The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1917-05-03
HALF MILLION
THE YEAR FROM
FARMER PURSE
Kirkeide- Drown Grain Grading
Bill Will Levy Heavy Direct
Tax Against Growers
PRODUCER MUST STAND
WHOLE BURDEN OF LAW
No Equitable Distribution of Ex-
pense made as IN Terminal
Elevator Act

pense made as IN Terminal
Elevator Act
Farmers generally, league members
in particular, are just awaking to the
fact that the Krkeide4 Drown grain
grading act, league measure, and
signed by the leagues governor. i'm
poses upon the North Dakota grain
grower direct tax of not less than
half million per annum. Under the
guise of benevolent piece of legis'
lation, it has been discovered, there
masquerades one Of the, most un.
fair acts of class taxation which any
legislature has ever been persuaded
to pass
Terminal Elevator Fund.
Senate Bill No. 314, the grain and
grading act, was trotted through dur
ing the closing hours OF the last ses'
sion and promptly signed by Cover
nor Frazier. 1t provides that no grain
may be purchased which has not been
first graded by a licensed deputy.
Fees for grading are to be fixed at
a standard which will maintain this
vast machine, of which DR.. E. f.
Ladd is at the head, and which will,
further, set aside 25 per cent of the
entire cost OF operation to create a
fund for building public grain storage
warehouses terminal elevators) with,
in the state.
,v Naming OF inspectors.
Whenever the town or community
provides suitable building and
scales for housing such deputy, DR.
Ladd is to name d public deputy
weigher and grader, and ''tie upkeep
Of said building and scales shall be
borne by the state, out of funds Sc
cured on account of fees collected for
inspecting and weighing" %s
What It Will Cost. 81.
There are in North Dakota 240 in,
corporated villages which may. be ex'
pected to make application for a
deputy inspector. The smallest ele'
vator pays its manager $500 per
annum. 1t is reasonable to expect
that man who possesses sufficient
experience to grade and dock and
weigh grain to the satisfaction of both
purchaser and producer may com
mand $500 per year, which would
make the bill for this item alone
$432, 900 per annum, and this does
not take into consideration more than
500 stations in unincorporated towns
where the local elevator man would
be made deputy inspector, entitled
to certain percentage of the fees
for his services. rPresuming mini
mum cost Of aS100t:the year for the
maintenance OF each weighing and
grading station, this item would
amount to 24,O0O, or total Of $456,-
900 actual operating expense. 70 this,
then, must be added the 25 per cent
which is to be set aside each year
for the creation OF a terminal elevator
fund, or approximately $152 900, rails.
ing the grand total which must come
out Of the grain growers pockets each
year to more than 100000. And this
amount is the least which may be
anticipated. -fTnes probabilities are
that it will be much MORE. sS 4
Grain Grower Pays Il All.
This tax, it will he noted comes
directly from the grain grower. It
is not distributed over all property
town and city lots, buildings, vacant
lands, railroad property, public utili-
ties, etc., which under Senate Bill
No. 84-the terminal elevator act
which Governor Frazier vetoed
would have paid a very large per cent
OF the whole. Under Senate Bill No.
S14 the grain grower pays it all, and
he has no means of evading the tax,
as every elevator is prohibited from
buying grain which has not been grad
ed by one of DR.. Ladd's inspectors.
IS Cents the Load.
The fac exacted by the average
public scales for weighing an ordi-
nary load of livestock. coal or other
commodity which need not be graded
is Is cents 1t is safe to presume
that 10 cents will be regarded as a
reasonable fee for the grading. which
Is a matter of much more difficulty
than the mere weighing. This would
mean that for each load of grain the
farmer hauled to the elevator he
would be compelled to pay tax of
25 cents. of which 10 cents would go
toward the payment Of salaries of in
spectors and the cost of maintaining
grading stations. while only six cents
would be devoted to the building of
terminal elevators. In other words.
to accomplish the same result aimed
at by Senate Bill No. "a, the North
Dakota grain grower must paw four
times as much under Senate Bill No.
s14, and while under the former act
his burden would have been shared
nv the merchant, the banker. the rail.