St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-09-23
WHEAT men BEGIN TO TALK
Minneapolis Grain Dealers Sore Over
the Elevator Steal.
CREDITORS ARE KICKING.
The Feeling Is That There Should Be
Thorough InVestiga-
ton.
The grain dealers and commission


men talked more freely yesterday about
the wheat steal at the Union elevator
than at any time since the matter be-
came public. The feeling that the ex-
posures would injure the chamber and
the grain trade of Minneapolis has here
tofOre served to make these people
rather reticent, but they are beginning
to see that the best way out of it
is to probe the matter to the
bottom and find out who is connected
wi tn it, and then make examples of
them. Most of the grain dealers who
have arrived at this conclusion, severely
criticise the action of the directors of
the elevator company in
The creditors of MOak q Co., who got
left. are very indignant over the
methods pursued by the directors of the
elevator company in letting the whole
matter drop, and the creditors of Harry
S. HOlcOmb, the eX-fOrman of the ele
vator, are in about the same frame
of mind. The opinion is becoming
quite general on Change that the way
this matter has been smothered by the
elevator directors will do more toward
destroying the confidence of outside
shippers in the Minneapolis chamber of
commerce than would the theft of a
hundred times as much wheat as has
been stolen from the elevator company,
if the matter was properly followed up
and every guilty participant punished.
There is no use lodging the NATTER"
said one of the leading grain dealers of
the Northwest toa reporter yesterday,
''the grain interests of this city can
much better afford to pay the losses of
Union Elevator company ten times over
than to allow all the
BIG THIEVES TO ESCAPE,
because they are able to settle, and to
convict only the ones who are without
friends and money and who were the
dupes of the big thieves who go scot
free.
'.Wnat Will became Of the interests of
the men engaged in the grain trade !"
he continued, 'if they do not express
their disapproval of this manner of
disposlng of crime? Why, their inter-
estS will be ruined, for the out
side shippers will consider that this
method of settling with thieves, as in
dorsed by the grain dealers of Mime
apOliS, unless protest against 1T is
made, and every one who has the in
terests of the city as a grain center at
iltdEG SilOulu fOSC lO bliu0 Out
fiat-foOted against any compromise
which permits thieves to escape"
There were very few men on change
yesterday who did not acknowledge that
the tactics pursued by the elevator
directors were seriously injuring the
reputation Of the grain dealers of
Minneapolis, and another matter which
was exciting considerable comment was
the question of leverage" When the
theft of the wheat was first made
public, the elevator people claimed it
was less than 10000 bushels, but when
it began to be rumored about that there
had been an excess of wheat in the ele-
vator, and that this excess amounted to
about A, 900 bushels, the directors then
let up on their charges against the pa
perS that the
AMOUNT OF WHEAT STOLEN
had been greatly exaggerated, and ad-
mitted that the papers were very nearly
correct in the matter. The directors
emphatically deny the statement about
there being an average, and yet Horace
w. Pratt, the vice president Of the COM
pany, stated to GLOBE reporter yes
terday that they had weighed up all the
wheat left in the elevator several
weeks ago, and yet they would
not be able 10 tell how much
wheat had been stolen until they had
followed up every car shipped from the
elevator, and found out what its con-
tents weighed when unloaded. Now if
there was no excess of wheat over and
above the amount credited OH the books,
why is it that these cars are being fol-
lowed up all over Wisconsin. Illinois
and other states, when the amount
stolen might be found by adding the
irba 70 fha Cti
in the elevator, which, according to
Mr.. Pratt, was all wei ghed up sew
eral weeks ago, and then subtracting
the same from the amount weighed into
the elevator. Men who have been in
the elevator business laugh at the idea
of there being no average, and say that
an elevator that can't accumulate wheat
under our present State-Weighing syS-
TEN would have starved to death before
it was in vogue. The grain men who
know that the
CAT IS NOW OUT
of the bag, in regard to this weighing
system being for the benefit of the far
mers, now admit that it is great help
in cheating the farmers, for no matter
how badly the farmer is skinned, If he
kicks, you have got a weight, no matter
how wrong it may be, against which
ors are feeling pretty sore over the way
they are being roasted by the grain
dealers, and so yesterday they prepared
a formal statement for the public. in
which they defend their method of
dealing with the thieves. They also
deny the rumor that there was origin
ally large average in the elevator.
NEW PHASES.
At $50 Yesterday afternoon a secret
meeting of the creditors of Moak d Co.
was held in the directors room at the
chamber of commerce. ii. A. Smith,
representing the assignee, says that the
meeting will probably not result in any
thing definite. He explains that mat
tiers are still in too chaotic state for
the creditors to know or even
ing grain men were present: Charles
A. Pillsbnry, l.. A. Cobb, James T.
Cargill, William Petit, H. w. Pratt, E.
Holmes, Conover & Leavy, W. Bassett,
A. 3. jackson, Croker & Fisk, and a
host of others. When the meeting adj
journed all present refused to say
word as to what had been done. The
elevator company, it seems, has decided
| to release Peterson & Harley from all
financial restitution, and yesterday
morning, at the instance of the
plaintiff, the punishment upon
the funds of the firm on
deposit in the National Bank of Com
merce was dissolved, and Peterson &
Harley will resume business next Mon
day morning Considering this fact in
connection with the declaration of
President Pratt, of the elevator COM
pany, that every guilty party must be
excluded forever hereafter from wheat
operations. it certainly looks as though
Harley was coming ont with clean
skirts.
For Charity's Sake.
At the meeting of the Columbia soci-
ETY. yesterday afternoon 500 was voted