GAMBLING IN WHEAT 31 



grain warehouses, abattoirs, and grain terminals, 

 for cheap farm loans and the untaxing of farm im- 

 provements. It was a programme of state socialism 

 and modified single tax. 



For years the farmers of North Dakota had strug- 

 gled against the distributers who control the mar- 

 ket. They are for the most part Americans and 

 Scandinavians, owning large farms of from 100 to 

 1,000 acres in extent. At the end of the year they 

 were often as badly off as they were at the beginning, 

 and if a bad season intervened they often faced 

 bankruptcy.^ For years they had presented their 

 claims before the State legislatures of the Dakotas 

 and Minnesota. They appeared before Congress. 

 But they were unable to secure any relief. Yet their 

 investigations, made after careful scientific study, 

 showed that nearly one-half of the value of their 



' Mr. Cantrill: "Is it your contention that if you can secure the 

 relief asked for under the Manahan resolution it will result in making 

 the grain business for these farmers a profitable business instead of, 

 as to-day, a losing business? That is the point I want to get at. 

 Is this operation that you complain of forcing the farmers to sell 

 their wheat at a loss?" 



Mr. Drake: " I would answer both those questions in the affirma- 

 tive. / venture to assert that for the past three years (1911-1914) the 

 average farmer has raised and marketed his wheat and grain of all ki7ids 

 in the Northwest at a positive loss." 



"There has not been a year in the past three years (in the Red 

 River Valley of the North) that the average farmer has raised wheat 

 and after paying for the cost of raising it, has not suffered an actual 

 loss in the marketing of his product after it has been passed thi-ough 

 the machinery for distribution provided by this private club, known 

 as the Minneapohs Chamber of Commerce." 



Hearing before the Committee on Rules, House of Representa- 

 tives, 63d Congress, Second Session, on House Resolution 424, p. 

 139. 



