In the spring of 1918 a pile of sacked wheat at a grain platform at Pauline, bought the fall before and still waiting to be hauled, became a political quarrel. The Nonpartisan League, a farmers' political organization, took the pile's spoiling to Herbert Hoover and into its own papers, as our earlier post on the Pauline wheat pile tells. That post found the other side only as the League quoted it. The Pocatello Tribune gives that other side in its own words, in two reports a month apart that do not agree with each other.
"Some controversy has developed"
The Pauline column of the American Falls Press had already noticed the trouble. On March 29 it reported "lots of grain spoiling at the Zuring platform due to stormy weather," with sacks rotting and grain spilling on the ground.
On May 2 the Tribune took up the story under the headline "Orders Grain Moved From Arbon Valley." Its account was plain:
It is stated that approximately 20,000 bushels remained at that point throughout the winter, and without particular shelter, in consequence of which a considerable quantity of it spoiled, and had to be used for hog feed, which raised some dissention at a period when there is strong demand for the conservation of wheat. No wilful negligence is apparent in the situation.
The grain corporation of the federal Food Administration had looked into the matter in mid-April, the paper said, and MacAlpine, the local government agent, was investigating further. In April he had taken it up with Zaring Brothers of American Falls, who had bought the wheat for the American Falls Milling company. Both firms said the grain was moving as fast as the mill could take it, and speedy handling was guaranteed. In letters received on April 22, the paper said, MacAlpine "took the agencies to task," and he had been assured that the wheat would be handled with every available facility.
The same report said that Ray McKaig, field secretary of the Nonpartisan League, and C. Theuson, an organizer, had spent several days in the valley signing up members and photographing the wheat. The Tribune supposed the photographs were meant as propaganda for the League's plan of state-built warehouses. It printed McKaig's telegram to Hoover, which placed the pile "near Pauline, Arbon Valley," and said he had sent it without knowing that government men had been at work on the case for weeks.
"Rank fiction"
A month later the paper's tone had changed. On June 3, after the League's Idaho Leader had printed its story, the Tribune answered with "Arbon Grain Not Damaged in the Least." It said that valley people were "naturally much incensed" at the charge. It also said that the president of the League's own local in the valley, "a Mr. Saulsbury," had denied it at the time. Several Power County citizens and the government grain agents had looked at the pile, it said, and found all of the grain in fine shape and marketable. Even the few sacks "sweating under the weight" could be used. The wheat, which it put at 20,000 bushels, was being hauled as fast as possible, and the hauling was being finished up.
The Tribune wrote as an advocate too. It called the League's story propaganda meant for "coddling the credulous," and it reminded readers that several League officers had been indicted for disloyalty.
What the papers leave open
The two Tribune reports cannot both be right. On May 2 the paper said a considerable quantity had spoiled and gone for hog feed. On June 3 it said there had been no wastage from exposure and that all the grain was sound. The May 2 report credited the damage only to an unnamed grain agent, in its subheading "Grain Agent Says Some Wheat Damaged by Exposure During Winter," and the June article does not name the citizens who inspected the pile. The hauling was not finished in early June, either: on August 13 the Press reported that Fred Hochbaum had just brought "the last load of 1917 wheat from the Zaring platform at Pauline" to the Michaud siding.
The Tribune gave Mr. Saulsbury no first name or initials. He was probably H. M. Saulsbury, also spelled Saulsberry, of Pauline. In April 1918 Mrs. H. M. Saulsbury sold Liberty bonds for Pauline, and in May H. M. Saulsbury spoke at the Red Cross war-fund night at the Arbon Central school. If the identification is right, the League had a local in the valley with a Pauline man at its head, and by the Tribune's account that man denied the charge his own League's field secretary had carried to Hoover. The Press of April 30 seems to have noted a Nonpartisan meeting at the Central school, though the scanned text there is damaged. Two years later Pauline voted the League ticket.
On this site: the Pauline wheat pile and the Nonpartisan League, the 1918 wheat haul, H. M. Saulsberry of Pauline, the first grain warehouse and the Pauline and West Fork history.
The article as printed
Pocatello Tribune, June 3, 1918, page 2. Transcribed from the page scan. The printer's spellings "McHaig" (for McKaig), "Thuesoh" (for Theuson), "repudited," "sttement," "demonstration," "sitizens" and "us" (for "as") are kept as printed.
ARBON GRAIN NOT DAMAGED IN THE LEAST
Report by Nonpartisan Organ Shown Up as Rank Fiction.
A short time ago a couple of representatives of the Non-Partisan league, which is operating extensively and endeavoring to build a third political party in Idaho during war times, and working on the bases of playing on what may be construed us a sort of sentiment interesting to farmers, on the public warehouse plan—built at public expense—drifted over into the Arbon valley to spread the propaganda.
As chronicled at the time the two representatives, Messrs McHaig and Thuesoh, organizers, took a number of photos of what was represented as grain that had been ruined by careless exposure to the elements, the theory of the careful photographing, of course, being an argument to reinforce the agitation in favor of state construction of warehouses for storage.
The people of the Arbon valley section were naturally much incensed at the statement of the Non-Partisan factors, and the president of the local over in that basin, a Mr. Saulsbury repudited the sttement at the time. The organizers in the meantime sought all sorts of publicity on the matter, and even wired Food Administrator Hoover and others, and after all affairs were checked up, and as intimated at the time the government agents in this section had full knowledge of the grain supply, which was estimated at 20,000 bushels, and several investigations demonstration that there was no wastage because of exposure and the stored quantity was being hauled as quickly as possible, and is being finished up at the present time.
For the purpose of furthering the Non-Partisan league propaganda, the official league organ, the Idaho Leader, carried a story inspired to induce farmers to believe that the grain had been neglected and permitted to rot for the purpose of coddling the credulous into fathering the partisan ideas of the Non-Partisan league, several officers of which have been indicted for disloyalty.
With this in mind, and taking the rather vigorous statement of the president of the Non-Partisan unit of Arbon valley, in repudiation of the charge, several sitizens of Power county made a personal investigation as did the government grain agents, and the assertion that thousands of bushels of grain had been ruined because of neglect is shown up as incorrect, and the statement of the Non-Partisan league organizers is not borne out. The grain was all found in fine shape and marketable, and even the few sacks naturally sweating under the weight were found usable.
The story as presented by the league organ had no basic foundation save for the purpose of questionable propaganda on a political basis, and the claims as presented are denied by Arbon valley people, as well as by fully competent authority that investigated the situation before the organizers found a theme for agitation.