The Bemidji pioneer., 1900-10-25
lnce, Incompetency and Insubordin;
Weighing Department.
" Veiqhers Are Able to Divide by Sixty, and
G....a N - nj ~

There is no subject about which
more 1nis-statements have been MADE
! by the administration speakers, m
cluding Gov. Lind and his railroad
commission, than the grain Inspection
department. And II is also fact that that
while the methods Of inspection have
been discussed TO quite an extent, tns
weighing department has been over
looked. This department Is just as
important as the inspection, for what
profiteth it a shipper to gain grade
Il on. a car Of grain and lose fifty BUSH
els in weight?
Unfortunately. the work Of tne
weighing department is so utterly de-
void Of merit that If the whole truth
should be told it would hardly be be-
lieyed.
Prior to Gov. Lind's administration
the weighers represented every snaoe
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
Republican ticket; yet not an IN
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 a lot of new and IN
experienced weighers. They had all
carried their precincts at a Democrat. 4.
ic caucus or been delegates to Dem 4
ocratic convention. This was the prirl-.
cipal qualification. The reports OF
some Of these new weighers We're gor.;5
geous with red-ink corrections. Mis-
takes aggregating 10000 pounds We're
frequently made in Weighing a 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 70 dl-
vide by 60 in reducing the pounds in a
car load to a busheE AS 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 employe, 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. III
Not every one can make a successful
weigher. The business is peculiar.
good weigher is born, not made. He
must be, first, a man Of keen percep-
tion, quick and accurate in figures. a
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 a fair knowledge OF
the mechanism Of scales and eaevat-
ors, in order to know whether or not
they are working properly; and, last
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-fye can
continue a good weigher until, per-
haps, sixty.
But men continued to be appointed
as weighers who We're anywhere from
fifty-five to sixty-five, and had none
Of the necessary qualifications. Neith-
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 GO. Weighmaster O'Brien's
disqualification for the position he
holds is SO well understood by the rail-
road commission that an outside man
Is GI1plOyHu 10 uO Lie AlaooS = tCSPSiAs'i7
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. If 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, q man who had been
weighing for more than a year loaded
scale 80 heavily that there was not
enough scale weights to balance 1t.
He went to another mill and carried
weights enough from another scale to
pull the beam down. There have been
other transactions equally ridiculous.
The worst criticism that can be