The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1921-04-30
The Farm and The Farmer

Grain dealers and tax collectors are
now and always have been two very
unpopular members of society" says
Prof. James E. Boyle. of Cornell uni
versity. I'm spite of all efforts to
abolish them, however, no successful
substitutes have yet been found.
Thus. Lysias, the Greek orator, made
a speech in Athens, 800 years before
Christ, against the grain dealers there
| on trial. He spoke for the consumers
OF Athens, and every word of his
great speech has been preserved and
handed down to US. The burden of
his complaint was that wheat was too
dear for the city consumers, and for
| this unhappy situation the grain deal
ers should be put to death.
The interesting booklet from which
we are now quoting merits serious
consideration at this time 1t is an
| Illuminating presentation of the ma
| tural functioning of our great grain
| markets, more especially the Chicago
Board of Trade. But continuing our
| quotation, the professor says: From
that day to this we have had two re-
curing complaints against the grain
dealers: First, by consumers that
!
! ducers that prices were too low And
since blame had to be placed on some
one, the middleman has been the
| scapegoat."
| These centuries-old criticisms are
now being showered on the specula
| tive markets of the country, which
reminds us that Solomon said, There
| is nothing new under the sun
The Ford Owner Wins
A couple of farmers owning cars,
one of which is Ford dropped in on
us the other day. with the view of
settling an argument. The argument
was about the first appearance of a
car with the left-hand drive. in what
year and of what make. The Ford
enthusiast was inclined to believe that
| Henry, who leads the automobile pro-
! cession," put out the first car with a
left-hand drive. at which idea his
neighbor booted
Well, we are not posing as an
| authority on cars. We barely know
| that some of them are larger and
more expensive than others and that
any car will run when in good trim
So we called up few dealers to learn
just when the first left-hand drive car
was put out and by whom? This did
not get us anywhere, however, but the
| Webb-COleman folks said they were
under the impression that the Ford
was the first lefthand drive car
turned out, but couldn't say as to the
year They promised to look the mat
ter up and did so with the following
result:
Ford Motor Company Letter.
Replying tc your favor of April 81,
wish to advise that the Ford Motor
n a NV f1,> yf,n
to use the left-hand drive and il was
put in use during the year 1908"
This letter was turned over to us by
the Webb Coleman company and by
this token the Ford owner has the
best of the argument.
| Pushing the Tariff Bill
The senate finance committee hav-
ing finished it's work on the emer-
gency tariff and anti-dumping bill it
Is expected that the bill will be taken
up in the senate next Monday. Some
radical changes have been made, COM
pared with the bill which passed the
house
The grape growers of California are
not discouraged. To the contrary a
report received from San Francisco
says the wine grape growers are add
ing $4,000 acres to cultivation this
year.
Our Modern Freight Rates
Arthur Marsden, of Norman county,
Mimi, writes regarding freight rates
in his section to the Breeders Gazette
as follows:
Il am interested in the discussion
of present freight rates, which are
causing shippers to sweat blood.
Time and again I have driven along
the railroad track and seen largo
crew of section hands lying on the
sunny side of the right-of-way, en-
deavoring to kill time, and drawing a n
outrageous salary, for which l and
other users of freight cars are com
PEELED to pay. l just paid a freight
bill today of $500 on a 2S-ton car of
millfeed, consigned from Crookston,
Mimi. to Hendrum, Mimi, a distance
of As miles. Recently we were
charged $35 freight on minimum
car of stock from Fargo, N. D.. to
Hendrum, a 3Omile run; just S. less
than | used to pay on a carload of
stock from Hendrum to St. Paul
about 800 miles. Last fall a farmer
shipped carload of straw TO Chicago,
for which the transaction amounted
to 81. If transportation is permitted
to put the production of food out of
business, employees will have an op-
portunity, while riding from station to