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

/ nour, thus appropriatlng to its own use
| property to which it has no title and on
| which it demands from the farmer
revenue for services has not rendered.
1t has. too, defenders in all the political
| organizations of the Northwest; its paid
| attorneys In the principal towns and
villages, its bestsupporters i'll high Off
cial positions. and it's friends in
| churches and charitable institutions. 1t
has hitherto dominated the politics of
| Minnesota and the two Dakotas, cor
ruptlng many brave and generous men
and degrading by its filthy touch many
OF the brightest minds of this vast en-
| pre- over the industries of which it has
| exercised for years complete control.
The Cabal Of ConspIrators.
The little coterle of able and I'M
scrupulous'men responsible for the con-
| dltlOns of the markets in the Northwest
| has It's headquarters at and near the
Fails of st. Anthony, and is composed
| OF corporation managers and their para
sites. These corporations are partly
graln-buying, partly grain-grinding and
| partly graln-transporting corporations.
| While often conflicting in their inter-
ests and engaging in strife over their
respective pickingS, as against the grain
| growers they are always united. Among
this agg ressive little band of corpora
ton managers and political manipu-
latorS no two men are more conSpicu-
Gus than j. }. Hill and G.. A. Pills
bury. Behind Mr.. Hill is the
Montreal and London railway syn
dicate; back of Mr. Pillsbury
the London milling aggregation of cap
ital. In harmony with and in close
proximity to c. A. Pillsbury and his
milling syndicate is that veteran politi-
clan, foremost citizen and public bene-
factor, noted for his generosity to edu-
1 cational institutions and Republican
campaign committees, j. S. Pillsbury-
Honest John-for six years governor of
Minnesota, and later on chairman of
the Republican eQecuiive committee of
the state.
The power of these men is best Illus
trated by the fact that a number OF cor
porationS, reaching to every railway sta
| ton III the orthWeSt-created by law
exist for the sole purpose of
corralling the wheat, and for the
same purpose the great rail
way corporations have planned for
| years to SO farm out the sidetracks TO
these wheat-buying corporations as to
| enable them to get possession of the
largestShare of the Northwestern crops
| Under the manipulation of these three
men and their confederateS the North
west rested for years in quietude and,
seemingly satisfied. yielded to their
! policies. OF late, however, many think
ing citizens OF the state, regardless of
party afliliation, have become reStive
and dissatisfied. ASffreemen they pro-
| test against the closing of their mark
cts; as citizens, their self-reSpect for
bids their submitting compacently to
a system that seeks to establish uni
form price list and monopoliStic COM
bine of buyers which would take all
the wheat in the country at a price
promulgated by the common agent OF
these unblushing graballs.
The Last Investigations.
1t was to inquire somewhat into the
InSldious workings of this yaulting COM
blne that the Minnesota legislature, at
Its last session, appointed a committee
for the purpose of Investigating this un-
natural condition of the wheat market
and ascertaining all the facts relating
thereto, with view, if possible, of free
ing the markets of the state from the
grasp of this mighty octopus. The COM
mittee consisted of three senators and
four members of the house of represent
atlves. 1t met for organization May 4,
1891, ana next day adjourned to May 16,
continuing thereafter in session until
July 2, except few days in the interim
while the clerks and experts employed
by the committee were examining the
books of the public elevators at Duluth,
$50 miles distant from the court of III
qulry. 10 this latter method of inveSti-
CATION it should be noted that the men
chiefly concerned in the outcome OF this
Trial, to wit, the grain growers, strenu-
ously Y objected. They demanded that
the books of the elevator companies be
examined in the presence of the commit
tee in open session, but, as happened on
numerous other occasions, their requests
perhaps the gentleman who aSpireS to
be attorney general can tell Why-Were
wholly ignored.
July 2, 1891, the committee adjourned
to Jan. 5, 1892, and on that date took
further adjournment to March s, when
it met and continued in session until it's
final adjournment i'll April, when the
majority and minority reports were
made to the governor. As previously
stated, prior to the adjournment of the
legislature in the spring of 1891 a house
committee of five members had by au-
thority of its legislative body, made an
expert investigation, in which a large
amount of testimony was taken relating
to the shipping of wheat to the Duluth
elevators without state inspection and
Contrary TO Law.
As noted above. two reports were the
result of that inquiry, both of which
brought down more qugrry than was
charged to be in sight. The five men,
bers of the first committee were contin-
ued on the joint committee, and the
testimony taken in the first instance
was placed before the increased board
OF inquiry and made part of its record
AT the first meeting of the joint COM
mittee, held May 4, 1891, the grain grow
ers' association asked that w. w.
Erwin. who had been the attorney of
the ASSOCIATION before the original COM
mitee, be retained as the attorney of
the new board. But this request was
refused, and the case was placed in
charge of the attorney generals office.
At the earnest solicitation of the repre-
Sentatives of the grain growers Mr.
Erwin was permitted to appear in the
case as their attorney, while the eIe-
yatorS were represented by Mr.. Sever
ance, of the law firm of Davis, Kellogg
x Severance. Mr.. Grover appeared for
the Great Northern railway, Mr.. McGee
for the Minneapolis IL Northern ele-
Vator and for Frank II. Irons and G.. NJ.
AmSden.
A great amount of documentary evi-
dence was submitted and large num-
Der of witnesses examined. AS already
iioleu, IL. L. BJorgeS testimony was
found to have been tampered with, and
parts Of 1t were missing, which evoked
strong protest from the grain growers.
who asked for the recall Of that witness.
The committee, however, referred the
matter to the assistant attorney general,
who conducted the case. and Mr..
Bjorge waS-not recalled. The public
prosecutor also failed to put Supt. Rup-
ley, of the Lake Superior Elevator com
pany, on the stand, although he had re-
peatedly promised to do so, and in like
manner he let President Graves, of the
same company, escape examination, al
though their testimony, if properly elic-
tied, might have proved of great i'm
portance. AS matter of fact, it was
considered too important to be ever
given away, so the presence of the eX-
speaker of the house and his worthy
colleague was not urged.
what the Committee Discovered.
With this EXPLANATORY Statement the