Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 September 1891 — UNCLE SAM BUILDING AND OPERATING WAREHOUSES. [ARTICLE]

UNCLE SAM BUILDING AND OPERATING WAREHOUSES.

For The Republican. The storage of farm products is often a necessity. When, where, and by whom they should be stored is the. subject treated in this article. The farmer located at a distance from a railway station, must for a short time crib his cornj and bin his small grain, until the corn is fit for market, and the grain can (be hauled. As the grain is Hauled to stations foshipping, often in larger quanti ; ties than cars can be obtained for immediate transportation, and sometimes in condition unsafe for shipping, warehousing at such points is a necessity. Again, grain has to accumulate in large quantities at commercial centers, for convenience in distribution for transportation in bulk by land and water. Storage in first hands is for the exclusive benefit of the farmer. and he is entitled to all the profits, and should bear the loss —if there be any— arising therefrom. This farm storage is good, wholesome, wise and best for the grain, best for its owner, Fverv farmer should 6tore bis own grain until the market price suits him, or necessity compels him to Bell. Storage at stations is sometimes by railway companies, but generally by a grain merchant who does both a storing and trading business, and either buys the grain on delivery, or charges the farmer for such storage until he is willing to sell. If he buys the grain the storage is for himself individually, and the cost of such storage to him is something which the public has no concern. If he stores for the farmer it is at the farmer’s cost who can store or sell at his option. The warehouser furnishes the building, men and machinery for handling the grain, and no doubt charges enough for the storage to meet the expense. If the railway company for itself, or its officers for their own interest, joins hands with the warehouse man, and prevents competition m the storage and buying of grain at stationfTbn the line of their roads, by giving privileges either in freight rates, or warehouse room on track, or for side tracks —as is often done—both the warehouse operator, the railway company, and the officers implicated, should be publicly spanked by the law of the State in which such outrage is committed, by the imposition of such a penalty as will prevent any future acts of that kind. Such actions ought to be by law declared a felony, and punished as such. It is stealing, and the persons engaged in it are robbing the farmer for the exclusive benefit of the warehouse oma and railway company, or the officers of such company as are iD the conspiracy, Relief from such warehousing the farmer is entitled to as much as is the general public from-any other class of thieves, and he has the remedy in his own hands. The public consumer is not benefited by the warehouse steal, the price in the general market is no less because the farmer has been robbed and as the chief loser, the burden of refor.u in this respect is on his shoulders, and every honest man will say God speed. Warehousing for commercial convenience, being a public necessity, its cost, safety, and honest management concerns the public as much as does the management of railways, and for that reason should have the same supervision or government control. The inspection of grain, its proper care while in warehouse, should be guarded and regulated by law. The power and obligation of Congress are pointed out in the Federal constitution —see Section 8 — the power to regulate commerce among the several states is certainly sufficient authority for this purpose, and the business of warehousing and railroading are so inimately connected as to bring them under one control. But says one, what has all this to do about Unele Sam as a warehouser? Just so; you will see that, thus far, I hate tried to show who Warehousing was for. My theory is that benefits should, —as near as may be —be paid for by the person benefited. With that understanding, the farmer pays the home storage, and at local stations if he wants it stored. The merchant or buyer at the stations if he holds it for a rise should bear the costs of storage, as it would be unfair to ask the consumer to pay for stoiage, when that very storage was to enhance the price of grain which he must buy to eat. But if the grain is held at stations from lack of transportation, there the railway Company —whose duty it was to furnish transportation after reasonable notice should be held for costs of storage, and should be prevent-

money in payment of interest on a ed by law from adding such costs of storage to its freight charges, as that would make the public consumer pay the penalty for the non-performance of contract by (he railway company. But the costs of storage at commercial centers, like the charges for transportation, are all added to t lie price of the grain, and must be pit id by the consumer, hence government supervision is warranted* But only such stoiage as is necessary for c nvenience of Jmsdiing and shipp;ng should be considered under ihi» head. All storage of grain at any point, by private persons, being the owners of such grain, and holding same for rise in price, which the consumer (the public) must pay, ought certainly to be taxed entirely to the owner and no one else. You see that all storage of grain or farm products of any kind, are always for the benefit of the owners of the grain stored, and the cost is added to and enhances the cost of such grain to the consumer.

