Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-10-25

Pacific paid ~ cents Tor loading out Tho
cost OF handling grain az the elevators Is
approximately cents per 100
aoImqUist Not IN Combine.
w Hoimutist Of the irm OF Merriam
q Holmquist OF Omaha, and the head Of
the Holmquist Grain and Lumber COM
pany Of Oakland. said none Of the stock
holders In either OF the companies with
which he was connected had any stock
or interest IN any railroad company The
Holmquist Grain and Lumber company
owns eight elevators IN Nebraska. He
said:
II make the prices that are bid for grain
at our elevators We have competitors az
all Of these points but we hate no COM
bination OF prices with them. Most Of our
competitors are buyers for Minneapolis,
though there are some country buyers.
No pool Is entered into; we are all open
competitors. II we can get more than our
share we do 80 by bidding higher than our
competitors and then drop back to the cur
rent prices. We seek to make about
cents a bushel on wheat. yet seldom ex-
coed cents A fair profit on corn would
be about 2 or ~. Last crop season we
made less than cent on corn.
says shovel Houses are Unfair.
I'VE do not consider shovel houses fair
competitors. We have often given better
prices than the shovel houses even at an
actual loss. There ls no discrimination by
the railroads IN the matter OF cars against
the shovel houses. At the terminals we
do not buy from shovel houses II we can
help It, but are not aveTse to buying from
independent dealers, such as farmers ele-
vators.
There is no general understanding not
to deal with unfair dealers. The only
unfair dealer / now recall in our territory
Is p. r. Demers OF Emerson. Shovel houses
are unfair competitors.
THE establishment OF the Grain exchange
at Omaha and the establishment OF ter
minal elevators have been to give the
farmer more for his grain. The reason we
do better with ths Missouri Pacific is be-
cause our terminal elevators are on or
adjacent TO their tracks. There Is no rule
against our cars being switched in pref
erence to other cars. The fact that the
Omaha Elevator company has It's elevators
largely on the Union Pacific does not give
that company any advantage over us"
Van Dorm Testiaes.
J. e. Van Dorm of Council Bluffs Of the
Cavert-Van Dorm Elevator company said;
We naNN OHN NANNhAoI at OO0uNlA
Bluffs and two at other points in Iowa.
We have competitors at each Of these
points and try to get our share OF the
business. We have no agreement with
our competitors as to prices, though
prices are generally based on cards sent
out by W. D. Case OF Des Moines, who is
a market expert, but he has no interest
In oar elevators, nor in any railroad that
/ know Of. We aim to get a profit OF
| cents on corn and to cents on whent.
Last year we got but ] cent on corn and
from 2 to cents on wheat We ship
mostly to Council BLUFFS and Omaha A
| party by the name Of Flynn made us some
trouble for a while at Nicola but Mr.
! Cooper, our manager, hired him 10 run
/ our elevator for us and then the trouble
! ended. At Council Bluffs we have made
claims for switching and outgoing charges
Of u cents, but they were rejected. These
claims were against the Rock Island
Burlington and Great Western. We have
an outgoing claim against the linton Pa
! cific. but have heard nothing about it. We
have been running our Council Bluffs ele-
vator since September Is. On the Bur-
! lington Union Pacific and Milwaukee
roads the reconsignment charges are alb,
sorbed by the outgoing roads; in fact by
all roads except the Wabash.
No Railroad Plants There.
mo elevators in Council BLUFFS are
owned by any railroad Our company
owns its own elevator. The objection to
/ grain from the shovel houses is It's quail
ity and cleanliness. We feel safer In
dealing with regular dealers because Of
their better facilities for handling grain.
We do not discriminate againEt the
shovel houses only for this reason and
often buy from them. We buy grain for
export and very often pay more for II
than our competitors, and, as they think
often more than we ought to pay For
this reason some OF the Omaha companies
undertook to drive me out OF business in
1904 and 1905. The companies active
in the matter we're the Updike Gram
company, the Kansas City Grain company
and the Omaha Elevator company.
These companies handle about so per
cent Of all the grain coming to and going
out of this market have some times
thought that the railroads have some in
terest in the Updike Grain company and
base this reason from the special priv
ileges that company gets at South Omaha,
/ know we pay 81 per car TO the Union
Stock Yards company and 81 to the out.
going roads, none OF which is returned
| ~ US ~ N'Hs AHN eNANio So ~ oAi
back"
A. c. Zimmerman. head bookkeeper fol
the Merriam 8 Holmquist company, testi.
d fed that the last claim paid by the Mis-.
souri, Pacific for elevation was August 2S
II He believed that the contract betwcer
the Missouri Pacific and the Merriam &
Holmquist company was still IN force.
Mr.. Phillippt in his testimony on thii
point stated that the contract between
Merriam & HOlmauist had Terminated
July 8.
LOOsened Up on Farmers.
Cuthbert Vincent OF Omaha, manager o.
, the Farmers Grain company. testified tina
; his company owned two elevators in Buf
falO county-one at Pleasanton and On
at Miller. The stock in these elevator
; was owned by about 400 farmers. Tn
company buys grain also at Galloway
} Lodi, Amherst and Oconto. Al these lat
ter points they have shovel houses, mold
= ing about 1000 bushels each, though Tn
business az Amherst ceased during IN
. last year. because Of leasing the shove
house 10 other parties AZ the outset III
company had much trouble In gettin
sites for its elevators and car facilities
but il is all right now. The eompan
sets its own price for grain and gets wins
II can. The company began business Las