Year: 1874

3


A clean steal Of $500, 900 per annun. at


Ms1'0aukee alone - Report Of Gen.


West


The following is the report Of COM
mittee to whom was referred bill regu-
hting the elevator business, by the Wis
consin Legislature. 1t shows that after
paying interest on the capital invested,
at the rate Of ten per cent. per annum,
expenses Of working, repairing, and tax
es, it leaves them 100000. Wisconsin
and. Minnesota farmers must of course
foot this bill.


Your committee find that the busi-
ness Of storing grain in bulk in public
warehouses, has in a comparatively re-
cent period of time, grown to be busi.
ness Of vast Importance, alike affecting
our farming, commercial and banking
interests, and in our large commercial
cities assuming great magnitude, over
$4,000 900 bushels having been stored
in Milwaukee the past year.


So suddenly has this business grown
to this great importance, that in this
State no laws have been enacted for reg
ulating the business or protecting the
people in their property. The manage
ment of the property, and the charges
for handling the same being left entirely
to the caprice Of the parties managing
the warehouses, who enjoy complete
monopoly of the whole business.


All the elevators in Milwaukee, with
one small exception, are owned by one
party-the St. Paul Railroad Company
who have steadily refused to let any
one else build additional storehouses on
their track in such manner as to have
any show for competing for the business,
although greater storage capacity has
long been needed and the necessity Of
their erecting more elevators, or of let
ting some one else do it, has been re-
peatedly urged upon them by the cham
ber Of commerce Of Milwaukee.


That it is a very arbitrary monopoly
is shown by their manner Of doing the
business, which we find to be as follows
The grain collected from all parts of the
country, tributary to our commercial CEN
ter, is without the advice OF consent of
the owner, or consi gnee, dumped into
any one Of their elevators that the COM
pany see fit to send it to, it being weighed
in by the interested agents of the eleva-
tor owners, at just such weights as they
see fit to give, and without the owner or
his agent having any opportunity to su-
pervise the weighing, OF to even see it
done.


Upon this weight warehouse receipts
are issued, good for the delivery Of the
grain upon presentation, and the pay
ment Of such charges as the management
may see fit to impose. These receipts
are made the basis Of all purchases and
sales of grain, and they form share of
all collateral security upon which the
banks, both national and private, loan
their money.


That these receip ipts, so far, have been
received with perfect confidence, that the
Grain will be delivered as per the terms
expressed on their face, is due to the fact
that so far the elevators in Milwaukee
have been operated by honest men in
whom the public have perfect confidence,
and not to the effect Of any law giving
the public any assurance that the grain
is actually on hand, as represented by the
receipts, and ready to be delivered on
demand.


Should the management fall into un-
scrupulous hands, unrestrained by law,
as has frequently been-the case in other
states, it can easily be seen that the great
loss of property might be sustained, and
great damage to this class of commerce
ensue in the lacking confidence in the in
tegrity of these receipts.


The committee has not soug ht to amend
the bill so as to relate to the weighing
Of grain and it's security, as under our
rules it might be considered new mat
ter, but have said this on the general
principle in the first section Of the bill
declaring such storehouses public and
subject to the special control of the
State.


The propriety of limiting the rate of
storage is shown by the following facts !:
The present rate charged for storing
grain in Milwaukee, is two cents BUSH
Ell for receiving, delivering and storing
not over twenty days, the rate being the
same whether stored one day or not, to