The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1906-01-16

| US boo WHoro we got UH-W0 IdrmerS
who live in state so prolific that it
is easier to grow wheat than not;
where the profits of the farmer are so
great that he can afford to let his
Z, money go regardless, be swindled re-
, gardless, and where, all of sudden,
he continues to do nothing to protect
himself.
"All the foreign markets are our
markets--we of the states of Oregon,
Washington and Idaho. All the fac
tors, legitimate and illegitimate, pre-
viously recited, affect the markets of
the Pacific coast more or less, up and
down, just as with those of Chicago.
But we of this coast have not only
these world wide illegitimate factors
to bamboozle us, but have had added
unto us special batch to fit our Gu
vironment.
1.-THE sack cinch is one of these we
are ridden with. That, however, is
not used everywhere throughout the
Pacific coast, but is confined to the
farmers of the northwest Pacific
Washington, Oregon and Idaho-who
are not buckers, that is not yet, but
they are going to be, I believe. In
California all wheat is paid for on
gross weights without any deduction
for weight of sacks. The exporters
there, and likewise all along this coast
sell the wheat abroad under their reg
ular printed contract which says
sacks shall weigh as wheat.
There is not scintilla of excuse
for making sack dockage of three
quarters of pound in Portland, Ia
coma and Seattle, and of one pound by
the interior buyers, but the sole ex-
cuse of greed. Until the isthmian
canal is completed all shipments to
Europe from the Pacific coast must be
made in sacks, the exporters say, to
avoid the shifting of cargo and heat
ing of grain in the four mouths trip
to Liverpool around the horn. don't
agree with them that it is necessary
for this coast to ship only in sacks.
believe that we can successfully ship
in bulk--for it has been demonstrated
that we can.
This year the Pacific coast farmer
has two combines in the successful
operation of bleeding him. The first
leech is the vessel combine, combine
organized by the European vessel
owners for the Pacific coast grain
trade. They fixed their charter rates
for all but French ships to the United
Kingdom, Havre, Antwerp or Dunkirk
from Puget Sound at 26s 3D. from
Portland at 27s Sd; from San Francis
co 22s Cd. A French vessel, with its
government bounty, working in unison
with this combine, has 25s rate from
Puget Sound. If this vessel combine
did not exist this same French vessel
would certainly accept of 22s, for a
free lance French vessel was recently
ch artered from San Francisco for the
United Kingdom at lis Sd, or 5s below
the combine rate there. The differ
ence between charter rate of 26s Sd
and 22s long ton is 2 3-4c bushel.
This is the farmers loss, not the buy
er's. The farmer always pays the
charter rate.
The second combine that the farm
er has run against and been bumped
against hard this year in Washington,
Oregon and Idaho is the Portland
Tacoma Seattle grain buyers combine.
1t matters not whether the Portland
end of that combine buys your wheat
this year or the Puget Sound end-the
price is the same, for all that the
charter rate is lower on the Sound.
Take a glance with me through
this combines compact, of which l
possess copy.
1t provides that the Portland com
mittee and Puget sound committee
shall meet every morning and fix
the price limit for all mbers of the
combine. That is a declaration of
the elimination of competitive buy
ing. A declaration of brigandage, its
chief object being to get for its mem
befs that which does not belong to
them, which competitive market
would not permit them. 1t says, in
effect, that the exporter who has Sc
cured low charter rates must not pay
the farmer more than the less sue
cessful exporter who had to pay high
er for his vessels. 1t says that the ex-