The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-09-23
Some Grain Inspection Questions.

tomorrow afternoon there is to be
mass meeting Of the grain produc-
ers or the Red river valley held in
Moorhead to discuss the topic Of grain
grades. Next Wednesday the grain
ana warehouse commission of the state
| VIII open the doors of it's offices in the
| Endicott block in this city to those
| who wish to discuss the same subject
Inc one body meets at the point Of
irritation, the other at a point adjacent
TO It's cause. The one body will contain
those who know that they are hurt.
the other body, so far as 1t is official.
VIII contain those who confess them
selves surprised that any one is hurt.
Should any compliments come before
| the commission what more can that
| body tell them than what Chairman
| Mills has said in the interview pub
llshed in the Globe: We have the same
OLD rules, the inspecting officers are
| honest; we have instructed them to
| give the shipper the benefit Of any
| doubt; but 1.-The best of men will make
mistakes" and eff our inspectors have
maze any there is an appeal to the
chief deputy, and from him to the COM
mission" What more could any body
! or men ask? When the peasantry of
Burgundy a hundred years ago, asked
| M. de Ia Tour du Pin, the provincial
! governor, for relief he replied: you
want something to eat? Go and Craze;
the grass is just coming up" The re-
| ply Of the commission will not be as
! blunt, but 1t will mean the same. It
| will not be their fault; that is inherent
in the system and in the laws.
! There are some fundamental ques-
lions which some one should submit to
! the Moorhead meeting: Why should
| the state fix grades? Whose is the ben
| eft? Why should the state ordain an
| inspection? For whose benefit is that ?
Are not the farmer who sells and the
local dealer who buys competent to de-
| termine the quality of the grain the
| former offers? Is the farmer not able
! to judge the market value of his grain ?
| Of what benefit to the farmer Is an in
| spection of the grain he has sold and
| been paid for that takes place three
or four hundred miles from his market
and days or weeks after he has sold
1t? These questions drive right to the
heart Of the whole trouble The state.
with the best Of motives, as usual, has
| stepped in between buyer and seller
and attempted to regulate their deal
ings in the interest of the latter Ana.
| as usual, the buyer alert, shrewd, in
f1uential, small in numbers, and, there
fore, capable Of quick organization, has
taken good care that no remedial leg
islatiOn should work disadvantage to
him. Is this not the case? We have
had law after law enacted session after
session.
If the Democrats want state issues
here is one ready made to their hand
1t presents a question Of vital interest
to three-fOurths of the farmers of the
state. It presents one affecting every
citizen, for it involves the right of a
state to interfere with the freedom Of
the citizen in his vocation. The grain
| inspection system is an object lesson
in Republican state socialism gone to
seed. It's planting, culture, growth,
bloom and fruiting can be traced. The
! responsibility is fixed; no Democrat
shares it: it is a piece of pure, una
dulterated Republicanism. And it is
| but one of a dozen other like attempts
in other fields with like results; the
victims bound tighter, the despoiler
strengthened.