The Ringwood Leader. (Ringwood, Okla.), Vol. 18, No. 22, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 21, 1918 Page: 4 of 8
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WlRlNGW66DtMER RlNGWOOD 6RLA
I OUBIINO the farmer'
share of the wheat dol-
lar Is one of the war-
time Jobs Uncle Sam has
done since food control
became possible After
M five months of grap-
pilng with the problem
Uncle Sam Is now trans-
lating Into the pockets of both produc-
ers and consumers benefits derived by
the Nation He has shut off specula
- tion produced a free market and
movement of all grades of wheat cut
expenses and Induced a normal flow of
- wheat in natural directions and ef-
fected a thousand other economies
The Food Administration Grain Cor-
poration which supervises the sale or
Itself -buys every bushel of wheat pro-
duced In the Nation In Its progress
from country elevator to foreign buy-
ers or domestic consumers marks a
new step toward national efficiency
-Bow In four short mouths It has been
done Is told In the following episodes
wherein two bushels of wheat traveled
to market
One fine fall afternoon Col Bill
Jenkins who farms somewhere In Mis-
souri loaded his wheat Into a wagon
and drove along the black road that
led across the prairie to town When
he reached the co-operative elevator
of which he was a stockholder he
pulled up on the scales checked his
gross weights carefully and began to
unload The manager came out and
asked:
"When you want to sell this wheat?"
“1 dunno” he answered “One
time’s about as good as another—
these days T won’t weigh any more
later" he added with a dry smile
“Wheat shrinks a lot" admitted the
manager “1 hear the Government
wants as much wheat as It can get
Just now — understand the Allies do
eat a terrible lot of It since the war"
“What’s wheat to-day?" asked CoL
Jenkins getting interested
“Well let me see" parleyed the
manager “I guess this whear’d be a
good No 2 under the new grades"
“Grades? What about grades? That
Food Administration seems to mix Into
mighty nigh everything from rabbits
to axle grease"
"Hold on Colonel" said the eleva-
tor man good-naturedly “The Food
Administration Is not to blame Con-
gress passed the act and told the De-
partment of ' Agriculture to fix the
grades They became effective lost
July I sent out a letter on It”
"Well 1 guess you better sell for
the best you can" said the farmer
“I am needed at borne” And he drovo
way '
A New Order In the Grain World
nTO ONVERSATIONR of this
FI I kind might have taken
1 1 place in almost every
t town In the great grain
belt of the Nation aft-
er August 10 for revo-
lution Id grain market-
ing was taklug place Uncle Sam
bad started oa this remarkable ex-
periment be was Voing to see wheth-
er wheat coaid he marketed minus
rake-offs to the speculators This
’necessitated complete coutrol by the
Government of storage facilities trans-
portation and distributive agencies
and the marketing machinery for
wheat and rye
Everybody was troubled most of
II the officials of the Food Adtulnls- j
tmtlon Grain Corporation who had
undertaken without salary and at the
sacrifice of their pon-oual connection
with the grain trade to wnlp Into
Shape the forces that would drive for-
ward the big business machine for
marketing American wheat A single
control and a $50000000 nonprofit-
making corporation to do the work
This work Is a necessary arm of the
Food Administration allowing the
Government to do business quickly
nd without red taie Its stock is held
la trust by the President of the Unit-
ed States For the time of the war It
will supervise the rate or purchase
the part commercially available of the
GGOOOOOOO bushels of wheat and the
60000000 surplus of rye grown la
America In 1917 Its Job Is to find a
market for every bushel Irrespective
of class and grade Under ita patron-
age wheat screenings are moving Just
as easily as No 1 Northern It must
also work out satisfactorily the local
prices for wheat at each of almost
20000 country elevator points adjust
thousands of complaints organize the
gathering and analysis of date Inspect
concerns reported as drallng unfairly
sdva vexatious disagreements among
the trade and deal effectively wltn the
tiles’ purchasing agent and the neu-
trals who may desire to purchase
In the early days following the de-
termination of prices for 1917 wheat
by the President’s Fair Price Commis-
sion confusion existed In every part of
the wheat-producing regions This was
