
returning to their homes, after selling
their wheat in that market. Among
the heavy producers who sold their
wheat at Nelson were Jacob KohlhaaS,
who lives close to the limits of Alexan-
dria, and August Blank who lives north
of here. Others were Michael Viering,
of the town of Hudson; Jacob Stedje,
Peter Premier, William Blank, Matt
Yunt and s. o. Stedje. These are a few
of the larger farmers and the list could
easily be made long one. They not
only received better prices for their
wheat, but there was also q material
gain from the lower dockage at Nelson
1t was usually one-half pound to the
bushel there and often as high as two
pounds to the bushel here. Late in the
o. NH 70 q