The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1919-06-12
AFFIDAVIT IS
PROVEN FALSE
FAMOUS DOCKAGE DEAL OF
OSCAR OPOIEN DENIED BY
AFFIDAVIT

This is a story of a peculiar dock
age deal, which involves a grain eleva-
tor at Driscoll, N. D. a farmer there,
the state grain inspection department,
an affidavit and it's publication in the
/. v. A. dailies.
On April 26th the Fargo Courier
News published a story Of how Oscar
Opoien, of Driscoll, saved himself sos.
by making complaint to j. A. Meow
ern, chief deputy state grain Inspector
as to unjust dockage Of his grain, in
this, that the flax which it contained
was not paid for and the premium,
which was then being paid, was not
paid him. This story was published
throughout the state by farmer news
papers, interested in the case.
On May 9th, the Courier-News re-
ceived a demand for a retraction Of
the story, together with an affidavit
signed by the elevator manager, the
directors and Oscar Opoien, denying
the truth of the story and saying that
no such check was issued for such
purpose. This affidavit was published
by the Grand Forks Herald and the
Fargo Forum as a part of their cam
paign to discredit the Nonpartisan
League and the work Of the state Of
ficials in their efforts to get a square
deal for the grain producer.
On May oath at a meeting of some
200 farmers at Cotton, S. D., Opoien
made the declaration that his first
statement was correct and that he
was "threatened and made to sign a
false statement" This was varified by
the letter files of J. A. McGovern,
chief deputy grain inspector, which
showed the correspondence between
the Driscoll Elevator manager, c. F.:
Cobb, with regard to this dockage and
premium on Mr.. Opoion's grain, in
GLIDING Mr.. Cobb's letter Of May 81,
acknowledging that he had paid Mr..
Opoien the amount due him.
To complete the revelation of the
methods of the opposition to the work
of the state administration in trying
to get a fair deal for farmers in the
sale of their grain, a letter has just
been received from MI Opioen, dated
at Baltic, S. D., where he is visiting,
giving the facts of the deal, which
were denied by the elevator manager
in the affidavit, until pinned down by
his own correspondence with J. A. Nc
Govern. Mr.. Opoien writes:
"I am writing this in regard to my
grain deal at Driscoll, ND. I have
seer this deal published in the papers
before, but it was not sent out to me.
Here it comes right off the bat from
me, so it is no second hand stuff.
IT had 318 bushels Of wheat hauled
to the Equity Grain and Mercantile
elevator at Driscoll about January Is.
I hauled one load to another elevator
man to test out how much flax there
was in my wheat. He tested out S
per cent, but as I had only one load
at this elevator, I did not demand any
pay for the flax that was in it. But
the ,318 bushels that I had at the first
elevator with 5 per cent flax in it,
would be too much to let go for moth
ing. I was docked a Sc and 8 per cent
so I thought I would demand pay for
my flax, and what dockage there was
in my wheat was nothing but flax.
1T went home that day but in a few
DAYS I went in to see what could be
done, but just spent another day chew
ing the rag with the grain buyer.
That's all the good it did me. Finally
I heard they had passed a law at the
last legislatures grain law that pro-
vides that dockage of value shall be
paid for.
$50 I wrote to the grain inspection
department and got an answer from
]. A. McGovern, chief deputy grain in
spector, stating that I should not sell
nv wheat unless I got pay for the
flax in it. If they will not do so, send
me a sample and we will write to
Them So I showed this letter to the
manager. He told me he did not know
how much flax was in my wheat. |
did not have any sample to send and
the only thing I could tell by was the
elevator I hauled the one load to,
which tested out 5 per cent, and it all
came out of the same field. I told him
Il he would cut down the dockage to
2 per cent on all Of it, I would let the
TAX 60 for nothing. He decided to do
this.
ssThat makes a difference Of sixteen
bushels Of wheat. This settles the flax
and dockage deal, and makes $32As
which would have gone for dockage
except for the new state law.
when we came to settle up, he flg.
ured my wheat at the set price O
32.O3 per bushel. The other elevator
was paying $2.22 on the same day. s.
. couple Of days later there was g
elevator meeting ct Aroma. M. Nc.
Govern was there and spoke III hin
1bout tliss elevator paying nne1oNeptal
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