10 'Cbc Conservative *
HONEST GUAIN INSPECTION.
GincAGO , Ouly 24th , 1899.
EDITOR TUK CONSERVATIVE ,
Nebraska City , Nob.
DEAU SIH : Could you kindly make
known to the constituency reached by
your paper of honest ideas the opeii letter
I herewith send you from Charles J.
Procter , President of the Corn Trade
Association of Liverpool. In it ho re
presents the position of English import
ers of American grain with reference to
our "quite unreliable" systems of in
spection. Mr. Proctor but recently
visited the United States and conferred
with some of the prominent leaders of
our grain trade at Chicago and elsewhere
and with the Secretary of Agriculture
at Washington with reference to this
subject. I believe the only valuable
point ho was able to take back to Eng
land was the suggestion that English
importers protect themselves , in the way
our homo dealers have found themselves
forced to do , by employing private inspectors
specters to go over grain officially in
spected. It seems likely , however , that
our English customers , rather than
resort to the trouble and expense of
finding supplements or substitutes
for American official honesty , would
prefer to buy our grain only on the
f. a q. , fair average quality , system , just
as they buy Russian , Indian and Argen
tine grain , the importer and not the ex
porter , thereby practically determining
both the grade and the price that goes
with it.
As the contract system of grain
trading on our exchanges is based on the
grades or standards established by the
official state inspections it can be im
agined that much confusion might re
sult to our methods when our standards
became no longer recognized or valid in
the markets of the ultimate purchasers
of our surplus grains.
That the grain-producing interests of
the United States , as well as American
commercial credit generally , are being
seriously jeopardized abroad by the de
creasing reliability of our inspection cer
tificates became very evident to me
during a recent trip abroad. When
visiting such distributive centres as
Liverpool , London and Paris , 1 found it
freely intimated that , owing to the in
creasing risk of importation of American
grain , it is now considered rather better
to give preferential buying orders to
those countries which send in their
grain according to the more complicated
but safer f. a. q. method.
At Buda Pest , where some importers
had just made the experiment of buying
some Kansas No. 2 wheat to mix with
Hungarian grades , the result was so un
satisfactory that the experiment will , it
was said , not be tried again and the
reason for the discomfiture of those
whose experiment ought to have greatly
enlarged the market for the grain pro
duct of the state of Kansas was simply
the disgraceful fact that the wheat , on
its arrival at the port of Fiumo , was
found to be of a quality far inferior to
that of the grade which had been
officially certified to and paid for.
Most of the complaints of foreign im
porters relate to the specially faulty in
spections of grain in the southwest ,
where it seems likely that Populistic inspectors
specters , in their enthusiasm for cheap
standards of value generally , have ap
plied to bushels the same principle of
low measure of quality that Bryan
would apply to dollars.
Regarding other American shipping
points , the trouble with grain from
Baltimore appears to be that that city
sometimes passes through with its own
certificates grain arriving from Kansas
City , while the only difficulty with No.
2 Chicago and No. 1 Northern Duluth is
that after the official inspection , grain
somehow often gets "watered" in
some cases , perhaps , by deliberate or
careless mixture with the dishonestly in
spected grades of grain from the Kansas-
Nebraska country.
I believe you will agree that this un
satisfactory condition which involves
such shameful discredit and perhaps
serious future loss to this country ,
should be corrected , even if the business
and legislative talent of the laud is
forced to evolve so radical a scheme as
national and uniform inspections of
grain as a substitute for the present
varying systems of state inspection.
Yours truly ,
HENRY D. BAKER ,
LIVERPOOL , July 5 , 1899.
EDITOR CONSERVATIVE :
For some years considerable trouble
and loss have arisen in our importing
centres through the arrival from time to
time of wheat and maize of inferior
quality to the description required by
the certificate of inspection relating to
the shipment. There has also been a
general tendency towards deterioration
from several quarters , a tendency , we
fear , encouraged by the laxity of inspectors
specters on your side. These evils have
found expression in protests signed by
the Chamber of Commerce and official
committees of the principal grain re
ceiving ports of Europe.
These protests have been forwarded
direct to all the leading American grain
centers , and it is hoped that this action
will draw immediate attention to an evil
that is harmful to all engaged in the
trade and , though profitable as a tem
porary expedient , is working havoc with
the good name of American shippers
and reducing the price to the producer.
For many years the basis of warranty
of quality on an American contract was
fair average quality of the season's ship
ments at time and place of shipment ,
and this is still the basis adopted by all
countries shipping to Europe where an
actual sample is not guaranteed.
In the case of America it was urged
that as responsible certificates were
given at the various trade centers such
might be relied on and thus save the
possibility of vexatious reclamations.
The European trade gradually acceded
to the suggestion , and for some years
the grain business has been done on the
basis of certificate final.
Many causes have been at work to un
dermine the integrity of these docu
ments. There has been an unworthy
competition , resulting in occasional
shipments of inferior wheats much be
low what the standard called for , and
these irregularities have largely dis
credited the value of the certificates.
Should the same tendency continue , im
porters would have again to insist on
guarantee of sample or a fair average
quality basis.
It is to be hoped that the various
centers in America will face actively the
difficulty of the situation and intro
duce such internal reforms as may secure
the confidence of European buyers in a
matter of vital importance to all con
cerned. CHARLES J. PROCTER.
COMMENDED FKOM PITTSHURG.
PITTSBURG , Pa. , July 29 , 1899.
EDITOR CONSERVATIVE :
I cannot refrain from expressing to
you the pleasure derived from reading
the editorial notes and comments on the
first three pages of this last issue. I lay
aside the paper and take up my pen to
commend you for the incisive way and
manner in which you puncture popular
shams. But I fear with the great mass
of American people "it is casting pearls
before swine. " The people love to be
humbugged. P. T. Baruum accumu
lated in an unprecedentedly short time
two immense fortunes humbugging the
American people. The race of people
never was created that can withstand
the corrupting influence of our public
schools and public press , inculcating as
they do the man-degenerating senti
ment of state and national government
paternalism. Your editorial , "Revenues
From Vice , " portrays the fruitages in
the fewest possible words. Bryanarchy
and populism are the only logical means
of promoting this type of paternalism.
Just as the present war , a crime against
the Christian civilization of the world
and a disgrace to the American people ,
is the logical result of McKiuleyism ;
and all these diabolisms emanate from
our sham republicanism and travesty
upon democracy.
Yours respectfully ,
J B. COREY.
Th °
PAGE PENCE. ,
ly growing popu
larity of the Page wire fence in Nebraska
is as marvelous as the growth of corn in
this state. Capt. Enyart is now using
it in Colorado where he has one line of
fence fifty miles in length , and Joy Mor
ton has recently put a good many rods
of Page fence about his estate a half a
mile north of Arbor Lodge.