than that to which it is entitled. As the season advances the grade is raised. This, of course, raises all of the grades in store and held by the elevators and which were purchased at a lower grade. All questions of doubt in grading are resolved against the producer.

5. The report of the State grain and warehouse commission of Minnesota, for instance, every year shows that the number of bushels of the higher grades taken in is only a small percentage of the higher grades shipped out from the terminal elevators, and that the lower grades received are many times over the lower grades shipped out, thus defrauding the producers of many millions of dollars every year.

6. In addition to this, we have our mixing elevators at the terminals They will mix 1,000,000 bushels of No. 1 northern with 3,000,000 or 4,000,000 bushels of No. 2 or No. 3 northern and have the same reinspected and graded all as No. 1 northern. This grain is shipped then, say, to Liverpool. The foreign purchaser receives the bill of lading, accompanied by the certificate of the grain inspector, showing the grain to be No. 1 northern. He gives it a chemical analysis, compares it with Canadian No. 1 northern, and finds that the American No. 1 northern is far below the same grade of Canadian wheat. This discredits all of our honest grades of wheat in the foreign market, and the only person who reaps a benefit is the mixer.

7. The producer of grain, the farmer, has no voice whatever in determining, directly or indirectly, the personnel of the force which passes upon the grade and quality of every bushel of grain he sells, while the purchaser of the grain controls absolutely the personnel of graders and inspectors. This injustice must be apparent. They have no means of securing any redress in case of combination, corruption, or inefficiency of the inspectors and graders.

8. It often happens, as I am creditably informed, that for the purpose of breaking corners in the gambling deals of the wheat pit millions of bushels of grain are given false certificates to meet a shortage. In the end the producer pays for the losses resulting from false inspection or certification losses. At present every grain market has its own system of grading and inspection and no two systems are exactly the same. The result is that the same kind and quality of grain, shipped from the same field, entering markets of different States, is graded differently and named differently, creating confusion and general loss to the producer.

9. Under the present system of inspection all carloads of grain arriving at the terminals are docked a certain number of pounds per bushel to cover dirt, undeveloped kernels, or any foreign matter in the grain. As all this can be removed, and is removed in the elevators, it should not affect the grading. It is, however, often excessive, and while the farmer pays the freight on it and gets nothing for it the purchaser sells it often for a very good price.

HOW NATIONAL INSPECTION AND GRADING WILL REMEDY PRESENT INJUSTICE.

1. Under national inspection all inspectors will be free from political influence. They will owe no allegiance to buyer or shipper. Their decision will be free from bias. Their grading will be under rules and regulations adopted by the Agricultural Department. They will have as a guide all of the experimentation and accumu

lated knowledge of the Department, acquired by years of study and investigation and laboratory work on grains.

2. Proper provision will be made for reinspection in case of complaint, in place of the present system of appealing from the deputy to the principal, whose interest demands that he shall sustain his deputy, generally.

3. Owners of elevator lines could not instruct their buyers under a national system not to give above a certain grade. The difference would be immediately apparent as soon as the same grain was inspected at the terminals. And they could not long do business under such instruction when it became publicly known that the local grades were below the terminal grades.

4. There would be no inducement by the national inspectors to resolve every doubt in favor of the purchaser and against the producer whereby such purchaser, as is now the case, would secure onehalf to two-thirds of the crop at a grade lower than that to which it was entitled.

5. Under national inspection it would be impossible to ship out three times as many bushels of the higher grades as are taken in the terminal elevators. Under the present system the buyer, by controlling the personnel of the board of inspectors, practically determines what grade he will buy in at and what grade he will sell out at. The Department inspectors would apply the same test on grain received as shipped out.

6. If the shipper mixed his grades such mixture would have to be again inspected and graded by the Department, and such grain could not be sold in the market under a false certificate. This would give confidence in our American standards and facilitate our export business in wheat, corn, and flax the same way that our meat inspection has facilitated commerce in meat.

7. The producer of North Dakota or South Dakota, for instance, has not the slightest voice in determining the personnel of the political inspectors of his grain in Minneapolis, Duluth, Superior, or Chicago, where he must sell it, nor can his voice be heard as to the proper system of inspection or grading. Under national inspection. he can be heard. Through his representation he is brought in touch with the Department, which must listen to his complaint or suggestions, and if well founded will seek to apply a proper remedy. In addition to this an inspector, if found incompetent, may be discharged or removed to another section of the country where he might be competent.

8. Under national inspection it would be almost impossible to secure false certificates as to grades to assist in gambling deals on the board of trade.

