The nonpartisan leader., 1917-10-25

Ladd, president of the North Dakota
agricultural college and the League
were the only ones who pointed out
their unfairness. News articles, edi-
toria1s and cartoons were published in
the Leader, week after week, to show
what the new grain grades would
mean. At this time the League and
DR.. Ladd were alone in the fight. With
little more help, the adoption Of the
grades might have been prevented.
Now everyone is awake to the un-
fairness of the new grades This has
been admitted by the government it
self, in suspending in part the opera
tion OF the grades, SO that sales under
No. can be made by sample instead
of by grade. -
This explanation is given because
Farm, Stock & Home, in its editorial,
undertakes to give credit to Governor
Burnquist Of Minnesota for pointing
out the unfairness of the grades. But
Governor Burnquist is a late convert.
When the farmer officials of North
Dakota, elected by the Nonpartisan
league, and DR.. Ladd were pointing out
the unfairness Of the grades, the
Minnesota officials were silent. The
Minnesota officials have been convert
ed, but they would rather have had
their help last winter when it might
have done some good
With this explanation the, following
editorial is reprinted from Farm,
Stock & Home:
Twenty Million Dollar Robbery
THE new federal wheat grades are
giving the Northwestern farmers the
worst of it, just as F. S. & H. feared
would be the case when it opposed the
law before passage.
In the first place the grades are so
! numerous--one hundred against forty
recommended by the Minnesota com
! mission when the bill was being framed
and the methods of determining
| these grades so complicated that it re-
| quires a scientist to apply them, to say
| nothing of the time required To give
some idea of what must be done, the
| following is quoted from the Price
| Current:
=" Close study Of the rules and ex-
| treme care in taking samples of
wagonload lots and analyzing them in
the elevator laboratory will be essen
! tial to the profit making this year and
| hereafter. The weighing of the proper
| number of grams to get typical sam
| pie Of the sample and its analysis sort
| ing from the principal variety kernel
| by kernel with tweezers the different
| mixed varieties of wheat and other
| grains and foreign bodies to ascertain
their percentages and if the foreign
| grains in dockage free wheat exceed 6
| per cent Of the sample, in which case
the sample is not wheat at all but some
| other grain; and finally getting the
moisture content, saying nothing Of
| shutting the sample, as must be done
in the Pacific Northwest. The inspec-
| ton Of the farmers grain by the coun-
try dealer is some job certainly
'sHow is a buyer at a country station
going to do all this when he has a string
Of fifteen or twenty teams lined, up
waiting to unload?
HE is not going to do It'll Hesis go
ing to guess, and you know that his
guess is going to be low enough to
make the seller hold the bag! And
| just how he is now holding it is illus
i trated by two cars recently consigned
/ to Getchell and Tanton Company,
1 Minneapolis. These graded No. be-
cause the wheat contained some rye
| and took the fixed price Of ten cents
bnshel less than No. northern. Mr..
P. B. Getchell states that this wheat
was strictly No. northern. If these
were thousand bushel cars, the farmer
was robbed Of 5000 cold cash that the
miller got. This is only one case. The
wheat has Just commenced to move.
Figure It out yourself on the basis Of
1 200,000,000 bushels Of wheat for the
/ four states that will come to market
from Minnesota, the Dakotas and Mon
tana.
cit runs into the enormous sum Of
i 10000, 900 that you farmers need, have
earned and should have, and your not
having it will not benefit the consumer
Of flour one iota, for flour prices are
based on the price Of No. northern.
4 In all probability the average loss
~