St. Paul daily globe., 1896-03-23
THE ELEVATORS, SIDE.

Fulfilling it's promise to give both
sides a fair and impartial hearing. the
G b publishes this morning a Sc
ries of interviews with representatives
of the principal elevator companies Of
the Northwest. Every company had
offered to it an opportunity to make
such statements as it desired to give
to the public concerning the complaints
that have been made by the farmers
of Minnesota through our columns
Where they avaiIed themselves of this
privilege, their side Of the case is pre-
sented exactly as they gave it. Where
they refused to say anything, that fact
Is stated without comment We have
simply offered the use of our columns
to the elevator people to make such
explanation and reply as they saw fit
to the Indictment framed against them
by the people.
1t is but justice to say that
the gentlemen who talk most freely to
the public this morning offered the un-
restricted access to their books and pa
pers by a representative of the O b e.
We have not attempted to scrutinize
their accounts in detail. for the rea-
son that the difficulties of which the
farmers complain would not find an
explanation there. But we do print the
net results of their operations at GER
tain points, as shown by their books
and fn1'1iChpA hU themselves in
fense against the charges that have
been made against them. AS we prom
ised at the outset, we have offered ev-
cry privilege at our command to both
sides in this inquiry, in order that, as
far as possible, the root of the evil may
be laid bare, and the remedy for the
existing condition of things be sug-
gcsted.
The elevator people claim that, as a
rule, they lose on grades by a comparison
of the state inspection results with the
grades given by their own buyers. They
aver that there is no combine but an
open market. Most of them admit that
the net result of allowances for dock
age is in their favor, though assert
ing that it is not large. They declare
that their profits have been eXaggerat-
diminished since the halcyon days
when there was practically no COM
petition and no law whatever to pro-
tect the seller against the buyers who
r 4I,o VI, l.
that they are obliged to. be satisfied
with the legal margin for handling
grain, and that large portion of their
profit comes from the purchase of
grain at low price in the height OF the
shipping season, which they are able
to store and carry through the winter
and sell in the May market for suf-
ficient advance to much more than pay
interest on the large amount of cap
ital required for the transaction. This
is their side Of the case, in brief, and
we offer it to the study of the public
for what it may be worth.
There ale a few reflections on this
showing which must be made before
we proceed to deal more fully with the
general question of the wheat market
in this state, the laws regulating it.,
and the changes in them that ought to
be accomplished by legislative action.
The most important of these is the fact
that no representative of any elevator
company makes any explanation worth
considering of the host of instances
cited by the Clio b e, giving names
and places, in which farmers have
made from five TO ten cents per bushel
by shipping direct over and above
what was offered to them by the local
elevator. It is no answer to say that
all these statements are false. because
the people know better 1t is no
answer to say that the farmer shipped
q different grade of wheat in one case
from the other. because it was fire.
auently rot only grain from the same
field, but the very same load that fur
nished the comparison. This impor-
tant discrepancy. therefore, remains
without any accounting, and it is elo-