The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-05-07
FLOUR MILLING IN DANGER.
Bigger Than the Steel Business and
 Must Have Trust to Live.

Bigger Than the Steel Business and Must Have a Trust to Live.
 The flour milling industry of the coun
 try is facing a crisis, so Kansas millers say and something must be done, and
 done quickly to avert disaster Three avenues remain open: A wiping out of the differential between wheat and flour
 by the railroads, the establishment of reciprocal trade relations with foreign countries and the formation of mill CTS trust. Either of the first two reme
 dies would enable the millers to get rid of their surplus product in European markets at a small profit. The other the formation of a trust-would possi
 bly, mean ala advancement in the price of flour at home. This is something, the millers say, that they do not want to do, but, if the other concessions are not granted, then, for self-preservation. they will be forced to combine. As they put it, they must hang together or they will hang separately. With them it is either to form a trust or to bust. If they combine they may reap profits, but it will be the expense of the Ameri- can consumers.
 The straw to break the camePs back was the recent imposition of duty on flour by the English government. That duty represents more than the prdfits which the millers have been making on their flour products sent to England. It Is for this reason that some way must be found by the millers of this country to get rid of their surplus flour. While - T cry manufacturing line in recent years, no effort has been made to get the mill CTS of the entire country into one com bination, for the reason that there are so many mills and so many people to deal with that it has been regarded in the past as an almost impossible under taking. But with the danger that now confronts the milers the stupendous scheme of forming trust is about to be attempted.
 "The conditions asa set forth by the Kansas Millers' Association in its letter to Senator W. A. Harris, as printed in to-day's Journal, are a fair exposition of the facts concerning the flour indus try" said a Topeka miller to-day "Tt Is somewhat remarkable that the pub lis press has not devoted more space to calling attention to the present dark outlook of the flour business. It is one of the most gigantic businesses of the country. More money Is invested in it by twenty times than is invested in the steel or iron business. Its life is in per- il. Yet nothing is said about it. The Northwestern Miller voices the senti- ment of the millers when 1t says of the milling industry. This is one of the few American industries which has not adopted trust methods, but unless son1ethinp is done to ro1ieve the eitua- ton, milling trust is inevitable and the fine independence of individual ef- fort characteristic of the trade will be forever lost. This would be a calamity not alone to the millers, but to the American people With their bread supply in control of a trust able to ad- vance the price of flour. the consumers of the country would lose the advan- tage they now possess of cheap food and the American milling industry would cease to be competitive.
 England did not put as heavy q duty on wheat as on flour. The difference is cents per hundredweight, This gives