The Glasgow courier., 1921-07-22

the plans described were not in par
tial conflict and if the responsibility
for selling the wheat could be placed
with one central agency. But the
successful development of cooperative
marketing demands a foundation of
education and experience in coopera-
ton which is lacking to a degree in
the United States today. Of first i'm
portance in establishing collective
marketing is the necessity that dis
trust and suspicion of other farmers
movements and other farm organiza-
tions be eliminated. 1t may be time
will be required to accomplish this
which the present period of economic
distress is urging upon the farmers of
the land will come results of perma
nent value to US. Cooperative organ
izations must give service and salts
faction if they are to succeed. We
have first-hand experience with this
in the State Department of Agricul-
ture where we now have the respon-
sibility of adjusting the affairs of
some thirtyfive grain elevators that
are in difficulties as result of their
operation under the present Board of
Trade marketing plan and most of
these are cooperatives.
Freight Problem.
"Closely bound up with the ques-
ton of marketing is the transporta-
ton problem. In terms of freight,
Montana is farther from important
terminal markets than Alaska. We
are right now face to face with a
freight crisis. The practice of grant
ing percenetage in Montana to seven
ty percent over the cost in 1913; while
prices of farm products are down to
the 1913 level. If these freight rates
are continued on their present pro-
hibitive scale, they will force out of
the business of production many Mon
tana farms and farmers. You can
illustrate the situation no matter
where you turn to farms in this
state. Freight charges on wheat in
the first six months of 1920 took eight
percent of the final selling price at
terminal and for the first five months
of 1921 freight charges took 16.9%o,
an increase of over one hundred per-
cent in freight's share. Every bushel
of wheat grown in Montana this year,
no matter whether it is sold to local
consumers or shipped outside the state
will pay freight charge of twenty
nine cents bushel. If we have dollar
wheat at the terminals, you can read
ily see what this will mean to Mon
tana.
"In case of hay, freight took twen-
ty-seven percent of the final selling
price at terminals in the first six
months of 1920 and it took fifty-six
percent out of the final selling price
in the corresponding period in 1921, an
increase of over one hundred percent
in freight's share. Today on each
ton of hay shipped to Chicago, you
would pay a freight charge of $12 on
hay which would be sold from SIS to
$1S on the market there.
Freight on Potatoes 80 Percent.
1--WE have in the state today approx
imately fifty thousand acres of pota-
toes with prospective crop OF ap-
proximately one million bushels. What
are we going to do with these pota-
toes? In 1920 the share OF freight
out of the final selling price at ter
minals was 1920; while for the first
six months of 1921, freight took 9O|o
of the final selling price, an increase
of six hundred percent in frelght's
share. While today, if the Montana
farmer attempted to ship potatoes,
he would practically be forced to turn
over the check he gets for them at
terminal to the railroad in payment OF
freight.
"The railroads may advance the
that this is a condition
which they cannot help. | submit to
you, they are not trying to help it.
With the government of the United
States guaranteeing to them earnings
of five and one-half percent on the
book value of their railroads up to
September, 1922, any incentive to
proper operation is removed. The
privilege accorded the railroads of fix
ing their own value on the railroads
calls to my mind the situation which
Lee Dennis, Chairman of the Board of
Railroad Commissioners, described to
me the other day. A street railway
in Montana represented its
book value as three millions of dol
lars. The Railroad Commission then
had occasion to make a careful ap-
praisal of the actual value of the
of this company and found
it to be one hundred twenty-five |
thousand dollars. If the railroads of |
the country are carrying anything like
that percentage of watered stock, then
the Esch- -Cummins law perpetrates a
gigantic fraud upon the American
people.
Railroads Did Take Advantage In
Colonization.
"To all these things the railroads
operating in Montana may answer:
If the farmers of Montana cannot
produce, pay our freight rates and
sell in competition with other sec
lions of the country and the world,
then let them go out of business. 1t
IS proper to call to the attention of
The railroads the tremendous respon-
sibility they have assumed in their
past colonization efforts. They can