St. Paul daily globe., 1891-05-20
THE ALLEGED WHEAT STEAL.
Completion of the Work of the
Committee at Duluth.
Special to the Globe.

Special to the Globe.
DULUTH, May 19.-The wheat investi-
eating committee met this morning at
$3.50 and proceeded at once to business.
Lawyer Erwin was ON hand this time,
and made things quite lively for time.
VI. j. Mullen, boollkeeper for the Union
Improvement and Elevator company.
was the first witness called to the stand,
and Mr.. ChildS proceeded to read to
him his evidence. as already reported.
as ali Introduction to the examination
of the books. This Mr.. Erwin OBJ
Jected to, saying that more time
would be saved by having a couple of
experts appointed to make correct alb
stract of ali the wheat shipments from
Mr.. Rupley's elevator, from 1856 to the
present day. Mr.. Severance wished at
first to confine the examination to the
first three months of the shipping sea-
son of 1889, during which time. accord
wheat stealing is supposed to have taken
place. At this junctgre Mr.. Erwin
made slight diversion, claiming that
as Mr.. Rupley kept those books in
person, and had for obvious reasons re-
fused to testify before the old
committee, and, Furthermore, Wou Id
probably never testify, he thought that
the examination could not be too thor
ough. Mr.. Severance replied, giving
the reasons why Mr.. Rupley refused to
testify, and gave Mr.. Erwin to under
would tell all he knows. 1t was finally
decided, however, to appoint as many
clerks as necessary to make the alb
stracts, and at Mr.. Erwin's suggestion
the elevator companies at West
Superior were included in the reso-
luton, on the ground that they come
properly under Minnesota laws, having
given bonds to the Duluth board of
trade to obey the grain laws of the
state. 1.-The farmers suspect West Su-
perior as well as Duluth" said Mr..
Erwin; land the elevator people over
there are as much interested in clearing
their skirts of any taint of fraud as are
those of Duluth. And, if West Superior
is going to refuse us the right of inves-
tigation, the people of Minnesota want
to know it." Messrs. Geissel, Moore
and Smith were appointed COM
mittee to select clerks and the assistant
attorney general was instructed to visit
the presidents of the Duluth and Great
Northern elevator companies of West
Superior and urge them to allow the in
vestigation OF the books to be extended
over their territory. Mr.. Erwin no
doubt expects to prove by a comparison
of books that several hundred thousand
bushels of wheat were shipped 'out
by the Transit line of steam
erS and was never accounted for.
Swan johnson, who worked in Elevators
3 and ID from 1882 to 1889 as laborer,
loading vessels and unloading cars, was
the only witness examined. His chief
testimony went to show that to his
knowledge there had been no, or at
least little, waste in unloading cars. and
no secrecy about the filling Of boats.
He testified that whatever wheat there
was left in the cars after unloading was
often gathered up by outsiders,
called ''sweepers," and that this
wheat was sold to other parties who
made a business of dealing in it. He
caused sensation by saying that Ario
used to buy it himself and ship it back
into the elevator. Mr.. Erwin's cross
examination of johnson was the work
of an expert. The great lawyer
seemed to have the grain business
learned by heart. He devoted most of
the time 10 drawing out of the witness
the names of the steamer that used to
load at night, and scored big point
by making johnson acknowledge that
they were in many instances transit"
boats. johnson was OH the stand
over an hour, and proved a good
witness, ready with his answers and
never faltering in his testimony. At IL
O'Clock the committee adjourned to
meet at the capitol in st. Paul at 10
O'Clock tomorrow morning