The Colfax gazette. [volume] (Colfax, Wash.) 1893-1932, 1905-10-06
FIGHT GRAIN COMBINE
". X. Reed Advocates Concerted
Action by Grain Growers.
State Graini commissioners Save
FARMERS Must Unite to Pro-
tect Their. Interests.

Below we print a copy of special to the
Seattle Post-lntelligencer which aDnearod
IN their issue of October 3:
Tacoma, Oct. 2-W. II. Reed memho-
oi the state grain commission. believes
the Washington Mlllers' Association and
the exporters OF the northwestlbave com-
ned against the wheat growers Mr.
Reed Is the man who introduced hluastam
wheat into the northwest. and has for
years, taken lively interest in the do
velopment OF the cereal industry. In an
interview this afternoon upon the millers-
exporters combine, and also moon the
probability OF the farmers combining for
protection. he said:
When the commissioners gave ont To the
puonc that agreement of the millersexnorters'
comDlne, which bound each member not to
compete In buying grain, TO keen tbs buv;ng
price down, they practically told the farnars
that there was conspricy on hand which tia
farmers mad TO hight conspiracy to pay them
1885 Than their grain was worth and Ia charge
ehem more tor shutting than thew wara
fairly entitled to receive,
Farmers Must Fight.
Inc farmers can and will fight that con
splracy, and they are going to defeat IL. How
Meet the buyers combine with a sellers com
blne. The farmers will make numerous com
Dimes; bunch up all over eastern Washingtop
oregon and northern Idaho and make their
ohers Ia cargo lots. They will offer these
cargo lots to the combine and to the buvera
not IN the combine, and while they are ont
cunning they sh uld kill two birds each shot
oY saying when Offering their cargo lots: The
smutty part not to be discounted over cents
oushel; no part to be sold unless the
smutty grain goes at that discount That'il
do the job.
The commission proved the injustice of
the combine 8 ito 2O-cent' discount on smnttv
wheat by citing the discount prevailing in
Minneapohe.of but 2 cents bushe Let me
re1d you letter, giving smutty wheat dis
count, from the Northwest Consolidated Mil
hing Company, of MINNEAPOLIS II s,vs. IL
would require cage from two TO three
pounds tor washing badly smutty wheat. and
wheat not very bad would require about one
pound for securing
with such proof of the right of the farmers
attitude in refusi to allow the combine
more than cents dIscount-twice what Min
nl7apohs would make they can push their
cargo-combines to a winning, sure Do YOU
know what that would mean to the farmers
In dollars and cents?
S102 900 This Year.
The crop this year in Eastern Washington
alone is estimated at 81, COO 900 bushels The
state inspection department figures that 20 Der
cent Of that crop Is smutty-that would give
., 4OU.C } bushels OF smutty wheat. The com
bine's discount is, as said, 5 to 20 cents, Call
it an average Of z cents. At cents there
would be saving of 3 cents a bushel. and of
S192, 900 on this one crop.
The saving these decisions make directly
for the farmer. without necessitating anv sub
sequent effort by him, when it refused to
classify %, 5S3 and 584 test wheat as No. 2. L
figure at Sl60, coo for this year alone. Fignr.
ing that one-quarter of the whole crop would
test, on an average, from fifty-eight to fifty
eight and three-quarters, and the price differ
ence is cents bushel between No and No
grades.
hen there is profit p0ssible-indeed.
probable, to come on heavier testing wheat
the sixty sIxty-One, sixty-two and sixty-three
pound wheat, which is now confiscated at a
No. l price. The commissions decisions
showed that sixty pound test wheat was
worth more than tifty-eight or fifty-nine
pound test. 1t showed this by that admis-
sion of the Portland Chamber of Commerce
committee, and by the extract on prices from
the millers a 3oclatiOn secret compact.
''San Franc co is paying more for sixty
pound test wheat than for fiftyeight pound
test. San francisco needs from Washington,
Oregon and Idaho this year 10, OO0, coo bushels
of heavy testing wheat.
Offer 1t to San Francisco
''Let the farmers combine offer their heavy
test wheat to San Francisco buyers. They
won't have to make many such offers The
msllers-exporters combine will promptly come
to time, and pay the additional price that
heavy testing wheat is worth The farmer is
entitled to it-let him get his own. He can
win just | did when | introduced
bluestem wheat in this state The origin al
seed came from Australia. Dement, Brothers
brought it to Walla Walla. l sowed $50 acres
in it and advertised the crop for seed. Sold it
all for seed but one car load, which I refused
to sell because all the milers and exporters
said it was worth more than club.
Il sent my reserve car to the Sperry Bros
Milling Company at San Francisco, and they
wrote me: Our price now and hereafter for
such wheat Is cents hundred pounds over
the price of No l California shipping That
was c1nts bushel over club price. / pub
lished that letter, and from that date, eighteen
years ago, to this bluestem wheat has brought
that premium over club everywhere from
everybody. That one piece of WORK Of mine
made the farmers of this state, in this year
alone, S240, 900. Don't you see the sDplica-
ton? It's directly to the point. It. by dem
onstration, makes plain that if the farmers
combines find one buyer who will pay more
than the millers-exporters' combine they have
then and there started the disintegration of
that combine.