Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-01-07
Commerce Commission Reports
Business in the Grip of
a Combine
COMPETITION is sT'FLED
Railroads, Elevators and State Associ-
atoms Charged With Being Mixed in
DeaIs-Farmer is Made to Suffer Be.
Cause of Scope of the Combination
and Its Powers.

the interstate commerce commission,
ness in the middle west and northwest
will be used to back up charges made
by Senator La Toilette, of the exis-
tence of combination, to keep down
prices to the injury Of the farmer. The
combination is alleged to be permeat-
ing in its character, embracing elevator
men, buyers and railways.
The commissions report has been
finished and will be sent to the SEN
ate early this week. It's general char
acter has been learned from unofficial
sources.
The commissions inquiry develops
the fact that the grain elevator men
have working agreements, which 1t Is
charged, amount to pools by which
competition is almost entirely elimtn-
ated. Up to about year ago these
working agreements were In written
form, but fear OF the Sherman anti
trust act has done away with the OPP
en-, written agreement and the combin-
alton is now worked by secret meth
DDS. Often a mere understanding" IL
all that is needed.
State Associations Blamed.
The basis of combination which
squeezes the farmer is the state asso.
citation OF grain dealers. There is such
an association covering Minnesota and
the two Dakotas, another covering ILL.,
nois, and another for Iowa. There
was one in Nebraska, but it was put
out of business by a state law, and in
Kansas the secretary was Jailed for
promoting a trust.
The state associations, the commits
sion finds, have tacit understandings
and are found to work together. Like
wise the elevator men at terminal
points have working agreements with
the association buyers, so that the
grain is pooled. The territory is divided
and the price is regulated by the pool
grain that the share allotted to him, he
to another man In the pool who gets
less. So there is no incentive to over
bid. 1t is the practice for buyers,
says the commission. to secure their
share of the grain, and then to drop
their price, half cent or cent below
the figure of the other man in the COM
bination and let the grain go to him
till he gets his quota.
The independent buyers, 1t Is found,
have been practically driven from the
field. In the country tributary to Min
neapolis it is still the practice for
farmers occasionally to secure a car,
load it themselves and send 1t to mar
ket. But railway favoritism and col
fusion with the elevator interests has
made it more and more difficult for
farmers to secure care for this purpose
and the result is that this check on the
the minimum.
The grain buying business found
by the commission to be con.
itrolled almost entirely by the Ar
mour elevator trust and the eleva-
tors allied with him. The elevator men
in Chicago are the only large buyers Of
grain, all independents having been
practically driven from the field; and
this is in spite Of the fact that there
is law and a standing injunction issued
by a Chicago court against elevator
men owning or dealing in their grain.
A system OF wash sales serves to
eyade the law.
In the country tributary toNthe Santa
Fe road it is found that the railroad
has controlled and practically monop-
olized the grain business. One man
connected with the system, Mr..
Shields, has been given almost auto.
cratic power by the road SO that he
is able to buy and sell grain with fore
knowledge as to reduction in rates. All
private grain business has to go thru
this railroad mans hands, giving him
the inside on the transactions.
The only check on the growth Of this
great monopoly is the erection of a few
grain elevators by farmers co-opera-
tive associations. Humorously enough
the big trust has attacked these in the
Illinois courts as violators of the anti
trust law, but so far has not been able
to make any case hold.