St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-03-30
THE ILLS OF STATE INSPEC.
TION

/ Our Minneapolis ''ShortS" are having
a very unpleasant experience with this
paternalistie plan of having the state DO
everything for everybody. They have
run afoul of state inspection in Illinois
that is making them not only very hot,
but also very apprehensive of being
caught on the wrong side of the May
deliveries. They have been sending
forward their wheat by the trainload 10
fill their May futures. They had con-
tracted to send No. northern, end had
guaranteed deliveries to be up to grade.
The amount they have to deliver is eSti-
mated to be about 100000 bushels.
They have emptied their elevators. had
the grain inspected out by the Mime
sofa inspectors, who graded it No. l
northern, and when it reached the Chi
cago inspectors it was pretty much all
thrown out as not up to grade. OF one
lot of fifty cars only five passed; of an
other lot of twelve cars only four
passed, ana the Minneapolis operators
are in the doleful dumps.
Illinois has state inspection. as we
have. Gov. ALTGELD has recently APP
pointed a new chief Inspector. He is
probably trying to do his duty, but, of
course, the Minneapolis shorts assert
that there is lots of politics in the in
spectiOn; that the new inspector is
Democrat, and that the bull interests
are Democrats, and that the inspector
is protecting his fellow partiSanS. The
probabilities, however. are that, like all
new brOoms, he is sweeping clean, and
doing his duty as well as human Judg
ment can. There is no bull without
bear, and vice versa; and both are
watching him. doubtless both trying to
get the better of the inspection. and all
he can do between these TWO opposing
forces is to do what he thinks is right,
no matter whom it hits.
Our Minneapolis shorts are getting at
Chicago what they have been giving the
country dealers of this state for years,
ana against which there have been I'M
availing protests. Instances without
number have occurred of country ship
pers complaining of lowered grade or
short weight, being met with state
weighmaSter's and inspectors certif-
Gates, and silenced by them. OF course
this does not justify the Chicago counter
dose, if there is any, but it only illus
trateS the useleSSness of a state system
OF weighing ana inspecting which binds
no one. is conclusive of nothing, and
only operates to add another to the
usual and inevitable uncertainties of
the market. No mans judgment is in
faliible; there is no absolute test to
which grain can be brought to de-
termine finally its quality; in the
nature of things there can be
none, and 1t is, after all, only question
of the accuracy of some mans guess.
In the present case it only operates to
inJure. because the bulls fall back on
their contracts, which stipulate that the
grain offered in fulfilm ent of the con-
tracts shall pass the state inspection
there. That makes it finality, and if
the inspector errs, either through mis-
takes of judgment or through corrup-
ton, the result is the same to the ship
pers. Were there no inspection, the
arbitration boards or the courts would
settle the question of the sufficiency of
the grain TO comply with the contracts.
1t only adds another to the many Illus
tratiOns of the Democratic belief that
the state should keep its hands off the
private affairs of men and leave them to
adjust their differences themselves.