Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-09-15
STONE DENIES LOSS
IN MILLING DEALS
Farm Board Chairman An
sWers Murray Charges of
Mismanagement.
BY the Associated Press.

CHICAGO, September 15.-James C.
Stone. chairman of the Federal Farm
Board. yesterday formally denied that
| milling companies proflted from grain
operations Of the board
The denial in the form of a state
| ment prepared by Stone in collabora-
ton with George S. Minor, president
OF the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Grain
Sterilization Corporation, was In answer
to question by Gov. William H. Muir
ray of Oklahoma.
The Oklahoma executive asked II II
| is not true that the board loaned
100000 bushels of wheat to one mill
ing company when wheat was IS cents
a bushel, and now Is taking 1t back at
a price so low the company is profiting
100000 by the purported transaction
Denies Owning Wheat.
THE Federal Farm Board has not
and does not own any wheat" Stone
said. The Grain Sterilization Corpo-
ration is the owner of all the wheat
which has been purchased for stabiliza-
ton purposes.
During the Winter. the Sterilization
Corporation offered to sell wheat to any
miller in the United States at the cur
rent market price and for cash. with
the agreement that If the miller ground
and exported the wheat in the form of
flour prior to June l. 1881, the miller
would be given the privilege of return
ing to the Sterilization Corporation any
time before July l an equal quantity of
the same grade of wheat as that which
had been exported in the form of -four.
and on the miller returning such wheat
the original per bushel purchase price
would be refunded.
Saved Storare CoSts
by this operation the sterilization
corporation saved from four to six
months storage and carrying charges,
amounting to from 5 cents to cents a
bushel
In order to sell the flour for export,
the miller was forced to meet world
competitive prices and, therefore, the
loss that he incurred on the high price
wheat that he had purchased offset the
gain that he later made in returning
the wheat.
The principal advantage to the mil
Ter was that it enabled him to main
tain his established flour brands in for
eign markets and to help keep his plant
in operation, while otherwise the plant
would have been partly closed. thereby
adding to the unemployment prevailing
at that time.
That the millers did not find the
operation a particularly profitable one
is evidence by the fact that the total
quantity of the wheat thus handled was
approximately 100000 bushels. The
plan was open to all millers in the
United States and no single milling
firm took advantage of it to the extent
Of more than 100000 bushels"
Gov. Murray had challenged the
board to disprove that the board has
deposited with large milling companies
wheat, and have Disseminated against
the small milling companies and by
such deposits have reduced the price
Of wheat rather than raise it."
Stone denied the discrimination and
said that the operation had tendency
to bolster the market. removing the
wheat from the country.
The Farm Board chairman also re-
pudiated a statement which Gov. Muir
ray had attributed to him, that the
board had loaned or let with certain
millers few hundred thousand bushels
which should be returned on demand -
Wheat Was Not Loaned.
"No wheat was loaned by the Fed
eral Farm Board or the Grain Stabiliza-
ton Corporation" Stone said, ito any
miller. Where the sterilization corpo-
ration stored wheat with the millers
1t was frequently examined by Stabilize
ton Corporation inspectors and the
identical wheat was either returned to
the Sterilization Corporation or pur-
chased by the miller at the full market
prices before such wheat was used"
Stone said he disapproved of the
attention focused on the sterilization
feature of the Farm Boards activities
pointing out that the stabilNation is
ONLY one of the DhaSes of the marketing
act and that cooperative marketing or
CARNATIONS sponsored by the board were
| not getting the attention they deserved