9. Dockage should have nothing to do with grades. A sufficient amount is deducted by the buyer to cover not only the amount of poor wheat and any dirt or foul stuff, but also to cover expense of cleaning. While this dockage is a total loss to the producer and worse than a loss, because he is compelled to pay freight on it, it is a gain to the purchaser, for while the purchaser pays nothing for it he sells it to be ground into cattle feed or grinds it himself and sells it to good advantage.

FEASIBILITY OF NATIONAL INSPECTION.

1. The change from State and board of trade inspection now in vogue to national inspection and grading would be most simple. The Department could overnight take the present force of inspectors and make them national inspectors. It could then work off the incompetent as occasion required. These inspectors would be new men only in being free from political influence or personal fealty.

2. In as much as national inspection and grading would cover only grains raised in one State and shipped into another, or grains shipped from one State to a foreign market, and would not include grains raised in a State to be used wholly therein, the present number of inspectors could be greatly reduced.

3. There would be no difficulty in fixing grades. The Department would naturally accept all present commercial grades and would, of course, modify them only as experience demanded. The modification, therefore, would be made without the slightest injury to commercial contracts or interest.

4. The bill makes provision for sales by samples and without the use of grades where such may be the custom or where any purchaser desires to so purchase. But of course all exports should be graded.

5. The present charges for grading and inspection range from 50 cents to 75 cents per car. At 50 cents per car there would be raised far more than sufficient to cover the expense of Government inspection and grading. My own belief is that it could be reduced to about 25 or 35 cents per car.

6. There are about eight species of wheat raised in the United States, each with its own name and each graded by numbers. The bill provides that such grades and species should be recognized in the beginning and should be modified only as experience should demand.

O

REPRESENTATION OF UNITED STATES AT FIRST PAN-AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS, SANTIAGO, CHILE, DECEMBER, 1908.

MESSAGE

FROM THE

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES,

TRANSMITTING

A REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE IN REGARD TO THE REPRESENTATION OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES IN THE FIRST PAN-AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS TO BE HELD AT SANTIAGO, CHILE, THE FIRST TEN DAYS OF DECEMBER, 1908.

DECEMBER 21, 1907.-Read; referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations and ordered to be printed.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit herewith for the consideration of the respective Houses of the Congress a report of the Secretary of State representing the appropriateness of early action in order that in response to the invitation of the Government of Chile the Government of the United States may be enabled fittingly to be represented at the First PanAmerican Scientific Congress, to be held at Santiago, Chile, the first ten days of December, 1908.

The recommendations of this report have my hearty approval, and I hope that the Congress will see fit to make timely provision to enable the Government to respond appropriately to the invitation of the Government of Chile in the sending of delegates to a Congress which can not fail to be of great interest and importance to the governments and peoples of all the American Republics.

THE WHITE HOUSE,

December 21, 1907.

The PRESIDENT:

THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

The Government of Chile has invited the Government of the United States to join in and to be represented by delegates at the

Pan-American Scientific Congress, which is to assemble under its auspices at the capital city of Santiago during the ten days beginning December 1, 1908. The work of the congress will comprehend nine sections, devoted, respectively, to pure and applied mathematics, physical sciences, natural sciences, engineering, medicine and hygiene, anthropology, jurisprudence and sociology, pedagogics, and agriculture and animal industry.

Latin-American Scientific Congresses were held in 1898 at Buenos Aires, in 1901 at Montevideo, and in 1905 at Rio de Janeiro. Growing out of these previous conferences the congress of 1908 will be for the first time Pan-American. It will study and discuss many great subjects in which all the American Republics have in common special interests; and its aim is to bring together the best scientific thought of this hemisphere for the scrutiny of many distinctively American problems and for an interchange of experience and of views which should be of great value to all the nations concerned.

It is therefore eminently appropriate that the United States should be adequately represented at this important First Pan-American Scientific Congress and should embrace this opportunity for cooperation in scientific research with the representatives of the other American Republics. It is worthy of consideration that, in addition to the purely scientific interests to be subserved by such a congress and in addition to the advantages arising from an interchange of thought and the intercourse of the scientific men of the American countries and the good understanding and friendly relations which will be promoted, there are many specific relations arising from the very close intercourse between the United States and many Latin-American countries, incident to our expanding trade, our extending investments, and the construction of the Panama Canal, which make a common understanding and free exchange of opinion upon scientific subjects of great practical importance.

To make our representation possible I have the honor to recommend that the Congress be asked to appropriate the sum of $35,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, to enable the United States to send a number of delegates corresponding to the number of sections into which the congress is to be divided, together with a secretary and disbursing officer, and to pay other necessary expenses.

Inasmuch as it is desired that all communications or scientific works to be presented to the congress be received before September 30, it is much to be hoped that provision for the participation of this Government may be made at an early date and that the appropriation be made immediately available.