The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, February 21, 1921, Page 6

The Autobiography of the Grain‘\ Trust What the Correspondence of the Elevator Companies and Their Agents s/ /& I3y BY. E. B. FUSSELL VERY wheat grower in the West knows at least one elevator manager. Every farmer has heard his elevator man- ager make these statements: (1) driieri%| That the elevator was paying all it could afford to pay for wheat; (2) that the elevator was selling coal and other supplies at the cheapest possible rate; (3) that the stories about there being “combinations” between the elevators, to beat down the price of wheat and to keep up the price of coal and other products, were all false. . The elevator man and his friends, the banker and politician, have also told the farmer that any Equity or Nonpartisan league ‘“agitators,” who said the elevators were in a combination to beat the farmer, were liars. ¢ . So in this article we will not make ‘any state- ments whatever. We will let the elevator man- agers and the members of the Minneapolis Cham- ber of Commerce do all the talking. We will examine their own evidence, dating from 20 years ago to the present time, and then every reader of the Leader can make up his mind, from the grain men’s own story, as to who is telling the truth. Let us look first at a memorandum of agreement between six elevator companies at Worthington, Minn., made 20 years ago. It reads as follows: A PRICE-FIXING COMBINATION OF TWENTY YEARS AGO Memorandum of agreement at Worthington, Minn., effective August 1, 1900. H. E. Torrance, Swedish Mercantile company, Hubbard & Palmer Co., Peavey Elevator company, H. N. Douglas, St. John Bros.; each to receive one-sixth of the entire receipts of all the grain handled at Worthington. Prices to be made by H. N. Douglas, but are to be as nearly as possible on following basis: Wheat at 12 cents and fraction off Minneapolis delivered close. Oats at 6 cents and fraction off Minneapolis; flax at 16 cents off Minneapolis; corn at 10 cents off Minneapolis; timothy seed at 65 cents per cwt. off Chicago. Penalties to be: Wheat, 21 cents; oats, 1% cents; corn, 2 cents; barley, 3 cents; rye, 4 cents; flax, 4 cents; timothy, 10 cents. Full rates of stor- e age, as shown on Standard Storage ticket, to be col- lected. Minimum dockage to be one pound per bushel, and a sieve test to be made of all wheat showing over two dockage. All parties agree not to pay over list. Closed house to get one-half penalty. Statements to be rendered each week to H. N. Douglas, who is to render monthly reports to F. R. Durant. The books of any party to this agreement are to - be subject to examination at any time. This agree- ment to continue in effect for one year from date; provided, however, that any party may withdraw by giving 15 days’ notice in writing to that effect, to each party to this agreement and by paying the penalties to the expiration of said 15 days. * * * D A ) S T R/ S=—~—c— ‘All statements will be made up by number instead of name. The names corresponding to numbers at Worth- ington are: 23, H. E. Torrance; 24, Swedish Mer- cantile company; 25, H. N. Douglas; 26, Peavey Elevator company; 37, St. John Bros.; 58, Hubbard & Putnam Co. Please keep this for reference. : F. R. Durant, named in this agreement, is the publisher of the Grain Bulletin, issued daily from the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce building. The Grain Bulletin, better known as “the card,” goes to elevator managers throughout the North- west, giving the prices they are to pay at their station for grain each day. GETTING TOGETHER TO DISCUSS “MATTERS OF GENERAL INTEREST” This agreement refers, of course, to 20 years ago. The grain men may claim that they have reformed since then. It is worth while noticing that Mr. Durant still is in the Minmeapolis Chamber of Commerce. He is still sending out his price card. While he is careful now not to make agreements to split business like the one mentioned above, he is active in other ways. Here is a sample of a notice he sent to the presi- dents of six line elevator companies in Minneapolis a matter of five years ago: (Cargill Elevator files) : Minneapolis, Minn., September 17, 1915. Cargill Elv. Co., D. D. McMillan; Imperial Elv. Co., P. L. Howe; Monarch Elv. Co.; A. Stewart; Na- tional Elv. Co., L. D. Marshall; Northwestern Elv. Co., C. A. Magnuson; St. A. & D. Elv. Co., C. A. Brown: 3 At a meeting held about a week ago, it was sug- gested that the companies named above meet ‘each Friday afternoon at 3 o’clock at my -office, for con- sultation of matters of general interest. Please be represented this afternoon. F. R. DURANT. It would be interesting to know what the heads of these six line elevator companies talked about at this conference. Price-fixing? My, no! Probably about the’ weather. , Sometimes the president of one of the line com- panies called the meeting—to. talk. about the weather and other matters. Witness the following: (From-the files of the Northwestern Elevator Co.) THE NORTHWESTERN ELEVATOR CO. Minneapolis, Minn., July 20, 1914. “Dear Sirs:: According to the usual custom, will you please notify your agent at Litchfield to come to my room at the chamber of commerce, No. 51 next Sunday morning, at 10, o’clock, for our usuai consultation? * * * Yours truly, - (Unsigned) President. To. Cargill - Elev. Co.; Duluth: Elev. Co.,; Thorpa Elev. Co.; A, O. Cornwell; Farmers Elev, PAGE SIX . . Shows About Combinations and Price-Fixing But this letter, sent a.bout the same time, indi- cated that it wasn’t altogether the weather that the grain buyers were interested in: SPAULDING ELEVATOR CO. Warren, Minn., August 10, 1914. Mr. F. C. Riebe, Secretary, Atlantic Elev. Co., Mpls., Minn: . Dear Sir: In the opinion of the writer, I believe that it would be a good thing for all concerned if, when you send out general buying instructions, that you would send us a copy of the same. I write this with the idea of lining up my agents with yours and if it meets with your approval, will be glad to receive the same. I do not write this with any intention of prying into your concern’s affairs any more than for our mutual good. Would like to hear from you in regard to the matter. Yours truly, C. L. SPAULDING. The following letter is signed By C. A. Magnuson, until recently president of the Minneapolis Cham- - ber of Commerce: THE NORTHWESTERN ELEVATOR CO. Minneapolis, Minn., Dec. 14, 1917. McCaull Webster Elev. Co., City. Gentlemen: I have yours from Albee and if those people are willing to behave and not hog the stuff, and want to come down to card price and make a fair division of it, I don’t know of any reason why we ghould not be able to work in that way. * * * Yours trulfi : C. A, MAGNUSON, President. BUYERS COMBINE TO LOWER PRICES; “LEMON EXTRACT” HELPS To quote verbatim dozens of letters like the above would take too much space. A few quotations from. the letters of various elevator companies to each other and to their agents will be sufficient. On September 16, 1915, the Andrews Grain com- ' pany, Minneapolis, wrote - Henry Rambold, their agent at Bowden, N. D.: “I desire above all things to keep the market conditions down on a normal basis and in order to accomplish that I wish you would interview all of the other buyers at once on receipt of this letter and see if you can not get them all to agree to stick to list.” ; Here is a letter from the Andrews agent at Regan, N. D., who had evidently received the same sort of a letter as. the one written to the agent at Bowden: “Andrews Grain company, Minneapolis, Minn. Dear Sirs: Regarding your letter of May 9 can say I have taken the matter up with the other buyers here and we have agreed to buy all grain at strictly list prices.” This letter is signed A. B. Greenfield and dated June 12, 1917. : bt 'J. A. Kappadall, agent of the Atlantic Elevato: company at Crosby, N. D., wrote his head office at Minneapolis October 10, 1919: “Have your letter of the 7th and note what you say in regard to pay- in\gbover card price. The Northland buyer made the rounds to all the elevators this morning and all A AR T B O e A S QR L G A, AR X DL S S S