The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1927-10-07
OF DETAILED INVESTIGATION
OF MILL WHEAT PURCHASES GIVEN OUT

adjusting price fluctuations between
the date sold by the shipper and the
date bought by the mill ranging
from 6.S5 cents per bushel to GIT
cents per hushel.
Thirty-sevcn ears shipped from
Williston netted the top figure; %
from Stanley nctted the bottom fig
ure. while 2S from points between
Williston and Stanley resulted in a
profit of Sd cents a bushel. And
the average middleman's profit on
these deals, Lund says, was S.4 cents
per bushel Of $ll7.3S per car. APP
ply this ratio to the entire 31S car
loads purchased from the Midland
company, he arrives at the conclu-
sion that the Midland Grain COM
pany made $37,326.S4 for acting
as middlcman in the purchase for
the state mill and elevator Of 318
carloads Of wheat. In some cases,
Lund said, the sales were made to
the Midland Grain company by the
local shipper through another COM
mission firm.
Continuing his comment, Lund
says: "Thc defense advanced by
the mill management for this meth
cd of purchasing its wheat has been
that the commission companies fl
nance the local country elevators
and that local elevators were not in
position to sell their grain without
passing same through the company
that advanced the funds for their
operations.
None Obligated to Midland
81 made inquiry at all elevators
visited as to how much financial aid
had been advanced to them by the
Midland Grain company and found
no local elevator obligated to the
Midland Grain company. financially
or otherwise: that the shippers only
reason for selling to the Midland
Grain company was that they were
the highest bidder on the wheat
sold them. In many cases l was in
formed by the shipper that an ef-
fort had been made to sell direct to
the state mill and that they could
not get as good an offer from the
mill direct as the prices offered by
the Midland Grain company.
THE wheat purchases from the
Midland Grain company cover only
about 20 per cent of the total mill
wheat purchased by the mill in 1926.
Other Minneapolis grain firms sold
large quantities Of wheat to the mill
and some wheat was purchased di-
rect from local shippers and individ-
uals at what appears to have been
very near the market price. 1t is very
evident, however, that the methods
employed in purchasing wheat have
contributed to the excessive losses
sustained by the state mill during
the year 1926"
At the close of 1926. Lund says.
the mill inventory showed 100000
bushels of wheat on hand, "a large
part of which had been bought at
fancy prices of from 10 to % cents
premium. The prevailing premium
on December 81, 1926, was from to
8 cents with the result that the adj
justment Of wheat premiums to mar
ket price resulted in considerable
loss to the mill on December 81,
1926, on the pricing of wheat on
hand at prevailing market on that
date.
During May and June of this
year the cash premiums OF high
class wheat advanced 8 to II cents
over the December 81, 1926, values,
with the result that the high class
wheat at the mill could be sold for
nearly as much as had been paid for
it in the fall on a lower market"
During the period from January
to July of this year the mill sold