The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1907-01-12
GRAIN inspection methods IN FRANCE
DESCR|BEDBYU. S. CONSUL R SKINNER

you go on buying?' assure this meet
ing that good many of us are not
going on buying. We have none of
this trouble in South America. For
the general trade l think that there
are respectable people enough in Am
erica, and l am wondering why they
do not stop the glaring abuses that
are complained Of
1t was fact that not many years
ago the vest bulk of our grain expor-
tations went forward from New York
and that every year standard samples
OF cereals were sent out to European
buyers bearing the seal of the New
York commercial bodies which issued
certificates of inspection. Under such
circumstances when European buyers
received certificate from New York
stating that certain cargo afloat was
of x quality, they could refer to the
sample of this X grain, and there was
at least moral guarantee that sample
and cargo would be alike. The prac-
tice of sending out standard samples
is no longer followed, while grain is
being shipped under certificates of
inspection from Duluth, New York,
Baltimore, New Orleans, Galveston,
and probably elsewhere. In each port
| or place commercial organization as
sumes the right to issue certificates
| OF grade, and yet no two ports or
places have agreed upon the text of
the terms which they use 10 describe
the standard grades, let alone upon the
| grain ITSELF Nor is this all. l quote
from the printed rules of great board
| of trade:
"'The committee on grain shall
have full power and authority to estab-
lish grades of grains and to alter and
amend the same as may be deemed ne
cessary or .expedient.'
This instability is naturally one Of
the conditions of American business
that is least acceptable to foreign i'm
porters, and what with rivalry between
ports for export business, it has
created not only bitter feeling abroad,
but definite differences in the prices
at which grain of the same nominal
grade is offered for sale at the different
ports of shipment. There are easy
ports and good ports,' and sometimes
the easy ports are penalized AS thus
explained in a recent letter from an
importer to an officer of the Am
erican commercial organization:
Gas you know, at present
the exporters have great diff.
Guilty selling on certificates, but
where quality is reasonably as
sured they are willing to pay prem
ium over lower inspections. Newport
News and Norfolk were excluded on
the London and Liverpool contracts
of last years No. corn shipments,
while, as you know, your inspection
maintained premium all last season
over the Atlantic
mo wheat importers desire to pay
a premium here, or to exact penalty
there, based upon their appreciation
OF inspection methods. Wheat will fix
its own price readily enough, and what
the importer wishes to know, and has
right to know with as much certainty
as attaches ito any human transaction,
is that No. 1 White Winter Wheat, for
example. is the same kind of grain,
whether it be inspected at Duluth OF
New Orleans. The importer insists
that If the American government, COM
mercial bodies and individual export
ers have not agreed upon the quail
fications of various grains necessary
that they may receive specific grad
| in Sc 0f
negligence, very possibly encourage ed
in certain quarters by those who pro-
fit by this unsatisfactory state of af-
fairs.
''The remedy sought is so easy of
application, and the demand for its
application is SO entirely reasonable
that to the importer protracted re-
sistance is incomprehensible. The
proper remedy may be applied either
by our government or by the cooper
alton of our trade bodies. The starting
point of the reform would be naturally
the establishment of standard descrip-
tons by law. This done, if the govern
ment were charged with the issuance
of inspection certificates, the service
would be removed from local influences
and our SO called official certificates
would be rehabilitated. If this rational
proposition be objected to, the surest
means of effectively combating it would
be the holding of a conference of AM
erican grain inspection bodies for the
adoption of grain standards and for the
adoption of ways and means of draw
ing standard samples, to be deposited
in American consulates at great Euro
pean ports, or to be issued upon de-
mand to importers, and to provide for
a board of inspectors, the members
thereof to be transferred at intervals
and liberated from every form of loca!
pressure"