The nonpartisan leader., 1921-09-05

held conferences with grain operators and that
these four men, their attorney and the attorney Of
the department of agriculture held subsequent con-
ferences and finally submitted suggested amend
ments
Now, this is not to suggest that there was any
thing dishonest in Secretary Wallace discussing
the pending Capper-Tincher anti grain gambling
bill with four Of the biggest grain operators in
America, but do think it strange that practically
all their suggested amendments should have been
accepted by Mr.. Wallace and later recommended
by him to the senate committee agriculture,
which adopted them, with the result that the Cap
per-Tincher bill has been made so harmless that
the biggest grain operators in the United States
publicly admit the bill is acceptable and privately
probably hail it with delight.
l have before me as write a tattered, torn and
dirty copy Of the original CapperTincher bill, with
the typewriter amendments made by the four
grain operators, their attorney and the solicitor Of
the department of agriculture. After several con-
ferences these gentlemen agreed upon certain
amendments shown in this copy.
Now, what are these amendments thus agreed
to and how vital are they?
One amendment adds to the provision about the
keeping of memorandum of sales for three years
and longer, the secretary of agriculture shall so
direct, clause which states (which record shall
at all times be open to the inspection of the sec
retary of agriculture and the department of JUS
tice." Now, this looks harmless enough most
jokers do-but find plenty of competent at
torneys, several of them United States senator's
who believe that this clause by implication prevents
the federal trade commission from having access to
these records! If this is true, the grain operators
have won big victory and another nail has been
driven in the coffin of the federal trade commits
sion, one of the few governmental agencies that
have honestly tried to serve the people,
GIVES BIG EXCHANGES
A VIRTUAL MONOPOLY
Another amendment gives such exchanges as the
Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce and Chicago
Board of Trade virtual monopoly of the grain
handling business AS OripinallV written nara
graph A of section provided the secretary of ag-
riculture was directed to designate contract mar
kets when located at a terminal market upon
which cash grain is sold in sufficient volume and
under such conditions fairly to reflect the gem
eral value between the various grades of grain"
The amendment adds, 'and having adequate stor-
age facilities and recognized weighing and inspec-
tion SERVICE" thus confining the Contract mar
kets'' to few well-established centers.
Another amendment is VITAL The original draft
imposed reasonable limitation" upon the total
quantity of grain of the same kind which could be
handled by any operator at one time upon
"open trades" Practically every witness who ap-
peared before the house and senate agricultural
committees agreed that the of unlimited "open
trades was the most common method of manipu-
lating the market. Practically all witnesses agreed
that no legitimate interest would suffer if "open
trades" limited to 100000 bushels at one op-
Grafton. The trend of the testimony stressed this
proposed limitation as one of the really promising
features of the bil which held some hope of check
ing speculation futures and making manipula-
tlon of prices impossible. Yet the amendment
agreed to by Secretary Wallace and adopted by the
senate committee on agriculture struck out all ref
erence to reasonable limitation" and thus emas-
culated the most fundamental feature of the orig
inal bill.
The next amendment was cunning attempt to
nullify the second most important feature of the
original bill, it's provision which forced grain ex-
changes to admit cooperative associations The
proposed amendment inserted the words "nnder the