The Ladysmith news and Ingram news. [volume] (Ladysmith, Wis.) 1905-1906, 1906-06-30
TO PROBE into
GRAIN TRADE
Interstate Commerce Commission
Under LaFoilette Resolution,
Will Spare None.

Under LaFoilette Resolution,
Will Spare None.
Five specific blows have just been
struck against trusts.
The state unanimsusiy adopted yester-
dav a resolution for an Investigation oy
the interstate commerce commission OF
the connection between railroads and
the gram elevator companies upon the
assertion that carriers were allied with
the elevators to control prices OF gram
and sh piping rates, as agaisnt the gram
producers and the public.
Five members Of the Toledo ice trust,
who fixed a schedule of prices for Ice
in restraint of trade where each SEN
fenced to one years imprisonment and
and S5, coo fine. All were prominent
citizens.
A Missouri court ruled that the Cahil-
Swift Manufacturing company OF ot.
Louis was a member of the plumbers
trust and as such, under the statutes,
which define trust as conspiracy TO
defraud, could not legally collect debt
upon which he had sued.
A forecast of the report to be made
bv the interstate commerce commission
declares that it will hold that the Penn
svlvania and Vanderbilt lines are IN
combine controlling the bituminous coal
industry, with the Pennsylvania supreme
in control.
An announcement is made that with
in ten days or two weeks prosecution
will be begun in Chicago under the Sher-
man antitrust act against the powder
trust, known as the Dupont company.
Washington, June Ex-senator Mel
son of Minnesota came to the relief OF
Senator La Toilette of Wisconsin yes
terday afternoon when the La Toilette
resolution was up, requesting the IN
terstate commerce commission to make
an Investigation of the grain elevators
of the country, to ascertain whether or
not there has been between the ele-
vators and the railways a combination
such as has recently been unearthed
in Pennsylvania between. the coal mines
and the railways.
But for Senator Nelson's help it is
possible that the La Toilette resolution
might have had hard shedding.
The disposition on the repub bican side
of the chamber % sgno1a s3r
FTc1l1Afrs So osfSe
while growing. When he gets up to
talk, the republican senators, with few
exceptions have an uncomfortable de-
sire to take to the cloakrooms, and
while they have voted for some OF his
resolutions and amendments, it has been
with a wry face La Fol9tte is in bad
.odor with his republican associates, and
he does not care if ne is. He counters
on them by voting with the democrats,
and so the breach is widening instead
of growing narrower.
INVESTIGATION IMPORTANT,
Senator Nelson realizes that the inves-
tigation provided for in the La Toilette
resolution of yesterday is important,
and bears with particular force upon
all of the wheat states of the middle
and northwest, and SO he arose in his
place and earnestly seconded La Fol-
1ette's motion that the resolution be
passed. On the test, there was no oppo-
siti0n.
The resolution is not joint resolu-
ton. which would give it the force of
a statute, but simply resolution of the
senate. Being such, it amounts to no
more than request, which the inter-
state commerce commission may ignore,
should it want to do so.
COMMISSION WILL ACT.
But there will be no ignoring of it. The
commission has entered heart and soul
into the Investigations in Philadelphia,
which have shown that there has been
a strong combination between the rail-
roads and the coal and other shippers
of that state, and that, as a result OF
that combination, the general public
and the independent operators and ship
pers have been held by the throat for
years.
The commission, so l am informed,
was consulted regarding the grain ele-
vator business before the La Toilette
resolution was introduced, and ex-
pressed desire to have authority to
proceed along the lines which the reso-
luton marks out. 1t believes it can
show that conditions of affairs SINH
lar to that disclosed in Philadelphia ex-
lists in the wheat states between the
railroads and the elevator proprietors.
This also is Senator Nelson's belief.