St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-10-10
How the Combine Tried to
Crush the Independent
Buyers at Meirose.
Farmers We're Hauling Their
Wheat Twenty-Five Miles
at the Time
In Order to Get the Two or
Three Cents Per Bushel
Increased Price.
Having No Evidence to Offer.
the Combine Goes Gun
ming for Woleott.
"Wolcott is a liar. !"
"Wolcott is a blackmailer."

"Wolcott is liar"
"Wolcott is blackmailer."
"Pillsbury has been elected president
of the Minneapolis chamber of COM
merce."
"There is no wheat combine, and the
state railway commission is all right"
With such silly and absurd cries as
these have the Republican managers
and the party organs tried to break the
force of the damaging mass of teSti-
mony that has been brought out against
the great elevator and railroad COM
blne against the wheat growers of the
state. Neither the party organs nor
the managers have dared to meet these
charges fairly and honorably. Both
are seeking to deceive and mislead the
farmer this year as they have done in
the past.
But they will fail. The farmers of
the state know how they have been
dealt with in the past, and they pro-
pose to have change. They want the
old barnacles that have been hanging
years removed, and their places filled
with men who will not only enforce the
laws now on the statute books, but who
will also see that the new laws that
will be passed at tho coming session Of
the state legislature for the relief of the
producers of Minnesota are carried out.
The evidence that has been furnished
the people on this wheat question al
ready is sufficient to damn the Repub-
lican leaders and managers in this state
forever and day, but it is by no means
exhausted. The wheat robbers have
been in the business so long that they
have left their tracks In all parts of
Minnesota and the Dakoras. The Chi
cago Herald correspondent has just
come across ew case that illustrates
how nicely the railroads and the elevat-
ors work together. This case, fortn-
nately, has been heard OF by the people
of the state before. aud the facts are
not entirely new, although the letter of
P. 2. Shelby, of the Great Northern, is.
The story follows:
How They Work 1t.
"That the railroads lend all their
nightly power to aid the elevator and
milling combination in its unjust acts of
tyranny is unquestioned. Equally cuI-
pable in this respect are the Great
Northern, the Northern Pacific and
sanity Mr.. Washburn's 500 line. The
first evidence of this unholy alliance
was unearthed at Melrose, Minn., a sta
ton about 100 miles north Of Minneapo-
lis, on the Great Northern railroad. Mel
rose is said to be one Of the best wheat
markets in that portion of the state, the
buyers there, all Of whom are 'inde-
pendent being credited with paying
the very highest prices. The buyers
are all well off financially, so that the
list elevators long ago ceased to do bus
mess at that point, finding it impossible
to down the sturdy Germans who dared
compete with them.
Last year, however, the buyers ran
the price of grain up so high that farm
ers within radius OF twenty-five miles
Hauled Their Wheat to EEeirose,
utterly ignoring stations on the North
ern Pacific road, some ten miles from
Melrose, to whose territory they were
naturally tributary. AT Sauk Center,
where there are several line elevators,
the receipts fell Off amazingly, in con-
sequence of which combined ''kick"
from the Northern Pacific people and
the line elevators was sent in to the
manager of the Great Northern rail-
road, In which complaint he was re-
quested to apply the thumb-screw to
the disturbing element at Melrose. 1t
should be stated that Melrose is wholly
at the mercy of the Great Northern,
there being only one railroad at that
point.
Shortly after this vigorous protest
from the allied powers was sent in, the
independent wheat buyers at Melrose
OQn t,-a{f flo
manager of the road, all of the same
tenor, and of which the one given below
is faithful copy. 1t issues from the
general traffic managers Office and
reads as follows:
Reduce Your Prices.
ST. PAUL, Mimi, Oct. II. 1S91.-G.
NJ. Kolb, Esq. Meirose, Minn. Dear
Sir: For some days past you have been
paying one and two cents above the
market price for wheat. due, believe,
to the fact that the buyers on the 500
line at Belgrade and Lintonville were
paying above the market price This dis
turbance at Melrose has aroused the
Northern Pacific people. and they in
formed US that II 1t is not stopped they
will at once advance the price at Sauk
Center, as they do not propose to have
wheat leave them for some other point.
l am this morning advised that the
situation at Belgrade will be adjusted
today. l would, therefore, request that
you reduce your prices to list, other
wise this trouble will spread. have
written to other elevator interests at
your point on this same subject. Yours
truly, P. P. SHELBY,
General Traffic Manager.
Buyers Were Coerced.
To this cheeky request the very lnde-
pendent buyers at Melrose paid no at
tention, justly considering they had that
same right accorded 20 all American
citizens to do what they pleased with
their own money, and to pay any price
they chose for wheat, corn, oats, eIe-
plants or circus horses. But they found
they were in grievOus error. In a day
or so along came special envoy from
the Great Northern road of the name of
Pea body, who called meeting of the
wheat buyers and gave them to under
stand that if they did not conform
strictly to the list price as suggested by
Traffic Manager Shelby no cars would
be furnished them by the road.
Naturally this impudent threat, COM
ing at q time when their elevators were
full, produced great commotion among
the grain buyers. Indignation meetings
were held at which the Great Northern
railroad was freely denounced and its
officers severely censured. "Can this
great common CARRIER" they argued.
''rob the individual buyer of this village
of his liberty to purchase wheat in an
open market. and can it establish the
price he must pay? Can it compel the
buyer to eonform to its notions by a