The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-09-21
Again the Question of Grades.

'"There has been considerable excite
ment in the northern part Of the state"
says Chairman Mills, Of the state rail-
road and warehouse commission, cover
the grading Of wheat at the terminals,
Duluth and Minneapolis, owing, as the
commission believe, to some mistake or
misapprehension." The same old au-
tumnal sore breaks out in the same
old spot, and the same old bolus is ap-
piled under the same old diagnosis.
There is to be a meeting Of the COM
mission to hear complaints, to look
wise, to hear Clausen assert again his
annual statement that everything is
lovely in his department, and to event
ually decide that what evils exist 1t
has no power to correct. This has been
the case at the opening of the fall mar
kets ever since the legislature under
took to regulate the business of buying
and selling grain, ostensibly in the in
terest Of the poor farmer" but ac-
tually in that of the middlemen and
the millers. And this will be the case
as long as the socialistic proclivities
Of the Republican party are permitted
to work themselves out in legislation.
farmer and the local buyer are incom-
petent to judge Of the quality and con-
sequent market value Of the grain the
former offers for sale-a simpler matter
than is the reaching Of an agreement
between farmer and stock buyer as to
the value Of cattle-the legislature pro-
Vided for a system of arbitrary grades
and an inspection at terminal points,
upon the arrival there of the grain
which the farmer had sold days or
weeks before at points hundreds Of
miles distant from the point Of inspec-
ton. Could anything be devised more
effective to throw the grain buying
into buyers control? Could a better
method be adopted to weaken prices
in the initial market by creating an ad-
ditional uncertainty there as to what
would be the value Of the grain In the
terminal market? The local buyer
must buy, not wholly on his own 1udg-
ment, but on what may be the iudg-
ment Of an inspector at the terminals.
hundreds Of miles away, with the right
Of appeal, If he thinks himself wrong
ed, to the chief Of the corps Of inspect
ors, whose position naturally inclines
his judgment to the side of his subordi-
mates. The only safeguard the local
buyer has against the possibility or
probability Of a lower grade being CIV
en- his grain at the terminals is to give
1t the lowest possible grade and price.
The farmer grOWls at this; the local
shipper throws the blame on the ter
minal inspectors; the railroad and ware
house commission is duly surprised
and has hearing, and then things
go on in the same old way
The Democrats of the state began
fight against this system years ago.
They insisted that the state should no
more try to regulate grain buying and
selling than hog or cattle, wool or
butter buying; that men must be left
to themselves to protect themselves
and that all attempts, however we'll
meant, to give protection to the seller
from the buyer, other than that given
by the courts Of justice, would jnevi-
tably result, under the influences that
shape legislation, in greater injury to
the persons intended to be nr1factad
Each crop year since has furnished IT'S
demonstration of the accuracy of tbis
position. In 1892 the Democrats made
the grain question leading issue. The
system" had developed conditions loo
ically. Local markets were controlIed
by elevators managed by agents Of