The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-07-03
FARM AND HOME COLUMN.
sWINDLINe IN THE WHEAT WEIGHTS.
Other Topics For Our Agricultural Friends
Large Premiums offered - Keeping
Butter Sweet - Farm and Garden
Notes-summer Desserts, Etc.

posed recently in a dispatch from New
Carlisle, Ind, which says that the Lake
Shore K Michigan Southern railroad, or q
certain set OF its officials, seem to have
been for long time engaged in systematic
and deliberate robbery of the toiling
farmer. BY the free use of false weights
they have been regularly swindling the
grain dealers all along the line of their
road. At this station, and apparently at
every other one on the line, the surplus
grain out of which they have swindled
the farmer accumulates in the warehouses,
and once year the houses are cleaned
out and this surplus is shipped to Toledo.
Sometimes it amounts to nearly a carload.
Who gets this grain or the money for 1t
is question which the road will now
have to answer before the interstate COM
mission. 1t is not believed that the higher
officials Of the road are actually aware Of
what does become of this grain, but the
indications certainly point to guilty
knowledge on the part Of certain officers
of the grain department.
]. B. McComber has been for thirteen
years in the employ of the road. and for
the last seven years agent at this place.
On the 9TH day of this month he was dis
charged. He says that his discharge was
directly due to the fact that he refused to
steal enough grain from the farmers to sat
isfy the railroad company, and the facts,
as far as ascertained, seem to bear out this
story. McComber is man of thirty-two,
of unusual intelligence, with honest,
frank, blue eyes. which look one squarely
tn N them
conviction that he is telling the truth. In
the community here his character is of the
best, and the farmers are unanimous in
according their fullest belief to his story.
"a mans record as an agent depends
entirely on the report of the travelling aud
itOr, whose name is J. 7. Hayden" said
Mr.. McComber. "In 1884 his assistant
fround some fault with the surplus [ re-
turned. l will explain that the surplus is
the grain that accumulates in a warehouse
over and above the amount necessary 10
meet the orders against it and keep the
warehouse clean. The grain is received
in wagon-loads at the foot of the tramway,
dumped into a hopper and hauled up
stairs, where it is weighed on the COM
pany's scales. We give receipts to the
farmer according to the weight there reg
istered. The farmer takes these receipts
to the buyer, and when the latter gets a
lot on hand he ships it, surrendering these
receipts to the agent, together with a ship
ping order on which are entered the num-
bers and weights.
Last year there was a shortage of $500
pounds charged against my elevator. /
have openly accused the elevator manage
ment at Toledo and the travelling auditor
with being dishonest, and have every rea-
son to believe that at the Toledo elevator
they have it in for me, for they don't get
such large corrections at the other sta
TONS If they had not taken so much
from me at Toledo my house would have
shown a surplus. They have taken it out
of me in that way. AS it was, my grain
account when checked up showed a short
age of ,175 pounds.
''Some time last fall, in loading a car of
wheat at the depot. the local freight in
switching came IN on the side track and
carelessly knocked the car from its moor
ings and strewed the wheat all along the
track, where it could not be picked up.
That loss was through the carelessness of
the local freight man. The grain clerk
came here in December and issued re-
ceipt out of my house to fill that shortage.
l consequently had to steal enough wheat
from the farmers to make that up. They
issued that receipt for $40 pounds. Ii it
hadn't been for that / would have come
out ahead 765 pounds.
"At Rolling Prairie, seven miles west of
here, 10,640 pounds of surplus wheat were
found in the agents house when he
cleared out this spring, and | don't think
he shipped as much as l did. Terre
Coupe, a mile and half east OF here, kept
up its Toledo corrections, and gave them
over 5000 bushels surplus"
MIR. McComber produced these Toledo
Corrections" and explained, as shown by
the face of the returns, OF which he had
the duplicates, that on nearly every car he
had shipped to the Toledo elevator a cor
rection was returned to him, showing his
weight short from 200 to 300pounds. That
simply meant that he was short that
amount although his receipts were al
ready issued here for the full weight.
Consequently he virtually had to ship the
grain over again, and in order to get it had
to steal it from the farmers.
Suppose" he said, "for the sake OF ar
gument, that the Toledo corrections at
those two stations would have amounted
to about five thousand pounds. If they
have taken one carload of $4,000 pounds
from these two stations, what have they
taken from the seventv-fve other stations
1t is reasonable to suppose if they have
encouraged these agents to make that
large amount of surplus, they must have
encouraged others to do the same thing
If Rolling Prairie and Terre Coupe have
given them about ten thousand pounds
apiece this year, don't know why it can
not be reasonably expected that they do
so every year. My surplus account in
1884 was $500 pounds; in 1856, 2,4O
pounds; in 1886, 2,ll0 pounds; in 1887,
3,340 pounds; in 1888, 40 pounds. gave
them $3.50 pounds of barley this spring
because did not ship any barley to To-
ledo. If l had shipped barley there l
would not have had any surplus"
Mr.. McComber then produced a flat disc
OF copper, which he said he had taken
from the scales in his elevator. It was on
the scales when he came there in 1882 and
/ had been there ever since. With it on the
scales there was a difference of twelve
pounds on each load against the farmer.
81 know" he said, that these false
weights are in use at other stations on the
line, for L. Ballinger, scale-tester of the
road, told me that he now had several in
his possession which he had taken from
scales along the line"