St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-09-21
PILLSBURY'S PLAN,
In Which the Big Miller Dis
plays His Usual Adroit-
ness.
A Proposed Investigation to
Which a String Is At
tached.
The Profit Period Limited to
Time Since the English
Purchase,
And He Proposes Only to
Vindicate His Letter to
the Farmers.

HITLER, WIS ToCelVeu ldSG ulgut.
To the Editor of the Globe.
The issue of your paper of the 18th
inst. contains an article entitled
Robbed by a Riug," and emblaZoned
with number of other lurid and glar-
ing headlines in way known to sensa-
tiOnal journalism. In this article are
statements that the elevator and milling
companies OF Minneapolis are joined In
one vast conspiracy to rob the farmers
of this state, the Dakotas, Washington
and Oregon, and to pay them several
cents per bushel less for their wheat
than its fair value to them. You make
upon me personal attack, outrageous,
and teeming with falsehoods and mis-
legged letters of mine, nisrepre-
sent their contents and suppress
the facts and circumstances connected
with their subject matter. You garble
my testimony before the state legislative
committee, and then by unfair comparl.
SONS you seek to make such letters and
evidence contradictory. You have not
been honorable and manly enough to
publish my entire testimony, which, il
published, would explain any apparent
Inconsistencies. You seek to give force
to your attack by the affidavit of a self
confessed criminal, who eXpiated his
offense by serving term in our state
penitentiary. Your entire article of
defamation, according to your own
statement, IS not based on your personals
knowledge, but purely OH the hearsay
statements OF another. which you
claim to have taken from book just
published. Without waiting to investi-
gate the facts or to verify these state
ments, you give them widest currency
through the columns of your paper, and
in this base and cowardly way. seek to
Desmirch the regulations and injure the
characters of your neighborS and the
citizens of your own state. You will
fail in this. Your infamous attack will
be directed back upon your own head.
Not in the courts of law DOR
by public opinion are men con-
victed of grave Offenses by hearSay
evidence. Especially is this true in I
cases, like the present, where the
author of such evidence is man of bad
reputation, and with pretended per-
sOnal grievance against the objects of
his attack. have not seen the book
you refer to. but understand its author
is one G. c. WOlcott, a man of bad repu-
tation in this state and in No. .h Da-
kOta, and who has pretended personal
grievance against me and the elevator
companies | represent. and l know not
how many other men and companies
here in the grain and flour business. A
suit, referred to in your article.
is now pending in the United
States circuit court, brought by
him against the Minneapolis q North
ern Elevator company in which l
am largely interested. A large sum Of
money is demanded in this suit, which
is wholly without merit, and which was
brought by WOlcOtt to eXtort money
FRI fO
with the farmers of this state for few
demagogue politlciaus whose base tool
he has become. 1t has been intimated
from time to time that many of the
statements which now see published
in your article would be brought out ON
this trial. Had we consented to compro-
mise this suit. and submitted to black
mail by paying sum OF money to VOL
colt, his. book. so far as it con-
Germs me, would probably never
have been 1hs heard ardon Of ,nlt 1t was was
suit should be tried before the begin.
ming of th6 present political campaign
Failing in this, Wolcott has evidently
embodied his blackmailing material in .
a book, and sold it out to the Demo-
cratic committee for campaign pur-
poses. You call it powerful cam
paign document" and it must be evil
dent to every voter in the Northwest
that such is the object OF its present
There is also anot her ap-
parent object, which is to furnish to GER
tain grain gamblers on the Chicago
board of trade and elsewhere material
to oppose the present anti option legiS-
Iation pending before congress. The
material of your article, published by
you for such objects, and coming from
such man as WolcOtt, who is inspired
with personal grudge against me and
the elevator companies, will deceive no
voter.
The scandalous character of your
article, so Tar as it affects me, L shall
hereafter answer at proper time and
place. The great length of the article
prevents me from answering its facts in
detail at the present writing. But COM
ing to the core of the whole matter,
what the farmers of this state and the
Northwest should know before election
is whether they have been robbed in the
past, or are being robbed by ring, or
combination of elevator and grain men,
which is preventing them from getting
fair prices for their grain. By your
article you aim either to instruct the
farmers of the Northwest, or to humbug
them. If it is the former, will make
you proposition which will test the
question very quickly so far as our own
elevators and mills are concerned. l
have made the statement, under oath,
that the average net profits of our ele-
vator company for series OF years had
not been more than III per cent on the
amount of business done. This would
not be net profit much exceeding one
cent bushel on the wheat handled
during that time. l have also made the
statement, under oath, that i'll my opin-
ION the flour mills of Minneapolis and
Minnesota have not for several
years made any profits, taking them
all together; and that the net
profits of the mills under my manage
ment have not been over per cent on
the value of their output of flour and
offal, during the past few years. not
Withstanding the fact that our brands
of flour are best known OF any,
and sell at the highest market
prices, and that our mills are equal t1
any in construction and economical
manufacture. Now, if the above state
ments are true, your article is very mis-
leading, and there is not much margin
for robbery by US. Ii your intention is
to be fair, to give the facts, and not to
deceive the people, you should inyesti-
gate and know whether these state
ments are true, and then tell
the people the whole truth and
nothing but the truth. To assist you
in this investigation, will allow any
and all of my manag rs and book