Uncle Sam represents the whole people; any business transaction by him with any number of citizens leas than the wholes and for the benefit of a part, at the expense of the whole, should be scrutinized closely, such as .the building of warehouses in favored localities with the 'people’s funds, or at the j p* ople’s ciedit, advancing the pea pie’s money, or the people’s ere dit to certain persons for their personal benefit, and against the interest of the public consumer who must pay all the profits of such storage Troifi his own pocket into the hard of the individual who was benefited by such storage. There is another side to this storage business; all storage of farm, or other products, not made necessary by lack of condition, and want of transportation, are so speculation only. This is true whether stored by the farmer, merchant or speculator, and all such storage of grain is against the public pocket, and instead of ineouragement at the hands of the government, should be discouraged. Storage by the producer, until the price shall meet the cost of production is justifiable, and none other is. Trusts to enhance the price of any commodity to the consumer, above the cost of production, are enemies to the public welfare, and should be treated as speh, and especially a trust in the necessaries of life. A Warehouse system like that demanded by the People’s Party would be in effect, that ‘ ‘Uncle Sam” should be the chief factor in the most gigantic grain comer the world ever heard of. The farmer with certificates of grain in store, to deposit as colateral security, could hold his grain until starvation prices obtained, could then draw his eighty per-cent advance from the people’s treasury who he had been aided to starve and chuckling like “Old Hutch” at the gullibility of the people, leave our Uncle Sam with an empty treasury, credit busted, and a load of grain on his hands to sell on a falling market. The man who engineered the Warehouse scheme, must either be insane, or else he takes the people of this country to be fools of the first water. Very few farmers will have the brass to ask the public to build warehouses, that they may be enabled to run up a grain corner on their customers. Who shall store grain? Answer; —The owner if he wishes tb do so* Who ought to pay for the storage of any product? The party owning the product stored, as his are the profits of storage, and he only has the option on time of such storage. When should Uncle Sam build warehouses, and store grain? Nub. —When he becomes the owner of grain that needs storing, or which he wishes to hold for a rise in the market, so his children (the people) can have dear bread to eat. . „ , Should not Uncle Sam advance money on steel rails for a rise? On lumber, coal, railway-stock, books,cloth for a rise; on labor for a rise in wages? On patent medicine fora rise? On the stock in trade of the merchant, on building material? Why not? It makes one tired to find an industry Uncle Sam should not encourage by an advance. But one can see that no gain would be to any one if the advance was made to all alike, as its effect would be the same as an inflation of the currency, higher prices all round. Uncle bam once made an advance of both money and credit, to a corporation for building a railway, and the result was the creating of a corruption fund that demoralized Congress, robbed the people of millions of acres of" land, filched from the National Treasury millions of . /. . ‘V • ' • '"‘.V

debt that never grows less. Such an experience is tfot calculated to encourage "legislation in that direction any one but rogues who have designs on the public treasury. The People’s Party are asking for this kind of legislation, and one of the chief rogues who had a part in that steal, is now posiDg an a candidate for the chief office in the gift of the Nation; his success woulijl be shriving the i Devil with a vengaance. If our “Uncle Sam” ever makes an advance from the National Treasury to one, he should t. all; such is the makeup ot our Samuel. - The honest farmer is wide awake to his own interest, but has too much at stake in the success of popular government to attach to it a bob-tail kite with warehouse attachments.

There are thousands of men, farmers and laborers, who have toiled all their lives, and not been successful in a business point of view, who love their country, and have the capacity to see the cat in the meal tub as quickly as the average politician. Such men are not wading into fly traps, of the sub-treasury kind.

W. W. GILMAN.