The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-02-10
LETTERS WHEAT IN FIGURES.
Would Make Train $50 Miles Long.
or 9OO,OOO,OO0 Loaves of Bread.
New York Herald

New York Herald.
If young Joseph Letter, the king of the
Chicago wheat pit. should take it into his
head to become philanthropist. instead of
a mere multi-millionaire, what untold posi-
bIlities lie buried in his twelve million BUSH
els. of wheat. Twelve million bushels 1t
doesn't mean very much in cold type does
1t? But with the aid of few mathematical
calculations | shall attempt to show some
ngures which will rather startle you. In
the first place, you must know that Joseph
Letter holds more wheat than any man in
TINS or any other country ever held before.
He has in store in Chicago, Minneapolis and
Duluth about 12,000000 bushels. worth $12,-
100000, or nearly that figure, and yet this
VAST amount does not represent all of his
holdings. for he has from 200 to 5000, 600
bushels of May wheat purchased. which will
not De delivered to him until the latter part
of that month. His wheat costs him over
$1,000 per day, of which 81 500 represents stor-
age charges and 1850 is the cost of daily
OUO per year at per cent, or over 81 300 per
Day, and 1T is not believed that Mr.. Letter
got the money he needed for less than that
for bankers do not lend money on wheat at
as low a rate as some other security.
If all this vast quantity of wheat could be
loaded on one train the train would reach
from Chicago to Fort Wayne, Ind. a dis
lance OF nearly $50 miles. As the locomotive
would be entering the depot at Fort WAYNE
the last car would just be leaving Chicago.
The 12,0000O0 bushels of wheat would fiji
10000 ears, at the rate of 600 bushels to the
car. which Is the average carload EACH car
Is thirty-four feet in length, and this would
represent, provided each car was placed end
to end. distance of 900 feet or practi-
about two and one half feet between the
cars when coupled. this would lengthen this
lac miles i'm all.
But of course one locomotive could not
maui a train of twenty thousand cars An
average freight train consists of about
twenty-five cars, so that out of this Letter
train could be made eight hundred trains of
twenty-five cars each, requiring eight hun
dred engines The distance between Chicago
fhOlISa n
miles, so that if the Letter wheat We're
started from Chicago for the metropolis,
there would be a train on nearly every mile
of the track. AS the railroads never run
trains so close together this, it would.
therefore, be an impossiblity to send the
grain TO the Seaboard over one line. If this
vast amount of wheat were to be trans
ported to the seaboard by water ii would
require one hundred vessels of three thou
a boat of that size being 1861 900 bushels. This
would constitute, perhaps, the mightiest
fleet ever sent out from any port
And think OF the bread There are sixty
pounds to bushel of wheat. and from
bushel can be made seventy-ive loaves of
bread, Therefore, Letters twelve million
bushels of wheat represent 100 900 900
pounds. or COO loaves of bread suffi-
cient to give each man. woman and child
in the United States ten loaves. with $4,000
loaves left over for those who happened to
be unusually hungry. This Letter wheat
could feed the population of Greater New
York for a year, provided the people were
willing to subsist on nothing but bread. This
means that every man. woman and child in
Greater New York could have almost two
and a half loaves every day for 365 days
and in time of stress such as a famine. this
would sustain life. If there are one million
persons starving in Cuba. this Letter wheat
would feed them all for three years. and if
starving people got such bread as the Letter
wheat would make they would be we'll sat-
listed, for it is the finest wheat this country
ever saw.
There is practically no limit to the posi-
bities of this great amount of wheat Rus
STA s army is estimated at $500 900 men. Sup
pose the Russian War Department should
buy all this wheat and put the army on
rations of two and one-half loaveS of bread
per day. The army could be fed for more
than a year.
the purely sustaining qualities of all this
bread The average loaf is eight inches i'm
length. The Letter wheat would make 900
900 900 loaves, representing length of 200.
600 600 inches or 500. 600 feet which is over
113 800 miles. or more than four times around
the earth. This means that Letters wheat
made into ordinary loaVeS of bread. placed
end to end would reach around the earth
four times and lap over.
There are nearly 3.00e 900 barrels Of flour
in the Letter wheat or 2,6e6666. to be more
accurate. If the barrels were placed end to
end, their length being estimated at three
feet each. they would reach from Chicago
to New York and back again In double
line.
If the United States should so to war
with Spain and should send 100000 men to
fight the Spanards, including the army and
navy, Letter could feed this force year
and never feel it, for he would use about
5000 COO loaves out of his 800 900 600, 2 49,
600 pounds of his 72O.0OOO00. It would mean
only 10000 bushels of wheat. and he buys
and sells more than that every day
If Letter chose to be philanthropist he
could feed every hungry man, woman and
child i'm the United States until the cold
weather was over and the warm weather of
the spring set in. He could succor the starv-
ing in India for months and yet have enough
wheat left to make him more than once or
twice a millionaire. He could do "A lot of
he Deh do
nothing but sell the wheat when he gets his
price and pocket his millions.