St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-01-31
SLAVES Of THE RING
Continued From First Page.

Continued From First Page.
thousands of dollars. The company
does not send him the state inspection
and weighing certificate, but their own
reports, and he must accept these as
authentic. He may apply to the state
inspection department for information,
as did one of the buyers at Argyle,
but instead Of receiving what he asked
For is referred to the company en-
ploying him for their version.
MIR. CRONKHITES EXPERIENCE.
State Senator John L. Cronkhite, Of
Argyle, has had experience both as a
buyer and as producer and seller Of
grain. During the season of 'SS or 'S9
MI. Cronkhite bought grain for the
minneapolis & Northern Elevator COM
pany. He said his experience had been
properly termed by the G o b as vas
salage. He had felt the lash and knew
SO well the conditions under which the
buyers for the line companies worked
that he thought the blame should not
be laid at their door. His experience
with the wheat barons in the capacity
OF buyer is undoubtedly a fair sample
OF what the agent is compelled to do
In the first place was placed under
a contract which required me to
guarantee weights and grades at
terminals" said Mr.. Cronkhite "Then
l was bonded by the Fidelity 6,
Casualty company, of New York, and
this bond guaranteed my honesty, also
that l would make good any losses in
weights and grades. The $40 premium
for the bond of $4,000 was paid by the
elevator company, and deducted from
my salary. Although the house was
only kept open between four and five
months, the premium for year was
charged against my salary and there
was no rebate when my term of SER
vice terminated. From the letters Of
instruction I received from the com
pany thought must be losing money
Tor them. With the returns from al
most every car come complaints that
my weights did not hold out and that
the wheat fell behind On grades and
the dockage was too light / was
young then and these letters frighten-
ed me when 1 thought of the contract
plnd1ng me to guarantee the weights
and grades, and the bond of the surety
company. In order to have come out
even there would have been but one
way out and that to steal from the
farmer by cheating him on weights
and grades. l did not know what to
expect, but knew 1 would be ruined
II the company insisted upon the full
nliment of the contract. l had no pos
slble chance Of defending myself for I
never received with the returns from
the company a state inspection or
weighing certificate All that 7 had
was the word of the officials Of the
company that was short / 200 bushels
In weight and behind on grades on
o,OoO bushels Of wheat. I demanded
a statement, but it never came.
neither was there ever a request for
the payment Of a single cent. Some
time afterwards one Of the leading
officials Of the elevator company told
a friend Of mine, who had asked him
now L came out, that 'Cronk was all
right with the company, but they ad-
Justed the reports to scare him and
Keep him in line
THE IRONCLAD CONTRACT
the agent of an elevator company is
compeiied to sign is one of the most
damnable instruments I ever read He
cannot get behind the returns fur
nlshed by the elevator companies, and
they nave 1t In their power, under the
Terms OF these contracts, to- compel
MIN TO steal from the farmers or to be
guilty of embezZlement from the com
pany. He between the, devil and
the deep sea, and naturally prefers
Steal!ng from the farmer because he
mas little chance of catching him in
the act or Of proving it If he does catch
MIN. 1t Is not SO with the company
Iof they use the contract, with the bond
attachment, as a lever to compel the
agent to take it out Of the farmer. An
other way the farmer is given the worst
OF 1T Is in the changes in the markets.
II the prices drop the agent is notified
ny WIRE put II they advance the quota
lions usually arrive by mall -.
we had a hard time at Argyle dur
ing the blockade and wheat was piled
everywhere. Finally when the cars
came they were taken possession of by
the farmers, whether the officials liked
II or not, for they wanted to ship their
wheat direct, whenever they could get
cars: The line houses gave whatever
grades they saw fit and made the ex-
cuse that they had no bins for No.
hard, No. northern or No. 2 northern
This left the market open only for No.
and rejected wheat. This drove the
farmers to Independent shipping, and
When they were able to get the cars the
elevator companies found that they
had bins for the higher grades.
MY experience with my own wheat
was like that Of hundreds of other
farmers. 1 had 1000 bushels grown on
one farm and it varied very little in
quality. When 1 wanted to sell it the
local buyers would offer nothing better
than No. and one and a half pounds
dockage. / knew / could do better bv
shipping direct. The first SHIPMENT
saved me seven cents a bushel over the
price offered by the agents of the bar
ons. The grade at the terminal was
NO. northern, and the dockage one
pound; then l saved the two cents
bushel handling charges and got full
weight. The next shipment two cars,
the wheat graded No. 1 northern, and
with the same saving on dockage and
handling charges made the gain about
eight cents. The third shipment was
three cars, which graded No. 8. but
when sold by sample netted within one
cent of the price Of No. 1 northern, and
the increase was seven cents a bushel
over the local market. The last car
shipped graded No. l northern at Min
neapolis and the dockage was one
pound. 1t sold at 81 cents and netted
me 401A cents, which was AZ cents
above the price for No. 1 northern at
Argyle on the day of the sale and 6h
cents above the price I could have OBJ
tanned there because of the crowding
down of grades. This was when the
market was comparatively free, and
you can judge how it would have been
had not the business men and others
made their protests felt
H. L. MELGAARD,
president Of the Bank of Argyle. Is
also the owner Of several farms, and is
in a position to know what transpires
in the wheat market, If any one is.
Ringins Brothers cropped some of Mr..
Melgaard's land, and on five carloads