The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-10-22
THAT WHEAT RING,
1t Has Still Modern Device to Gull
the Farmer.

How does William Henry stand with
the grain ring? Many of them are his
tenants in his Minneapolis office build
ings.
The employees Of the grain and ware
house inspection department are hu St
ling for him. These are straWs.
The farmers Of Minnesota do not love
the wheat ring. They have seen the
elevator system grow from a humble
beginning When the little red granary
at the depot siding was his servant,
until now the long lines of these al c
controlled from a common center, and
their radfating arms have been likened
to those Of an octopus, Sapping the
producers life and energy. The battle
between the farmer and the wheat ring
has been a long and fierce one. His
efforts to remedy the existing coz d tions
were met invariably by a powerful lob
by. and usually a successful one. Laws
enacted to relieve him were
dOctored SO that the elevator compan e )
could always find a loOphole of escape.
AS the Eineal successor Of the old
Minnea polls Millers' association, the
new elevate ring proved a worthy
successor to it, if the adjective be not
miSapplied in association with an or
ganization with such a record.
An effort was made to combat 1t by
the organization of the Grain Growers
association. Now and then, over a limit
ed area, persistent effort would be re-
warded by the semblance Of victory,
but usually the victory was but transi-
tory, and the brief advantage gained
vanished again like a Wfll-o' the-wiSp.
The devices Of the wheat ring were
many. They challenged the merchants
by threatening them with competition
unless recalcitrant grain growers were
brought into line. They could not find,
they said, bin room for the high: +
grades Of wheat. and the producer was
compelled to haul it back to his gran
airy, or submit to it's being graded as
No 2, Strange to relate, the birs Of
the lower grades always had room and
to spare. The farmers tried to beat
the elevators by piIing their wheat on
the platform, but there were not cars
enough to haul it all and the sacks lay
there until the snow came, and msIted
on the tops of the precious sacks. The
elevator men squeezed the grades,
swelled the dockage and terminal
charges, and thus fattened their mar
gin of profit. The railroad and ware
house commission has been appealed to
without relief, although it has granted
occasional hearings.
The people of Warren, Mimi, once
proposed to get a special grand jury
to investigate the charges against the
elevator men. 1t is said, and has not
been denied, that at that time one of
the superintendents Of a line Of ele-
vators inquired if it would be satisfac-
tory if the blame was placed on the
local employees. The Warren citizens
declined to accept any such scheme to
punish employees for the acts done I'M
der direct orders from their superiors.
They had had plenty of evidence Of
this.
e. J. Royem, at one time buyer for
the Minnesota and Dakota Elevator
company, threw up a good job rather
than follow his superiors' orders. The
change came about in this way: Mr..
Gibbs, superintendent Of the M. 6, D.
line of elevators, came to Warren on
one of his trips of inspection, and, go
ing into the warehouse, reached into a
bin and brought out a handful of fine,
hard, clean wheat. He demanded to
know what grade had been given for
it, and Mr.. Royem replied that he had
bought it for No. northern. ThereupOn
passersby heard a stormy war Of words
between the two. Mr.. Gibbs ordered
Mr.. Royem not to buy any more of
that wheat at higher grade than No.
2 northern, and Mr. Royem said that
he would buy grain at it's true grade or
not at all.
thinks / am going to give a grade of
No. for the finest wheat ever raised
in the Red river valley, he is most
deucedly mistaken. 1 simply won't do
it, and if he wants man to do that
he will have to find some one else, for
I am through with him and the ele
vator company"
A companion piece to the robbery of
the farmers by false grading, dockage
and other schemes seems to be the cry
lately raised for farmers to hold their
wheat. Will he take a look into this
latest scheme for the Senegambian con-
cealed so close to him.
Business houses and dealers gener
ally who hold accounts against farm
ers are receiving from many Of them
nowadays notice that they cannot pay
at present as they are holding their
wheat. They have been storing it in
country elevators and paying one cent
a bushel storage. as they labor under
the impression that wheat will be
worth rs cents a bushel before spring,
and they are now paying a cent a
bushel for storage, it being worth to
the average farmer at present only 80
cents a bushel, and by storing it six or
seven months it will cost them six or
seven cents more, thereby giving the
farmer the benefit of the spring mar
ket, which will be rs cents a bushel.
So they say.
Now, the farmer does not know all
that is happening. The elevator gang
through all their auxiliaries are playing
a smooth game. They tell the farmer to
store the wheat and he can get the
benefit Of 1t in the future. The eleva-
tors take this wheat and ship it to the
markets as soon as they receive 1t and
get the cash for it and buy futures
against it. This means, if a farmer
stored his wheat, that wheat in Sep
TENDER was sold by the elevator men
for 631a cents cash. DEFENDERS wheat
at that time was worth 5S1a cents. The
elevator men made five cents a month
for storing it. In other words, the
farmers furnished the capital for the
elevator to do the business with, while
they became bears on the market, thus
cutting their own threats, financially.
The farmers can see wherein they
are becoming hampered by storing
their wheat. There is only one way
for farmers to store wheat, and that
is to store it in their own bins. Then
they will get the market price for 1t
when they are ready to sell it without