Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1896-02-07
THE FREE PRESS
0RANGEvILLE. IDAHO.
FRIDAY. !: : :: FEBRUARY 7. 1896
SchsCuibdcH Talks Back.

ScltsculbacA Talks Back.
EDITOR PARKER:-In the last is
sue of your paper l read an article
signed "Hayseed," to which l will
reply. The writer states that he
had been helping to promote new
enterprises on this prairie, and
now they turn about and take ad-
vantage Of the people. Let us
look at these enterprises a little.
/ for one who came here few
years since, was written to, to
come and see what fine oppor-
tunity it was to build mill here.
! came and investigated, and the
great stories was told to be true
in regard TO the milling business
was something wonderful to listen
to, and yet i had to believe it or
to believe the people to be liars.
The only point l was convinced of
was that there were no good mills
in the country. I decided to build
a mill for the people and give them
a fair and square deal, and discard
the abuses they so much COM
planned of and 1 expected great
things for the mill. While l was
9iberally assisted by the people of
Grangeville and some of the farm
ers, and feel very thankful to all
who helped the enterprise, 1 was
obliged to run in debt $4,000 and
by the time the mill was COM
pleted was 1920 more in debt;
although the estimate did not cali
for these sums. The mill COM
menced operation and did good
work from the very start, but has
been working against heavy odds
ever since. At first there was no
wheat to speak of; that coming fall
was very wet and lots of wheat
was ground which was not fit for
-four customers became dissatisfied
as l was obliged to cut down the
rates on exchange Of -four for wet
and damp wheat because my ex-
perience told me that / would
never get the quantity of flour out
of a bushel of wheat, to say moth
ing about the quality and very
unsatisfactory grinding; but yet
with all the kicks l received /
took in wheat when / ought to
have rejected it; but the pleadings
for the poor and hungry children
always aroused my sympathy every
time that l took it. The result
was that in a few weeks / had
] 900 bushels or more heated and |
burned wheat on hand which was
scarcely fit for hog feed. The sea-
son of 1894 was good as far as
wheat was concerned, with plenty
of that but no money; 1 bought
wheat at from 40 to so cents while
it was worth from 10 to 20 cents
at Lewiston. In some instances
farmers sold their wheat to me for
cash, then went below and bought
their flour because it was so much
cheaper; when finally 1 could not
buy any more wheat as my cash
gave out, everybody wanted to ex-
change wheat for flour in mill
sacks; this flour was peddled all
over the country and disposed of
mt any price, depriving the miller
not only of the much-needed cash
to run his mill with, but prices
were cut to such an extent that
the miller could only compete at
q heavy loss. AS matter of fact
I had to go to the bank and bor-
row money to pay the hands and
other manufacturing cost, and this
Indebtedness l was obliged to carry
over until this last summer when
for lack of cash sales l was COM
PEELED to ship flour to California
and received returns ON my wheat
at the rate of 20 cents bushel,
whereas the wheat cost me from
40 to 30 cents. 1t is we'll to en-
new enterprises in a new
provided such enterprises
are paying institutions; but mills
are no more paying institutions in
this country than are the spring
ing up of half dozen newspapers.
We have now four flour mills on
this prairie, while we have but
work for one. 1t undoubtedly is
that the more mills there
pre- in tie country the better it
is for the people; such SUPPOSE
tiOn is very erroneous as long as !
we have no shipping facilities.
We have had cutthroat business
for the last two years. We have
,een the tool and medium between
armer and merchant, and did not
make living or pay our bills.
necessarily has to be
lone to improve milling; if not,
snyone engaged in that business T
will be crowded to the wall. 1t
must be borne in mind that just
8 soon rs mill runs there is a IS
ash expense attached to it and 2,