The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-01-09
Will BUY THE GRAIN.
FARMERS ALLIANCE AND INDUS
TRIAL UNION WILL SHUT OUT
MONoPOLISTIC BUYERS
GENERAL BUYER is NAMED
He VIII Establish Sub-Agencies
All Over the State and Establish
Competition Where the Grain
Market Is Controlled by the Com
bine Elevators.

AT the recent meeting of the National
Farmers Alliance and Industrial Union
it was decided to introduce the business
agency feature of the organization into
the Northwest. j. c. Hanley who has
been state secretary, was elected gen.
eral business agent, with headquarters
in ST. Paul. Seen by a G o e report
er last night he said in explanation of
this feature:
Here is the great wheat field of the world.
We raise in round numbers 200 GOO BUSH
els of wheat in Minnesota, the two Dakotas
and tributary states.
This vast volume of wheat the farmers pay
a commission of l cent per bushel to the
boards of trade of terminal points, whether
Chicago, Duluth or Minneapolis, or In round
numbers 81, 600 0C0 annually to commission
men to whom they must contribute. This
substantial commission, If paid into the al
lance treasury, would build and sustain an
organization that would break every COM
bine or trust in the country.
This saving would be a small item as
compared to the immense saving that the
establishment and maintenance Of COM
petition at local stations, which are now con-
trolled by the large line elevators, who, by
being able to control the wheat market at
shipping stations, the exactons levied on the
farmers amount from this source to millions
of dollars per year, which, with the losses
on grades and dockages, amount to
transitory view OF some Of the conditions
which the farmers have to endure on the
one item of wheat. Now the alliance offers
through the business agency a means to over
come these sources of loss to the farmers.
We have secured the assistance of some
OF the commission firms On the board OF
trade of Chicago, Minneapolis and Duluth,
who, to secure the active and substantial
support of the alliance in directing trade to
their firm, instead of other firms will enter
into agreement with the business agency to
in oil If hot
mission to the alliance treasury, which will
be made up by the increased business which
they will secure from this source.
What does this mean to the farmers? 1t
means that with this fund We could send
lecturers and organizers into every section
OF the Northwest and visit the stations and
establish farmers elevators ard cooperative
enterprises, and get the farmers to haul their
grain and milk to their own local and CO.
operative or independent elevator or cream
cry. and by the very volume of the business
that the general patronage of those enter
prises would bring would furnish fund that
would enable the alliance to build and equip
terminal elevators and coF1 storage houses,
and that would give better prices for the
products of the farmer CT several cents per
bushel. This fund could keep organizers in
the fed and pay them stated salary and
secure the enrolment of the agricultural class
into one great society that would establish
and maintain those conditions that would
give the farmer better prices for his products,
and create a fund that would sustain and
operate a society tnat would not cost those
enterprises nor the farmers a cent.
Some idea of the effectiveness Of this plan
can be given by illustration which can
be seen at many stations in this state. A
station with five elevators, receiving say
100000 bushels of wheat annually, pays S. 900
in commissions to commission men at ter
mnal boards Of trade. Out of these five ele-
vators there may be a farmers elevator which
receives one-fifth of the grain marketed, or
100, 900 bushels a year. and pays In to some
commission man 81, 0G0 for selling his grain
~ fr,a1, 1s,,tc Tg I.
adopted by the farmers elevator, a revenue
of $500 could be placed in the alliance treasu-
~, which would enable us TO send an Or
ganizer into that section for ten months at
$50 per month to organize and secure the
other farmers who hauled 100000 bushels of
wheat to the other four elevators to give a
portion of it to their own farmers, or indie
pendent house their share of their trade or
all their trade.
This would give the farmers elevator an
increase of 100000 bushels more out of the
locality, II they secured one-third of the
farmers to haul their grain to their own in
dependent elevator, as a result of the ten
months work which our organizer put in
at that station.
Often we find that so-called farmers ele-
vators are operating under this name who
are not farmers elevators at ALL but who
are owned or controlled by some individual
generally local banker, merchant or indi-
vfdual who operates what has been a farm
ers elevator, but who joins with the local
line elevators in combine to divide the
receipts and keep down prices for that 10.
cality. Such enterprises are a curse to the
community and serve to cast discredit and
d1strust on those cooperative enterprises
If this plan adopted it would clean out
all this kind of institutions and reveal me
true character of such enterprises
The policy which would be applied would
be the establishment of prices at local sta
tons where the margins would be not more
than two or three CENTS and, If this would
not be accepted by the local elevators. we
would put in a man to buy grain at this
margin at such stations and break any com,
bination that might exist.
1t is also the intention to put our grain
buyers at every station in the Northwest to
buy for track shipments where no CO.
operation can be secured by the local farm
ers' or Independent elevators or buyers.
1t is further intended to build terminal
elevators at Minneapolis, Duluth and Chicago,
also cold storage houses where our farmsrs'
elevator association could unload their prod
ucts, if the market was not favorable. and
hold same until the market would be salts
factory
This plan. If generally adopted would rev.
olutiordze the wheat business of the country
and not cost the farmers a penny while il
would produce fund that would give every
farmer an opportunity to belong to his local
alliance and pay his dues, and furnish him
enough money to come to the alliance con
ventions each year and pay his expenses
for attendance at same, and have money to