IT
The Omaha Sunday Bee
PART TH5.EE
. PART THREE.
Amusements
PAGES ONE TO TEN
HOME MAGAZINE
PAGES ONE TO TEN
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VOL. XLI-NO. 13.
OMAHA. SUNDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 17, 1911.
SINGLE COPY FIVE CENTS.
Genesis and Growth of the Country's Great Grain Traffic
Ca2ianlnxs.Q2tio
BY. CHARLES QUINN.
HAT the annual convention of the Grain
Dealers' National association, to be held
In Omaha October 9, 10 and 11 next,
will mark an epoch in the commercial
history of the Nebraska metropolis is the
belief of everyone who is at all familiar
' with the grain business and with the
geographical location of Omaha.
This Is the first time in the fifteen years' existence
of the national organization that the grain men have
met aa far-went as the Missouri river. Their annual
gatherings have in the past been confined for the most
part to the cities of the so-called middle state. Chi
cago, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Cincinnati
and Minneapolis have all had the convention. In 1905
the delegates met in Buffalo, which was the furtherest
east the convention ever went.
The directors of the association decided to hold
the, 1811 gathering, at Omaha, In recognition of the
growth of that city in the last few years as a primary
grain market. This was a big triumph for the pros-
in a section which Is
now a highly impor
tant factor in the
production of the
great cereal staples
of the United States.
Some years ago
Omaha was looked
upon, as being close
to the "dead line" of
wheat and corn pro-
duction. All maps of the United States which con
tained isothermal lines giving temperatures and pre
cipitation placed the aixteen-inch rainfall so close to
Omaha that the city seemed to have no future as a
grain-receiving point from the west. But the opening
of the country beyond the Missouri for, settlement ex
tended the area of cereal production until the whole
of Nebraska, with the exception of the sand hills in
the northwest corner, became one great fertile platn.
South Dakota followed the example of the sister com
monwealth to the south and kept " on extending its
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perous city on the Missouri It meant that the grain ' r ' production until .the Black Hills were reached
Interests of the country recognized the position Omaha at the extreme, western border of the state. .
has taken in the trade and has admitted Us right to And even the Black Hills and'the sand dunes have
be classed with the other Important primary markets not been abandoned by the farmer. They have their
of the country. valleys where grain Is produced and this grain is
It is Interesting .to note what has brought about" added to the great stream which now pours into
this change in sentiment among the grain men of the Omaha.
United States. It is doubtless due ,in great measure
to ; the fact that facilities have within the last few
years been rapidly created for the storage and utiliza
tion of the waste waters In western Nebraska and
eastern Colorado and Wyoming. Dry farming Is an
other factor in the growth of Omaha as a grain center.
By using this system for the growing of grains in a
vast stretch of territory that has heretofore been cou
riered arid or semi-arid many thousands of acres have
veen brought under cultivation and made tributary to
Omaha. v
South Dakota west of the Missouri river, western
Nebraska and all of Wyoming are being covered with
a' network of railroad lines and the result has been the
breaking up of large tracts of land and the production
of grain in an immense territory hitherto used solely
for grazing Omaha is the natural receiving point for
grain from all this territory.
.With reference to distribution .facilities Omaha is
well situated It Is the western and northern termini
of a number of great railroad systems, which gives a
free outlet to Minneapolis and Duluth on the north,
Chicago, Milwaukee and Peoria on the east, Kansas
City, New Orleans and Galveston on the south and St.
Louis and' Memphis on the southeast.
It Is not surprising, therefore, that the people west
of the Missouri river and the grain men of Omaha
should display the liveliest Interest In the coming con
vention of the Grain Dealers' National aasociation. To
the farmers and elevator owners of South Dakota. Ne
braska, western Iowa. Kansas, Oklahoma and Wyom
ing the convention 1s the most important and signifi
cant of the year, for It shows they have been recogniied
by the grain dealers throughout the country, as living
The grain men of the country have been watching
Omaha for some years. They. have seen the changes
gradually come; they have observed what tree plant
ing, the breaking up of the virgin ground, scientific
farming and irrigation have done for the west and
they were prepared to give Omaha Its proper recogni
tion when the time came.
And that time has come.