Intensified by tbe Inauguration of the
sew grain grades as promulgated by
the Department of Agricult ore which
took place about tbe same time and
led to diverse complaints and a feel-
ing among fanners that the Grain Cor-
poration of the Food Administration
waa responsible for both the price as
determined and stricter observance of
grain grades But the corporation was
responsible for neither act It ie pure
ly an administrative arm of the Gov-
ernment formed to buy grain or supers
vise ita sale at the prices determined
by the commission and ft must do its
work on the basis of the new grades
But to return to our furmer and his
expectations of price -Introducing
Two Bushel of Wheat
Lying aide by aide In bis wagon hud
been 2 bushels of wheat that fate had
marked for atrangely different ends
They were very nfhch alike those
bushels of wheat and to look at them
you would not have suspected the
strange and wonderful adventures In
store for them Vet one was destined
to travel abroad for consumption In
France the other to find Its way Into
Georgia where- It was milled and Its
flour finally reached a New Vork
baker on the East Side But In the
sum of the travels made by the two
as we shall follow them will be un-
folded the International panorama of
wheat marketing In time of war
Finding a Price at a Country Point
' High war costs of production gave
our Missouri farmer much coucera as
to his returns aDd accounted for Ids
depression over the prospects of his
wheat “grading down" for that meant
a reduction of 3 cents per bushel un-
der the No 1 grade But it graded
No 2 -
The elevator would also deduct an
additional 5 cents a bushel to cover the
fixed charge made in tills locality for
handling and selling Tbe 5-cent
charge Included tbe commission of 1
cent per bushel customary in 1917
among commission men for soiling the
wheat to domestic millers or foreign
buyers
The elevator man was none too sure
os to how to get at the price which
this wheat Bbould bring He knew
considerably more about human nature
than freight rats and decided to
“check up" the problem to the nearest
zone agent of the Grain Corporation
So he wrote a letter to the representa-
tive stationed at St Louis That let-
ter was referred to the traffic expert
In the New York office who transmit-
ted the following rule for determining
tiie price of wheat at any country
point: '
There is only one price for wheat at
a country point That price Is always
to be arrived at by taking as a basis
the price at the most advantageous
primary market where we have fixed
a price and deducting the freight to-
that market and a fair handling profit
That is the price to be paid for wheat
at any station regardless of the point
to which it may be shipped
Working out tbe price which should
be paid for wheat at your station is
a fine occupation for au off day If
you ennnot find the answer write to
the Food Administration Grain Cor-'
poratlnu In New Vork City and Its
traffic expert will give you aid
Finding the Price of No 2 Wheat at
Sikeston
ARE an actual example:
An elevator nutn in
K Sikeston Mo watiled
to know what price
No 2 wheat should
bring at bis station
when No ' 1 wheat
at New York City was $228 per bush-
el Here is bow he went about It:
Tlitf freight rate from Sikeston to
New Vork being 1698 ceuts per bush-
el he deducted that from $228 per
bushel and found the price at Sikeston
to be $21102 From this he deducted -1
per cent per bushel fur the commis-
sion linn's charges which put the net
price f o b Sikeston at $21002
He Dext compared this price with
what he could get If he sold at SL
Iouls bis nearest primury market At
SL I-ouls the basic price is $218 per
bushel and the freight rate from
Sikeston to SL Louis 6 cents per busli-
eL This would make the Sikeston
price $212 less f cent per bushel for
selling charges or $211 ueL The SL
Ixiuis price would therefore govern
being advantageous to the Sikeston
seller
If our Imaginary 2 bushels of wheat
bad started from Sikeston since It was
a No 2 grade we must deduct S cents
per bushel which would bring the
price f o b the elevator point to
$20Sf)2 per bushel As our Imaginary
elevator man Is charging 5 ceots per
bushel for handling which ' Includes
the commission fee Just mentioned we
deduct an additlonnl 4 rents to arrive
at the price the farmer received Tills
price would be $20402 at the elevator
Some of that 4 cent will return to our
farmer If the elevator prospers for It
