St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-01-31
THE DEPTH OF INFAMY.

Outrageous as have been the facts
disclosed by the Investigations already
published in the G l 0 b of the opera
lions Of the elevator companies in the
Northwest, there Is g. lower depth Of
tnfamy which is revealed in the let
ter in this mornings issue. There Is
the same old story Of rapacious greed
grasping at the farmers pittance by
low grades, excessive dockage and I'M
fair prices. That condition we may
now fairly regard as universal wher-
ever there Is not active competition by
independent buyers, and where the
farmers crop is not large enough to
warrant him in obtaining cars and
shipping it direct. From end to end
Of this vast Northwest, the small farm
ers are at the mercy Of a monopoly
as pitiless and as constituencies as any
that ever existed in this or any other
country.
We give fair view, however, in this
letter, Of another Of the agencies
through which the elevator companies
are enabled to work their will upon
the helpless producer. The question
has been asked how they can compel
a multitude Of agents throughout the
country to conduct their business for
them upon the principles which their
rapacity has laid down. Any one who
will read the experience of a buyer, as
given by the G l o b this morning.
will understand this, while his blood
will boil with Indignation at the ex-
posture Of a system which makes the
wheat buyer Cypress and wrong the
farmer at the price Of his private char
acter and personal freedom
The elevator company employs a man
to do business for it at one of its local
elevators. 1t requires him to furnish
bond from one of the large indemnity
companies, guaranteeing it against loss
by embezzlement or failure to perform
his duty on his part. The premium
charged for this bond is taken out of
his salary. He then begins the pur-
chase and shipment of wheat for the
company. After time he has notice
from the central station that his grades
and weights have not held out. In other
words. he is told that he has graded
wheat too high and has not taken
sufficient dockage. The result of this is
to bring him out in debt several thou
sand bushels to the elevator company.
On this showing, he is practically a de-
faulter. He can be proceeded against
on his bond, and the outlook to a young
man, IMMERSED in the ways of business.
with possible term in the penitentiary
before him, and his name black-listed
all over the country, is the most
terrifying that could be imagined.
The employer now shows softer
side. He intimates that he does not
believe that the buyer Intentionally de-
frauded the company, and that the
matter will not be pressed if his future
record is satisfactory. This means
that criminal proceedings will not be
taken up provided the agent shows
himself sufficiently complaisant there
after in the matter of grades and
weights and dockage and prices to
bring the elevator company out as
much ahead as it alleged itself to be
behind. This amounts to a virtual or
der to the agent to defraud the farmer
under penalty of being robbed of his
own character and shut out from
honorable occupation for the rest Of his
life. 1t is no wonder that under this
terrific pressure men can be found
who, against their better judgment
and perhaps at heart in sympathy with
the farmer himself, carry out, with
black injustice ranking in their hearts,
the infamous system Of which the
farmer is the victim.
There is nothing in the story Of the
middle ages with It's horrible record
of feudal oppression. there are only a.
few things in the legends Of piracy
and free-booting that are worse than
this. This IS part, and only a part.
Of the infamy by which the farmers
CT the Northwest are compelled to
turn, every year millions of their
hard-earned money inso the Golfers of
wicked monopoly. When the people