Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1921-11-04
CORN PRICES
And WAGONS
Manufactures Analyses Con
ditions Which Affect Com
parative Prices.

enure business SITUATION. Ine burden
Of increased freight charges upon all
of industry, the plight Of rail-i
road finances, the efforts of railroad
to reduce operating expens-
es. the impending railroad strike. the
test of the efficacy OF the.new railroad
labor board as an agency OF concilia-
ton. and the demand in some quar-
for the repeal OF the Esch Cum
MINIS law are the outstanding features
OF the day, and present questions Of
the utmost importance.
Freight Rates aud the Farmers.
deere & Co.. of Moline, Illinois, one
of the oldest and most reputable con-
Germs manufacturing agricultural inn
PIGMENTS, have sent, us copies of a let
ter received by them from a farmer
living>in the neighborhood of Culbert-
son, Nebraska, and of their reply
present relations between the prices
Of farm products, prices of manufac-
tured goods and transportation charg-
es. and the effect of these abnormal
relations upon business.
We have not the space Of give the
letters in full, but the following ex-
tract from the farmers lettek gives
the gist of it. He says
Il need a wagon and my dealer
wants the price Of $50 bushels Of
corn. the same wagon 7 could buy
with 200 bushels Of corn before the
war. The harness 1an wants the price
Of a wagon load Of hides for a No. 1
harness. | simply cannot see my way
clear to buy wagon. harness or any
thing else that I a possible manage
to get along without"
Deere & Company make a lengthy
and detailed reply, in which they first
tell OF the rise in the price OF wagon
stock in recent a due to the de-
pletion of u forests, a. factor Of
great general interest, but for which
no immediate remedy is possible.
They then go into the effect of in
creased freight charges, as follows:
"Our present price. F. o. Is. Moline,
on a farm wagon, is 100 per cent
higher than our price of 1914. At. this
price we are selling this wagon at APP
p~roximately go per cent less than our
cost. h cost to o at Culbertson,
Nebraska. however does not pear the
same relation to-the pre-war price,
for the reaso hat in 1914 the freight
on a farm wagon-from Moline to Gull
bertson vas $1.37 q hundred; the
present rate, including the war tax,
is s2.32.
"A farm wagon weights 1900
pounds. The difference in freight of
CSC per hundred makes the transpor-
taion on this wagon alone cost $11.40
more than it did before the war. The
increased transportation costs upon
the materials that so into the wagon
| are ever greater than this amount. i
when you come to pay for this
wagon through the sale of corn in the
Chicago market. you. have a still
greater .disadya ntage. due to the fact
that corn has declined since 1914. The
freight on corn from Culbertscn to
Chicago ina1e14 was 24hc a hundred,
or approximately lac a bushel; today,
with the 5 per g m war tax included.
it is 47c a hundred. or approximately
2sc per bushel. SO that you pay lac a
bushel more to get your corr to Chi
cago than YOU did in 1914.
you, state that it requires CSC
'bushels Of corn to buy a wagon to-
day. AT 12c a bushel increased freight
this means that you are paying the
railroads $500 more transportation
on the corn necessary to buy thl:
wagon, therefore your increased con.
tribution to the railroad company ii
getting this wagon out there ane
shipping corn enough to Chicago tt
pay for it, is $S9.40.
you can we'll see from this that i
is absolutely impossible for any of u:
to get back to a normal basis of price:
until the cost of transportation i:
very materially reduced. You ask III
when conditions will change; we tel
you, when transportation costs are
gotten back to a reasonable basis. Thu
Egreat difficulty in getting this adjust
ment now is the expense the railroads
are put to for labor. for example
here in this community, while h go
ing rate Of labor is soc an hour, a
:. Tn--J. T.lo - ,L>~c % nor hNYY
is being paid for eight hours a da!
and time-and-a-half for overtime
with the provisio that if more tina,
one hours overtime is worked, evel
though it be ten minutes, five hours
additional compensation is charged
Locomotive engineers are getting from
$4,000 to 5000 q. ear. A good dea
the same conditions maintains in gu
coal mines.
I'VE all must work, through gu
congressman and through a unite'
public sentiment, to secure a read
justment of these railroad and minini
costs before any of us can hope to re
sumo business in a normal way. "A
far as we here are concerned. "
have already made substantial rcduc
lions in IL prices and expect to con
tinue to do so in future as reduce,
costs of production permit. We ar
continually operating at a very SUD
stantial loss, The business world. out
side of transportation and mining, ha
gone as far as it can until it gets re
lief through these channels"
The letter goes o. to work out tn
effect OF the increased freight charge
upon the prices Of farm Implement
but the factors are. practically tn
same as in the cases OF the wager
outside Of. the factor Of wood stool
The farmers buying ability is calcu
lated on the basis OF corn at 50 cent
per bushel In Chicago, but this .lette
was written in August, since whe
corn has suffered a heavy decline, TIL
present price being about AT cent