Is owned co-operatively I
When Farmer and Elevator Man Ota-
's - a grew
Had this elevator been owned by pri-
vate firm or person or had It been s
“line" plant Col Jenkins would not
have been so bland and trustful - —
He might have refused to sell at all
and arranged to store his wheat or he
might have taken It over to a com-
petitive concern which offered a high-
er price for tbe Food Administration
has not yet attempted to regulate the
prices paid farmers for wheat at coun-
try points It does however offer to
sell for any farmer or farmers' organ-
ization wheat offered at terminal
points but makes a commission charge
f 1 per cent for Its service
Milling Canadian Wheal
l f HIIE our bushel was
being milled a carlot of
wheat reached tills mill
we to jtj from Canada Importa-
kyAv7KSa tlon of Canadian wheat
Sn Mel without special consent
being forblddcD the mill
operatives became curious and made
Equities This whent was part of s
large Supply which tbe Grain Corpora-
tion bad brought Inio tbe United States
to aid In keeping tbe American mills
running
There wne another reason Domes-
tic wheat whs not moving from the
farms as freely as the millers needed
It and shortage forced the mills to
r operate at a great disadvantage and
- according to them at higher costs
The last Journey stage of our first
bushel although considerably changed
-in its form was to go as flour to port
under rush orders It now bad right
of way over all other classes of freight
except other munitions of wnr Con-
sent of the War Trade -Board being
obtained It was loaded on a ship nnd
passed safely through the submarine
field to France where It succored the
hungry
We started out to follow the travels
of trt'o bushels of whent from the farm
to their points of consumption under
war condition with the U S Food Ad-
ministration In control of the market-
ing I have previously discussed the
Journeys of these two bushels from
the farm to the elevator at the country
poinL Here they parted and one of
them passed on to a terminal and
from the terminal to a mill and from
the mill to seRbonrd There It went to
France for consumption
The Other Bushel of Wheat Starts
Traveling
OW as to the other bushel
of wheat A certain
Georgia miller in need
of supplies notified the
Grain Corporation and
received permission to
buy on the open markel
About the same time our co-operative
elevator manager had listed a shipment
with his terminal representative — a
highly reputable commission firm also
under Grain Corporation license This
firm caught wind of the Georgia order
and secured permission to sell the Mis-
souri wheat The second bushel was
among those poured Into a car and
hustled along to Its destination Tbit
shipment did not pass through any
terminal markel It moved straight
to Atlanta where It went between the
rollers of the mill
Controlling the Jobber by License
Now the flour which came from our
second bushel of wheat was rolling
serenely along in another direction
but tbe car was diverted by special or-
der of the U 8 Food Administrator
and received by a large wholesale Job-
ber In New Vork -City This Jobber
also does business under a Food Ad-
ministration license but administered
by the distribution dlvison Under li-
cense terms the Johhers must sell at
a fair profit only although the exact
amount of this profit is not determin-
ed the Food Administration reserving
the right In each case to call a halt
when a licensee has gone “the limit'
8uccese In This War Depend Large
Tbe New York Jobber took for his
own In this case a profit of 50 cents
per barrel He sold part of this ship-
ment to a retail merchant
This merchant did a small business
and waa not licensed but even here
waa another social check For the
retail merchant of the large cities
and those of many email cities and
towns And each morning and after-
noon In the dally paper a price list
for floor and other commodities which
are considered f1r by the Federal
Food Administrator for their State
These priees ere usually arrived at
through the machinery of the whole-
salers’ end tbe retailer’ organization
The retailer also discovered the! the
Jobber who aold him thle flour was
keenly Interested In the prices paid by
the consumer For the Food Admin1-
tratlon baa discovered an Indirect
means of control of the retailer by
making the' Jobber a voluntary police-
man to his customer The Jobber Is ’
licensed to sell only to traders who
deni fairly and If It should turn out !
