The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1900-10-31
this IS LIMBS "REF0RM'
:. b. GRAIN INSPECTION
Dapper Hotel Clerk Inspects All the Flax Received
At Minneapolis.
f-norance, Incompetency and INSTRUMENTATION in the
Weighing Department
Some Weighers Are Able to Divide by Sixty. and
Some Are Not.
Governor Linds Statement Disproved by One of His
Own Employees

There is no subject about which
more mis-statements have been made
by the administration speakers, in
Guiding Gov. Lind and his railroad
commission. than the grain inspection
department. And it is also a fact that
while the methods Of inspection have
been discussed to quite an extent, the
weighing department has been over
important az the inspection, for what
profiteth it shipper to gain grade
on car Of grain and lose fifty BUSH
els in weight?
Unfortunately, the work of the
weighing department is so utterly de-
void of merit that il the whole truth
should be told it would hardly be be-
ueved.
Prior to Gov. Lind's administration
the weighers represented every shade
of political opinion. Out of fifty
weighers In the Minneapolis district,
twenty lone could be named who were
not Republicans and did not vote the
80
stance can be found in the whole his
tory of the department where one was
removed on that account.
The first rush of new grain IN the
fall of 1899 found lot Of new and In
experienced weighers. They had all
carried their precincts at Democrat
ic caucus or been delegates to Dem
ocratic convention. This was the prin-
cipal qualification. The reports OF
some Of these new Yeighers were gor.
geous with red-ink corrections. Mis-
takes aggregating 10000 pounds were
frequently made. in. weighing car
load; car numbers were crossed, twist
ed and transposed; complaints OF
shortage were made by shippers, and
general CONSERVATION prevailed. Two
men were taken from the weighing
force and transferred to the inspection
force because they were unable to d.
vide by 60 in reducing the pounds in q
car load to a bushel. AS a result
shippers became vehement In their
denunciation Of the weighing service;
dealers were distrustful or dissatisfied,
and the lack of confidence was SO far
reaching that many shippers Of other
states who had been shipping to this
market began shipping elsewhere.
But, In the face Of all this, Weigh
master O'Brien, whose knowledge Of
the department is confined to political
service rendered and money contrib
uted by each employee, was instructed
to keep chopping off heads until his
assistants were obliged to protest, be-
cause there were no longer old weigh
ers enough to instruct or watch the
new ones!
Gov. Lind and the commission un.
derstood this condition of things, but
those who had rendered political SER
vices had to be rewarded, regardless Of
qualifications.
Not every one can make successful
weigher The business is peculiar. A
good weigher is born, not made. He
must be, first, man Of keen percep-
ton, quick and accurate in figures,
fair mathematician and a good pen
man. He must make reports Of his
work which constitute the basis OF
settlement for the commodity weighed,
and he must have fair knowledge Of
the mechanism of scales and elevat-
ors, in order to know whether or not
ly, he must be on the alert to see that
everything done at the elevator or mill
is just and businesslike, for the inter-
ests Of the shipper are wholly in his
hands. Men past the age of forty
five or fifty, particularly those not ac-
customed to writing or figuring, sell
dom become accurate as weighers, al
though one who becomes a good
weigher at thirty or thirty-five can
continue good weigher until, per-
haps. sixty.
But men continued to be appointed
as weighers who were anywhere from
ffty-fve to sixty-five, and had none
Of the necessary qualifications. Meth
er did old age constitute the only
source Of disqualification. Some were
disqualified for physical reasons and
some by dissipation. But in the face
OF all the disqualifications and in
Competency Of the new men, not one
was removed on that account except
the two men who were unable to di-
vide by so. Weighmaster O'Brien's
disqualification for the position he
holds is so well understood by the rail-
road commission that an outside man
is employed to do the most RESPONSE
BILE part Of his work, heretofore done
by his predecessor. This man and the
deputy supervise all the work, and
Mr.. O'Brien simply devotes his time to
editing his newspaper. The work Of
the office would go on just the same
perhaps better, IL he kept away all the
time. O'Brien. however, attends well
and faithfully to the duties which he
was appointed for-the political du-
| ties.
AS an instance OF the peculiar meth
DDS In vogue, man who had been
weighing for more than year loaded
| scale 80 heavily that there was not
enough scale weights to balance It.
He went to another mill and carried
weights enough from another scale to
| pull the beam down. There have been
other transactions equally ridiculous