Omaha's future as a grain center is assured, and
each year it will become more Important as a primary
market because each Season sees new acreage added
through irrigation, through the efforts of the state
agricultural colleges in teaching the farmers how to
reclaim what has been regarded, as waste land, and
through the natural Increase In population which
enhances the value of old land and drives settlers on
to the new. i
In the handling of these crops of western grain
which, like great streams of gold, pour Into and out of
the Omaha elevators and are shipped north, east and
south to help feed the nation, the Grain Dealers' Na
tional association plays a leading role. These millions
of bushels of grain, worth so much money that the
resources of the banks are taxed to their utmost to
move them, are passed from one ownership to another
from the farmer to the miller and the exporter
with little friction, , few misunderstandings and no
civil suits. And all because the association has been
educating the grain men 'of the country to the modern'
belief in co-operation lnatead of the old system of
inidviduallsm.
Before the advent of th association, which was '
started in Chicago in 1896 by a handful of dealers
numbering about fifty, chaos - reigned In the ' grain
uwwki cnry. Mo
5. 5. STREAM:. Dilator
CHICAGO. ILL
business. These were the halcyon days of the freight
rebater the days of the great growth and develop
ment of the Industrie of the country, and before
there swept over the United States that great reform
wave which followed the insurance scandals and which
was to bring la its train a new system of commercial
ethics. -
A decade and a half ago the motto "caveat emptor'"
let the purchaser beware was recognized by the
laws of the land, for it was felt that a man's business
was no one's but bis own. This was seventeenth cen
tury doctrine in use when one small merchant dealt
directly with another and before the great aggrega
tions of wealth of today were dreamed of. When the
attempt was made to apply it to modern times, with
its great railroad systems and industrial corporations,
the small shipper found himself at the mercy of the
big one who outbid him' in the open 'market for grain'"
and then made a profitthrough rebate.
The gratn'dealer of comparatively modem times
knew no business religion, save that which had for Its
tenets a perversion the golden rule, which he Inter
preted to read: "Do
unto the other fellow
as you suspect be
would do unto you
if he had the
chance."
And yet the grain
dealer was no worse
than the average bus
iness man engaged
in other lines of
trade. He bad sim
ply been following
to their logical con
clusion the precepts he had been taught in the count
ing room after he left school.
These precepts fitted in with primitive conditions
when men did business face to face, but when the tele
graph, the telephone and the railroads came and mer
chants bought goods from one another, though sepa
rated by hundreds of miles, each individual had to
take' what was given him and trust in the good faith
and honesty of the seller.
No one In the pioneer days of Omaha had the
prescience to conceive the splendid city into which the
struggling frontier town developed. In.l&67 the
aggregate wheat receipts were small. Farmers de
livered the grain In sacka at Sioux City and the grain
merchant used his back to convey the wheat to one
corner of the warehouse. Later it was resacked and
carted to a Missouri river steamboat and shipped. to
Omaha, the-then nearest railroad point.
- The late r. H.Peavey of Mrnneapolis, wbo'at the
time of his death several years ago was at the head
of the largest cash grain concern In the world, de
livered' speech to the delegates of the Grain Dealers'
FRANK c3.C!OWaLL.Diwcft.r
OMAHA .NEB. !
National association at their annual convention lir)
1901 in which he told of bis experience as a youn
man In western Iowa in the eo s He said: J
"The volume of business done at that time wajn
small. There was uncertainty as to time of delivery"
Muscle was used In place of machinery. What aren
now known as the elevator companies did not comJ
until the early 70 s. and one of the first .was locate
on the Dakota Southern railroad from Sioux City tcf
Yankton, a distance of sixty-five miles. This road i
now known as a branch of the Chicago, Milwaukee Si
St. Taul, was one of the first railroade , to lnvadtf',
Dakota. 1 ? j
"With the advent of the continental lines and fh I
tremendous Immigration following them, the elevator"
men became a necessity. Material carted miles la :
advance of the railroads, and at heavy expense eleva
tors were completed by the time the tracks reached,
there. 'Business was commenced with no banking,
facilities; wheat receipts grew heavier and currency
was shipped from Chicago to the nearest express point
and then sent by -special messenger to the sldetraclft '
elevator man, whose life was lonely and whose pistol
was ever ready to protect the money and property Id 1
his charge " r
This picture, drawn by Mr. Peavey of pioneer com J
ditlons around Omaha In the late 60's and early 70's :
is doubtless an accurate one, and it is easy to see that!
from such a beginning many abuses would naturally
grow up with the evolution of the grain business.
When the early 90's arrived, the noxious weeds tba
had been - permitted to flourish were In full bloom.
The railroads had throttled the small dealers for th4
benefit of the large ones. The little shipper wss gives
cars only when the big one did not want them. Ther4
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