St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-09-08
STORY Of 4 GREAT CRIME.
How the Minnesota Farmer Is Robbed Every Day
by the System Created by Repub-
lican Rule.
every Wheat Grower Pillaged by the Most Rapa-
cious, Merciless and Powerful Combi-
nation in Existence.
Railroads Leagued With Elevators to Plumber the
Farmer of Share of Every Bushel
of Wheat Sold.
Prices for Wheat Arbitrarily Fixed and Independ-
ent Buyers Brbed or Forced Out of
Competition.
The Little Brass Kettle Cooked by the Thievish
Combination to Help Rob the Farmer
of His Rights.

grain, the milers' association devIseu,
and farmer legislature, under the de-
fusion that they were providing them
selves with a protective measure. en-
acted the grain laws of the state.
The commission created by it was
given power to fix grades of grain.
Grades are hard, fixed. arbitrary
divisions OF grain by quality. They
abolish consideration of the actual quail
ity of the grain. If it does not fulfill the
requirements for one grade in all re-
spectS it falls to the grade below al
though, for milling purposes, it is worth
very nearly the price of the higher
grade. AS the price difference between
grades averages about five cents, the in
ducement to the buyer is to undererade.
That this is done the ''numberlesS COM
plants" filed with the chief grain in
spector is ample proof.
The next step is to secure uniform
prices for the various grades. Competi-
ton might result if this were not doue.
So central office is established. having
exclusive charge and control of the
prices to be paid. Nominally board is
! supposed to meet after each days
| change and decide what shall be the
prices for the next day, but in fact one
man, the head of this bureau of prices,
| just now occupied by Frank Irons,
makes the prices and wires them out to
! all the elevators in the systems. In
order that there MAY be no mistake from
| which even little competition might re-
! suit, each agent at any station at which
| there is more than one elevator, is re-
! quired to show his price telegram 10 the
! others and to see that it agrees with
them. These are called the list
=, prices. The local agents are not per-
mltted 70 go out OH the streets to buy.
| This might provoke that horrid compe-
| tItion which the whole system is de-
vised to get rid of. They are ordered
/ to sit in their elevators and let the
farmer come to them. They cannot
make an offer for the grain until the
! farmer has driven his load up to the
| door.
Farmers are notional lot and are apt
! to get prejudice against one buyer or
Partially for another which results in
one elevator getting more or less than
! lis share Of the traffic When this oc-
! ours steps are taken to discourage the
! favoritism and to drive the grain to the
! unpopular elevator or other meaDs are
| taken TO eQualiZe the matter.
| Once in while the diSsatiS faction of
! the farmer gets to Il pitch which leads
some man to think that he can go on
the market and buy in opposition to the
| elevators. This Will not do at ALL 1t is
| competition. Sometimes he is bought
| off, as i'll the case of Stowe at Wadena.
| suit is DOW pending in the United
| States court to recover on contract
made with one buyer by which an ele-
yator company agreed to pay him So
! 600 year for five years not 10 buy.
! Sometimes he is crowded out by rise in
| prices which he cannot meet. Sometimes
the railroad partner is brought to use
| his power to silence the competing
| buyer. Several instances of this are on
| record. The most noted was that in
which the Nelson Union Store company
defied the mandate of irons and paid
i above list for wheat Mr.. Shelby,
| the general traffic manager of the Great
| Northern, Oh whose line Nelson is.
wrote lie store company that it was
creating disturbance: that other buy
erS were threatening to meet its prices.
and that Il must therefore request you
ular market price before the
trouble Spreads" The Great Northern
made clerk of Mr.. Shelby's the scape
goat for this bad break when the matter
was Investigated, but the fact is that il
was authorized by Mr. Shelby, who
when called down for it 10y his superior
the president OF the road told him thai
it was precisely in line with the polio,
of that road and what had been done
before. The real and only trouble wa:
that this letter was published. If sucl
requests fail hlndrances of all kinds are
put i'll the way Of the track buyers,
as they are termed; cars are denied Of
insuiiciently supplied, and so on.
Having thus secured themselve.
against competition from within ane
without, the combine is at liberty t,
turn its attention to ShearIng the Lambs
it has thus securely penned UP. Rank
ing first in the methods adopted is til,
systematic depreciation of the price O
our wheat abroad. The elevators insis
that they pay the Liverpool price. les
freIghts, insurance and commissions
Perhaps they do, but the price of GU
) wheat in Liverpool is manip
ulated by them. 1t is done il
this way. Our No. hard i
the best wheat the world produces
1t makes the choicest flour. None of i
ever gets to Liverpool. The milling
partners in the combine control the sup
: ply and secure the best. The mills ge
that. The rest and the lower grade:
are mixed with the softer and poorer
qualities from other states before shin
lnent abroad and it is these lowe,
grades that make the Liverpool prices
Our skin grades are their best. anC
the price there of our poorest is used te
make the price of our best at home
Meanwhile the miller partners find
thei. profit in the higher prices of theil
-four.
Another source of profit is the use OF
the tester, or the little brass kettle. "
used by the agent to make the grade OF
the grain offered for sale. Its scale is
graded so that each ounce represents a
pound. OStensibly it is labor-savlne
device; actually it is we'll devised
means OF reducing grades. A little
practice will enable any one to
to make from the same wheat as
many as four different grades. With
an average of 5 cents between grades
the profit in the little brass kettle" to
the elevators IS evident. Long ago the
frauds had become so great that bill
was introduced in and passed the Iegis
lature requiring the use of half bushel
for a tester, but 1t was vetoed by Re.
publican governor who was also a
miller.
All these advantages do not yield
profits enough to satisfy the rapacity OF
the combine. They virtually compel
their agents to resort to other means OF
filching from the farmer. They do not
direct him to, but they compel him to-
The method IS this. Each agent is
obliged to give a bond, conditioned
among other things, to make good any
shortage in his purchases of grain by
reason of insufficient weight, dockage OF
grade. He Is also told that if at the
end of the crop year, ON the cleanup y
his elevator shows an ''average''-that