The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, June 8, 1916, Page 7

HY should a great organiza- tion like the. Chamber of : - Commerce of Minneapolis wish to eliminate the com- petition of a farmers’ cooperative marketing institution like the Equity . Cooperative - exchange? Why - should thousands of 'dollars be spent to fight this farmers’ organization in the courts ‘and through the gang newspapers? t.VVhy should the services of expensive i legal talent be retained and the finan- ' cial aid of Big Business men and public officials enlisted to put this farmers’ co- operative exchange out of business? These questjons can best be answered by George S. Loftus, former sales man- ager of the Equity exchange and one of the men chiefly responsible for building it up. The following quotations from Mr. .Loftus are taken from his sworn testimony . in court -during the legal attacks on the Equity. “Prior to the time that the Equity Cooperative exchange opened its office at Minneapolis there was no organiza- tion there for the marketing of grain at the terminals except the Chamber of Commerce. Since the establishment of the Equity, of course, there is now a medium for marketing grain outside of the Chamber, and its monopoly has been broken. = “Before the Equity came it was the practice of the members of the Minne- apolis Chamber of Commerce to exact a charge of $1.50 per car on every car of grain arriving "at Minneapolis. This was a charge for switching and it was made on all cars, although a great many cars were delivered to the mils, elevat- ors and to side-track industries on wkich the railroad made no switching charge. The Chamber members, however, made this charge regardless of whether or not there was any actual switching by the railroad, or whether or not there was any charge for switching by the rail- roads. It was an established custom that had grown up. SIXTY-EIGHT THOUSAND OF UNEARNED PROFITS In 1912 the Chamber members exacted from shippers of grain as switching charges $68,200 more than the members of the Chamber paid to the railroads for switching on all their business. In all other exchanges in the country switching charges are paid by the grain buyers and not by the shippers. At Minneapolis the Chamber made the ship- per pay for switching and they charged it up whether any switching was done or not. “This switching charge on all cars was continued ' by Chamber members until December, 1913, when it was' discontin- ued. It had been the custom since.1887. The practice was stopped by the Minne- sota railroad commission on complaint of the Equity Cooperative exchange. The Equity waged a campaign of publicity against the injustice of the: charge throughout the grain-growing districts and got a ruling of the commission pre- venting suéh charges, except where switching was actually done and paid for by the buyers. This stopped a profit of $68,200. annually to Chamber members. # . . © “It is the custom of the Chamber of Commerce to send grain that comes to Minneapolis to what are known as graian hospitals, where - mixing of different kinds of grain takes place. For ex- ample, they will put in a lot of wheat, say 10,000 bushels of No. 1, and figure on using that quantity to absorb possibly 50,000 or more bushels of wheat of a lower grade, No. 3, rejected or ‘no grade.’ This mixing results in a No. 1 or'No. 2 grade from the state inspectors . on the whole lot. It usually gives them . No. 1. It is the custom to use just enough of the higher grades of wheat in the mixture to enable them to secure 8 No. 1 grade on the whole mixture. “DOCTORING” THE WHEAT. A LUCRATIVE PRACTICE “Now, under the rules of. the' Cham- ber, a wheat buyer situated outside of Minneapolis' must accept the original grade placed on these mixturés without recourse. . The rules of the Chamber will: not permit & reinspection or appeal on grain marketed out of these mixing ele- vators. . A different rule is applied to grain coming in to the members of the Chamber. . 'When the Chamber members are buying instead of gelling they Efforts to Get Justice for Farmers marketing organization.—Editor. réserve the right of reinspection and enjoy the privilege of appeal. “Under that system the Chamber members are able to buy a considerable quantity of off-grade wheat at a very low price, and by the mixing of a very small quantity .of higher grade wheat are able to make a tremendous amount of money. “Now the Equity exchange is against that system. The farmers of the north- west feel that if the mixing of grain at the terminal is permissible they ought to be permitted. to secure some of the benefits arising from such_ mixture. Under the present conditions they do not get the benefit. All the benefit goes to the members of the Chamber of Com- merce. This practice puts large quan- tities of mixed wheat, graded No. 1 after the mixture, on the market in com- petition with real No. 1 wheat grown by the farmers and tends to depress the price of No. 1 wheat. “The Equity exchange is fighting this practice with all its power, through the newspapers not controlled by the Cham- ber, at public meetings, at farmers’ meetings and in the official organ of the Society of Equity. WEIGHING FARMERS’ GRAIN UNDER THE SUCTION FAN “Amnother abuse is this: At some of the elevators and mills: the grain is weighed on a track scale. The car is shoved in on this scale, the grain dumped out of the car into the pit and the car weighed empty, thus giving the weight In two former articles the Leader has given details of the attempts in court 4 and through the gang newspapers to crush the Equity Cooperative exchange The first article dealt chiefly with the part the gang newspapers, particularly the Courier-News, had in trying to assassinate this farmers’ movement. second article dealt with second suit brought against the Equity, in which the Chamber of Commerce used Attorney General Linde to bring the action in the name of the state of North Dakota. The present article has to do with the reasons for the desire on the part of the Chamber to eliminate the farmers’ Did Not Please Chamber of Commerce The of the grain by subtracting the weight empty from the weight loaded. In many cases, ' however, the grain is weighed up in the