that a Jobber persists In doing bust- 1
ness with retailers guilty of profiteer- 1
lug In staples under control the Food
Administration has and nay exercise
the right to revoke tbe license of tbe
Jobber - : '
The other part of this shipment con-
tained our second bushel of wheat and
went over to the-Enst Side Into a small
bakery which quickly made It Into
creamy loaves These loaves were
placed In groceries and deltcntessens
and the next day were eaten by hun-
gry little boys nnd girls with dnrk
eyes and big noses nnd quaint Yvay
Brings Out Startling Truths '
Government control has brought oat
these startling truths:
Store people nnnecessartly make
their living out of whent distribution 1
than was suspected Thousands and '
thousands of little speculators have
had to turn elsewhere for a livelihood
A number of commission men have
had to close shop There are places
where elevators should be built and
other places where there are too many
elevators The Government dominat-
ing the whent market carries Its own
marine Insurance Wheat handlers at
terminals have bad their activities restricted-
But most of all It 4a Interesting to
see how the price of flour per barrel
tumbled from the time Uncle Ram took
a positive band In the matter The
Food Administration has recently com-
pleted an interesting chart on the
prices of wheHt and bulk flour at Min-
neapolis In a statement of Novem-
ber 2d the Food Administration says:
The farmer received for the 1018 har-
vest between 8148 and $150 per bushel
for the harvest taking the country by
large and Last year he received
under 20 per cent of the price of the loaf
Today he la receiving over 40 per cent of
the money paid for the cash loaf this
being the result of the stabilization of
prices and the total elimination of hoard-
ing and ((peculation In this Industry
The statement reports that farmer
on November 20 were receiving with
freight charges Included from the ter-
ritory represented to Minneapolis ap-
proximately $950 for 4H bushels of
wheat The priee of bulk flour at the
Minneapolis mill Is about $1025 per
barrel showing that the miller Ir now
receiving about 75 cents per barrel
which must Include both his operating
expenses and profit
URINQ last July and Au-
gust while Congress was
wrestling with Itself to
produce a food adminis-
tration and there was
no Grain Corporation
L‘ Spt ' f flour production In the
a principal centers was 75
per cent nnder the same
period In 19111 In September October
and November under the supervision
of tbe Food Administration flour pro-
duction was 114 per cent of the same
period-In 1916 What this means In the
great national situation wjth depleted
domestic flour reserves and clamoring
foreign buyers can hardly be over-
emphasized when movement of wheat
Into primary markets has been hardly
ly en America’s Next Wheat Crop
half that of a year ago or iooononoo
bushels less It waa nothing short of
master strategy
The total number of bushels pur-
chased by the Grain Corporation from
the time It commenced activities to
February 14i 9727614559 Arranged
by months the purchases In bushels
were: Reptember 781120920: Octo-
ber 1937901650 Noveroler 30920-074-26
December 2145624006 and
January 1769890608
During July and August our floor
exports were about the same In the
some two months of 1916 hut In Sep-
tember Octoler and November the
exportation vn 60 per cent larger
than a year ago 80 the Grain Cor-
poration has discharged our obliga-
tions to the allies and restored our
flour reserves which la the larger a
pect of the question
UK Ueluy in getting (his
wheat started across
the world - was occa-
sioned by the uncer-
tain Judgment of the
munager He sent a
sample on to the St Louie zone agent
for test which verified his'Judguient as
to grade He then went about bis usu-
al duties cleaning the grain filling his
bins and shipping out as regularly as
be could In maximum carload quanti-
ties In order to economize tbe use of
cars in time of congestion He waa
careful to keep hi record very
straight as to dates and quantities of
wheat purchased on hand and shipped
out for the Grain Corporation -requires
weekly reports and full 'details of
transactions j
Selling Wheat to Government
BOUT 29 days after the
fanner brought In his
wheat there came a re-
quest to JJila elevator for
a carload to be purchas-
ed the Grain Corpora-
tion So one of our
wheat bushels was poured Into a car
which miraculously had appeared on
the siding at a time when car shortage
was troubling the entire commercial
world Inquiry might bare shown that
:
"r’3 nt pi
:
Loading Wheat at an Atlantic Port for tho Allies-
tho Grain Corporation was making a
large purchase for the Allies and was
utilizing Its knowledge of available
stocks by having on tbe Job trans-
portation strategist — Edward Cham-
bers vice president of the Santa Fe
Mr Chambers waa assisting the Food
Administration nnd has a remarkable
“way with him" Even before he waa
called to assist Mr'McAdoo the Direc-
tor General his suggestions to the rail-
roads had a wonderful effect In dis-
couraging their hesitancy as to finding
available cars’ and in clearing np con-
gestions that looked as though they
never could be uncongested
How Uncle 8am Keeps the Whip
Ease In getting the needed cars was
one of the advantages enjoyed by this
particular elevator after signing tbe
voluntary agreement which ceded to
the Grain Corporation the right to con-
trol storage and direct shipments and
sales of all wheat bought by tbe pro-
