The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-06-26
RIVER AT S A. NJ.
THE FARMERS DO IT. TOO.

We find in the Mcintosh Times an
account Of the annual meeting of the
officers and stockholders of the Farm
ers' Elevator company. of Sletten, and
we find in it. aside from the interest
ing fact of the financial success of this
venture Of farmers to escape the hun
nav Of the elevator combine"
matter that confirms an impress
we have long held suppressed that
are just as human as other
ON sundry editors and ambi-
.iticians would have them be-
q their oppressors and robbers
We note that this company bought H.
8S9 bushels of wheat last year, for
which 1t paid $42, 525.72, an average of
So cents a bushel, and that it decides
to handle binding twine the coming
season. Aside from this it netted $97. 80
in the purchase and sale of five car
loads of feed. and this, with the
net of the wheat business, brought
their net earnings. for the year up to
$73S42, which, the Times notes, sis a
very neat return on the capital in
vested
Further statements lead us to agree
with the Times. The earnings of the
year show a profit of between "a and
25 per cent on the 3O2 shares of capital
of the par value Of $40 each But this
stock does not represent the actual in
vestment. for we are told that there
was a stock dividend of 100 per cent
divided among the shareholders dur
ing the past year. This would bring
the dividends up to 48 to so per cent
on the capital actually invested. a rate
not exceeded, we believe, by any COM
pany in the elevator combine" Now
We do not note all this for the DUR
pose of adverse criticism. We are as
heartily glad to see the success of this
enterprise as are the promoters and
beneficiaries of it themselves. We are
glad, further, to see this demonstra-
ton by farmers of ability to unite in
business enterprise demanding bust
ness capacity and to hang to it through
these rocky roads Of the past" as
the Times terms the early experiences:
and had they made stock dividends
many times 100 per cent we would
say they deserved it, for they had earn
ed it.
But the thought that comes to us as
We read this excellent showing is that
our Sietten farmer company is congrat-
ulating itself on having done precisely
what it is the fashion of their especial
guardians of the press and stumn to
denounce with all their lurid eIoouenca
when done by others. We fear
that our farmer friends at Slot
ten have not departed from
the methods pursued by others
who have been accused Of "robbing the
farmer" by watering their stock"
that is, by capitaIizing their property
on the basis of it's present or prospec-
tive earning capacity instead of on the
actual cash investment. Somewhere
among the statutory lumber of our leg
islation is a law prohibiting stock is
sues except they represent actual
money paid, law innocuous from its
birth, but expressive Of public opinion
that such methods were wrong. We
are not saying that stock dividends are
wrong, but we are unable to see the d.
Viding line that makes them rightful
when made by, say, our elevator COM
pany at Sletten, and wrongful when
made, say, by a railroad or manufac O.
turing company. We trust when the
Populist orator again roams the prair-
les of Polk county to tell farmers how
they are robbed by processes which
make stock dividends and large earn
ings possible, he will have the good
sense to see that it is what the farm
ers' elevator company OF Sletten has