St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-10-17

"Cio auucu W the cOmmlttee ana the
scope OF It's inquiries broadened. 1t is
slgnlfcant that the lieutenant governor
declined to place on this new committee
senator whose appointment was urg-
entity requested by the grain growers:
instead he named man than whom
they could not have selected one less
satisfactory.
The Minority Report.
Right here it might be we'll to intro
duce the deductions made by Z. J.
Moore, chairman of the original house
committee. and author of the minority
report of the joint session submitted to
the governor last spring. He saws .'if
we subtract the $4,000 bushels of spoiled
wheat from the amount of grain which
appears by the books of the Lake Su-
perlor Transit company, and by the
books of the elevator company. and by
the testimony of Arlo in regard to the
shipment, via New Orleans, which
amount to a total of 1868 bushels, it
will leave balance Of 39l, 1906 bushels
of non-inspected wheat taken from the
elevators at Duluth in 1856, which sum
added to the AZ, $50 bushels shipped out
by the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic
railway, the $4,000 bushels shipped by
the Northern Pacific in 1883, ana the
shipped out in cars from Duluth as ap-
pears by the old schedule, it will leave
an aggregate of $50, ,542 bushels of wheat
which has been proved to have been
taken from the elevators at Duluth
without inspection between july 90,
1876, and Jan. l, 1891.
1t is in testimony that the railroad
and warehouse commissioners after
much discussion arrived at the conclu-
sion thatif the elevator companies would
buy outstanding warehouse receipts and
would turn III uncanceled receipts to
cover the spoiled grain and protect the
owners from loss. they should be al
lowed to do it. And that the commits
sion instructed Mr.. Burdick, the chief
deputy inspector at Duluth, that as fast
as the elevator companies turned in to
him uncanceled warehouse receipts he
should permit them to ship out that
amount of grain. Since the elevator
companies have never produced any
evidence before the joint committee as
to how much wheat was in fact bin
burned nor have they produced any
wheat receipts Cancelled under this per
mission, nor have they given any eX-
planation whatever, either of the
amount, character. condition. shipment,
sale or other disposal of the wheat
which receipts might have been can
celed under this condition. they must
be held to the conclusion which is now
compelled by consideration of the tes-
timony, and that is that if there had
been any greater amount than 1000
bushels Of damaged wheat, they would
have placed the evidence. before the
joint committee.
Where Did They Get This vVheata
The question now naturally arises,
how was this 100000 bushels of wheat
accumulated? By what means did 75O,-
600 bushels of wheat belonging to the
producers of Minnesota and the North
west come into possession of the ele-
vatOrS of Duluth? That question can
not now be answered specifically under
the testimony. Whether it came from
short weights or whether it came from
unswept cars, or whether It came
from improper dockage, or whether
it came from not cleaning out dock
age, or whether it came from abstrac-
tiOnS made from grain being shipped
eastward, or whether it came from all
these causes or from causes entirely un-
KNOWN and unSuggested, the testimony
does not now plainly and specifically
disclose. But the testimony does dis
close that there was shipped out from
the elevators of Duluth in the periods
of time cited (and the shipments have
been discovered upon an investigation
of only partial list of the shipments
from Duluth), an amount aggregating
the enormous figure of 100000 bushels,
and this has been done in the presence
of an organized inspection department
by the state; department which had
chief deputy at Duluth, a department
,,,I <~f, 4
warehouse commissioners. department
which has been organized by law and
which is supposed TO work under per-
feet system to protect the rights of the
producers of Minnesota.
1.-The inspection department of the
state, upon being interrogated in the
persons of its chief inspector, chief dep
uty and deputy inspectors. has posi-
lively denied that they ever had any
knowledge whatever of this accumula-
ton or of these illicit shipments at the
time OF said shipments. 1t remains,
therefore, as yet an unsolved PROPOSE
tiol as to whether the inspection de-
partment and the weighing department
of the state of Minnesota have not by
short weights and large dockage per-
mltted this vast accretiOn, or, Oh the
other hand, whether this accretion and
accumulation has not been made in vio-
latiOn of the inspection and weighing
service by the predatory spirit of these
elevator companies"
1t may be noted in passingsthat the
testimony of experts was to tue effect
that full car of screenings would not
weigh over $4,000 pounds, owing to their
bulk. The point was made by the de-
fense that neither Lynch nor Pattinson
had chance to examine all the cars
marked screenings that were loaded at
night and shipped without inspection.
reference, however, to the railroad
books shows that these cars billed as
screenings weighed from 81, 600 to $4,000
pounds. hence could not have been
loaded with other than good wheat, a
piece of testimony that completely
ruins the specious argument advanced
by the attorney for the defense.
Where sfae Responsibility Rests.
While the labors of the committee
were confined principally to an investi-
CATION OF the illicit shipments from the
Duluth elevators, incidentally much
evidence was presented that clearly
proved the existence of that combine
which the Herald has so emphaticallv
denounced. Mr.. Pillsbury's testimony
attempts to lay the blame of the de-
pressed wheat market in Minnesota at
the doors of the Chicago board of trade,
but he fails to show why the prices at
Duluth, which are controlled by the
Minneapolis combine, are six cents low
er than the Chicago market when
freight rates to the Seaboard from Du-
luth and Chicago are practically the
same. The testimony shows that after
Pillsbury buys wheat from the country
he sells it in Chicago, but de-
livers it in Duluth, whence it
IS shipped East. thus gaining the diff
ference III the two markets that should
properly be given the producer, and
which he would get but for the COM
bfne. Another admits in his testimony
that the lower the price for wheat the
greater are the profits accruing to the
elevators. Plenty of evidence is intro
duced proving collusion between rail-
roads and the elevators. some of it SINH
lar in character to that already ex-
posed in the Herald.
An independent wheat buyer at Wa
SEGA named Armstrong testified to the
countless attempts made bv the rail