prietor While voluntary this agreement Is
almost compulsory aluce railroads glva
priority recognition to Grain Conora-
tlon requests for cart and elevators
or mills outside the official fold must
“rustle" for themselves In return the
Government guarantees the elevator
proprietor against losses and protects
him In every way as lo price and pays
him rentals for all storage apace requi-
sitioned by IL
All elevators locftl and terminal
must take out licenses or face a shut-
down What Is the power of the li-
cense? It requires the operator to lay
all cards on the table as to his busi-
ness dealings For the time of the
war the elevator becomes a public util-
ity and Its proprietor must furnish In-
formation as to his business at any
time when required by tbe Grain Cor-
poration Each week be must make
and mnit reports showing the amount
of wheal rye or their derivatives pur-
chased stored and shipped
Under present license terms the li-
censee can keep on hand for only 80
days unless he obtains a special per-
mit any stocks of these grains or
Ibeir derivatives" He la also forbid-
den to contract for the sale of any
product which can not be delivered
within 80 days after tbs contract la
made
Hew the Wheat Wee Milled
Away went our bashed of wheat on
Its Journey to the terminal where It
met other bushels of wheat from all
parts of the territory that fed tbla
market There It waa regarded for
special requirements marked for In-
mediate milling and rolled on tq a
large mill In Illinois The miller
bought the wheat from the Grain Cop
poratlon for each miller In the Unit-
ed States Is under license also end
most of them have filled out another
voluntary agreement which binds them
either to purchase all supplies from
the Grain Corporation or under Its db
tect supervision -The’ corpora non
charges each miller I per cent of tiie
value of the wheat he grinds to cover
the costa of administering the cor-
poratlon for the $50000060 capital I
to be returned to the United Stalei
Treasury unimpaired - ' -
Tbe agreement bna Its compensa-
tion however for the policy of Uncle
Sam Is to provide each mill with all
wheat possible- To do so every mill
signing up waa required to furnish an
estimate of Ita possible milling capaci-
ty for the season Tills nation-wide
survey of milling capacities when bal-
anced against the available supply ot
wheat eonhles the Grain Corporation
to equalize supplies in a way never
done before In fact the schedule of
prices arranged for the primury mar-
kets bad for an object this equaliza-
tion For Instance if tbe proprietor
of an elevator at Maryville Mo 48
miles northeast of SL Joseph nnd 456
mites froiu'Clilcago desires to market
wheat he has available these markets:
Si Joseph Mo Kansas -£lry Mo
SL Louis Mo Chicago III uud New-
Vork City N V - To ascertain tho
most advantageous price for him he
would work It out on the basis of the
following table:
From this table you can eee whnt
-
22kL' ’ ' C
wheat would bring at Ova dlffert ti
markets If shipped from Maryville
Under these conditions the proprietor
would probably sell at tit Joseph o
Chicago according to his Inclination
Tbe table further Illustrates the
equalization of prices aud Indicates to
what extent the miller is protected
when buying wheal In any territory
Through tills pluu discriminations
sgalnst the producer Hie miller uud
the consumer are eliminated so fur as
It seems humanly post-ihle under
plan of such tremendous proportions
IIESE schedules arrang-
ed for tiie various
V I ' markets are verliah'a
C" “price dams" to pre-
vent the overflowing
of the etrenm of
' wheat at any single
markel They also tend to correct
muny abuses prevalent In the pnst
such as cutthroat methods adopted by
mills to secure supplies and Indiscrimi-
nate moving of wheat to terminals
For all practical purposes the wheat
business of tbe country is apportioned
and whenever possible mills are sup-
plied from wheat In the territory near-
est them This policy has for an oh-
Ject the saving of waste In transpor-
tation In another way saving la
made: Formerly large quantities of
undergrade wheats have been difficult
to dispose of on account' of unco-onll-nated
purchase of the ronipetlng mills
hut under Uncle Sam’s domination
each bushel of wheat' must now go
somewhere and the poorer wheat will
move Just as freely as the more de-
sirable grades - v
Limiting Millers' Profits
The Illinois miller who received the
carlot containing our bushel of wheat
milled It promptly and shipped Its flour
to port for exportation The uilller
was permitted by the Food Adminis-
tration to make a fair profit not ex-
ceeding a maximum of 25 cents per
barrel on tbs flour and a maximum
profit of 60 cents per ton on the feed-
stuff! left over All mills however
most furnish st regular Intervals to
the Milling Division full statements of
manufacturing coals which are scru-
tinized carefully The'derlvstlveaof
this wheat (he miller told for domes-
tic consumption as the policy of the
Govern men t Is to keep In the United
States all available feedstuff s In ordee
to encourage live-stock production
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Watkins and Sons. The Ringwood Leader. (Ringwood, Okla.), Vol. 18, No. 22, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 21, 1918, newspaper, March 21, 1918; Ringwood, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc1722875/m1/4/: accessed June 29, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.