The Julesburg grit-advocate., 1921-06-09
G Rain NEWS

C. Vincent, member of the Omaha
Grain Exchange, last week addressed
the following letter to Secretary of
Agriculture Wallace:
Omaha, Nebr., May 81, 1921
"Hon. Henry C. Wallace,
Secretary of Agriculture,
Washington, D. C.
Dear Sir:
II am in receipt of your letter
under date of May 23, in reply to
my inquiry of April Goth, relative to
your statement that the handling
charges in marketing Iowa corn be-
tween the Iowa farm and Chicago is
1913 cents a bushel.
at appears that the text or basis
for your discussion before the rep
resentatives of the press was a quo
tation from the Chicago Tribune of
Thursday, April 14th, as follows:
"'Bids of 29c per bushel for corn
and 2lc for oats were made to farm
ers in the Fort Dodge, Iowa, territory
Tuesday. according to local man.
Your letter to me continues as
follows:
"Our Chicago office afterward veri-
fled this statement. The Chicago
price on corn on that date was 53c
per bushel and the freight rate from
Fort Dodge to Chicago was S01O3
per bushel By substracting the
freight cost from 53c, it would appear
that the Chicago price less freight
is S0.393. The S0.l03 handling charge
which was reported in the press, re-
suits from substracting the bid to the
farmers, namely 1929, from the Chi
cago price of corn less freight, name
ly $0.393.'
"Mr. Secretary, your explanation
is not satisfactory, and it is much to
be regretted that one holding cab
met position under the president of
the United States-one who stands
for while so high in the government
of the greatest nation on earth, at
this mOment-would permit himself
to be so grossly misled or deceived
relative to a subject that is just now
in the blazing limelight of publicity
and should permit himself to address
the press representatives., for repeti-
ton throughout the United States,
and to be cabled abroad, in language
that conveys ideas so far from the
truth. At almost any other time,
the incident might perhaps pass with
out severe criticism, but in view of
the fact that millions of farmers are
smarting under the terrible effects of
the deflation of the values of their
products, your words have conveyed
to them a false and unwarranted
idea relative to the handling charg-
es' in the marketing of those products
and have, filled their minds with un-
called-for resentment against those
who are engaged in grain marketing
with your permission, l will point
the way to the truth.
First, let me refer to the Tribune
quotation. You will observe that
the publishers very adroitly left a
loop-hole for their own escape, which
you seem not to have noticed The
Tribune followed its own quotation
with the words, according to local
man. thhus attempting to shift the
responsibility for patent falsehood
to some mythical individual some
where in the Fort Dodge territory,
which may include several large coun-
ties; or to someone in the city Of Chi
cago.
"You apparently accepted the quo
tation at face value and used a
gathering of press representatives
at the nations capital as the means
for sending the untruth to the ends
of the earth, and particularly to
every nook and corner of the United
States.
"But your letter says that our
Chicago office afterward verified this
statement Verified what state
ment? That the Chicago Tribune
published the item? Or verified the
bid of 29c for corn in Fort Dodge
territory?
''If your office verified khe ac-
curacy of the statement that such