top of the elevator, a hundred-odd feet in the air, by a weigher who never sees the car. The grain is weighed in this case in a hopper scale, after it passes through a spout. Near the top of this spout is a suction fan. This is stationed there for the purpose, as claimed by the Chamber of Commerce members, to take the dust out of the grain as it drops down through the spout, before it is weighed. “We find that in most cases where there are shortages on the weight of grain going to Minneapolis it is on cars weighed in this manner, after the suc- tion fan has done its work. Very sel- dom are there complaints of shortages by the shipper when the grain is weigh- ed on the track. We have been advo- cating track scales for all mills and elevators. We - are opposed very strongly to a continuation of the policy of weighing grain up in the air. We think it is a bad policy and that great opportunity is afforded in this way for shortage. “Due to our complaints about this the state grain department of Minnesota has forbidden more scales of this kind fo be put in. All' new elevators and mills must install track scales under the ruling. Those who have the up-in-the- air system-of weighing in effect; how- ever, will be allowed to continue it. At the head of the lakes—Duluth—the system of weighing up in the top of tha League Worker and His Family This is Claus Krohn of Bottineau and his wife and ;:hildren, typical products of the invigorating climate of North Dakota and the healthful living conditions of a North Dakota farm. of new members signed Mr. Krohn is one of the. League’s most active workers in “his county. The confidence in which he is. held by his neighbors is shown by the : fact that he was one of the first twelve of the precinct delegates in point of number: up in a contest during March and threby won one of the prizes offered by the League and the Leader. ; League candidates, because they sweeping vi » ‘. BUSINESS MEN BOOST . , - 1 feel safe in saying that the League candidates will carry . three-fourths of the votes in our precinct and the commercial club of our town has already stated that its members would support the ‘have come to realize that what is em, : : any other way. than that ctory in the primary.—R. E. M'CLUNG. goodIfor th'e farmer:is good for th we will have” a elevator has been done away with exn tirely. . The Wisconsin commissian p a stop to it. . //' OLD DEMURRAGE RULE j 2 USED AGAINST SHIPPERS “A rule established by the Chambeg of Commerce in 1906 required the meng# bers of that organization to pay the rail’ roads demurrage on cars of grain arrighs ing before 9 a. m. and not disposed before 4 p. m. on the date of arriv:% ] Now the reciprocal demurrage lawh which went into effect in 1907, gave tha shippers or receivers of grain 48 hours in which to -dispose of cars. But the Chamber continued its old rule in effect, despite the new demurrage law, and shippers were charged with demurrage by the Chamber members, although they had not had the benefit of the full 48 hours for the unloading of grain that was granted them under the law.” “Now we fought this demurrage rul« ing of the Chamber and it was changed by the Chamber in December, 1912, to head off an investigation we had prex cipitated. The Chamber got out from under just in time. “The state of Minnesota, through its grain inspection department, permitted reinspection of grain after the cars had been delivered to the mills, warehouses or elevators of the buyer, and also per- mitted appeals from grades. The rein- spection was permitted for the benefit of the buyer even on grain that had been taken out of the cars, loaded into the elevators and then dumped back into the cars as was taken out. In every case of reinspection ‘of this kind we found that the grade was reduced. In many cases wheat that was graded No. 1 when it went in was given ‘no grade” on the reinspection. WHEAT LOSES GRADE AFTER GOING THROUGH ELEVATOR “We will take a concrete case. I have in mind two cars of wheat that arrived in Minneapolis on the Great Northern from the west that was ‘sampled at Willmar. The sample was sent to the inspection department at Minneapolis and inspected by the state inspectors of Minnesota and graded No. 1. The carg of grain were sold by sample and oy .. the grade thus fixed to the Van Diisens.. Harrington company. .On the arrival of that grain they ovdered the cars to the Interstate elevator, one of the terminal elevators at Minneapolis, situated on the tracks of the Great Western road. When the grain got down to that ele< vator the cars were unloaded and went ~ through the elevator and presumably the same grain came back and went into the same cars. Then the forman of the "« elevator marked on the cars ‘ReX,’ indi- cating that reinspection on those carg was wanted, and under the custom of the railroad company switching cars when a car is so marked they take the cars out to the inspection track, where cars arq held for reinspection. ¢ “Samples were taken out of the two cars after they were put on the inspec« tion track and brought to the office of the. grain inspectors, where they werq regraded. They were regraded as ‘ng grade.’ Those cars had graded as Nay 1 when they came in, EQUITY WAS TOO BUSY TO SUIT THE CHAMBER “Now our complaint about such pracs . tices and the publicity’we gave the mafs. ter resulted in a ruling by the Minn sota grain inspection department. The warehouse commission issued an order preventing = the reinspection of grain after the car had left the yard of the road on which it came in, except in cases when it could be shown that a car was ‘plugged’ by the shipper—that is, fixed up with pockets of good grain to deceive the buyer. Otherwise no re« inspection. can be had after the car has left the yard on the railroad on which - it arrived.” Mr. Loftus went into other abuses of the’ Chamber of Commerce. He- told ‘what. the Equity ‘had -accomplished in correcting ‘them and what it intended to accomplish in correcting other abuses, . His testimony furnished all that was "needed to show the reason why. the Chamber of Commerce wished to put the farmers’ exchange out of business, The Equity was getting justice for the farmers in the terminal markets.~ = hy They Fought the Equity |