AMERICAN SOCIETY OF EQUITY 133 



Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce, which to many grain growers was 

 the perfect symbol of graft and corruption. 51 



To evaluate fairly the charges and countercharges made by the farmers 

 and the grain trade is no simple task. Much of the printed material is 

 highly emotional. Granted that many charges were probably true, others 

 exaggerated, and still others half true, the fact is that many farmers be- 

 lieved the charges. Because of this, they readily joined first the Equity 

 Cooperative Exchange and then later the Nonpartisan League. As so fre- 

 quently noted, what people believe to be true is often more important than 

 the truth itself. 



The mere launching of an attack against the Minneapolis Chamber of 

 Commerce, which to the farmers was a monopoly, greatly accelerated the 

 growth of the exchange in the northwestern grain-growing area. Here 

 La Follette was popular and the progressive movement was strong. 

 George S. Loftus, James A. Manahan, Benjamin Drake, and Magnus 

 Johnson, influential leaders with the exchange at one time or another, 

 represented varying shades of the progressive viewpoint in politics. La Fol- 

 lettes Magazine published numerous articles favorable to the exchange 

 marketing program, while Equity publications gave much space to La Fol- 

 lette. Thus the exchange represented something broader than mere ter- 

 minal marketing reform. 52 



The marketing program of Equity was aided, no doubt, by the presence 

 of large numbers of Scandinavians in the spring wheat area. The Scandi- 

 navian Transportation Company, organized during the late i86o's, was 



51. Equity Farm News, December i, 1911, p. 15; Interstate Commerce Com- 

 mission Reports (Washington, 1908), XII, 563-64; Montana Equity News (Great 

 Falls), September 14, 1916; W. E. Davis, "Fighting the Grain Combine," La Toi- 

 lette's Magazine (Madison, Wis.), VI (January 17, 1914), p. 3; La Toilette's Maga- 

 zine, V (December 13, 1913), p. 5; ibid. (December 20, 1913), p. 5; Equity Coopera- 

 tive Exchange, Proposed Farmers' "Terminal Elevator, St. Paul, Minnesota (n.p., 

 n.d.), inside back cover; Charles E. Russell, "The Revolt of the Farmers," Pearson's 

 Magazine, XXXIII (April, 1915), pp. 417-27; Cooperators' Herald (Fargo, N. 

 Dak.), October 24, 1913; March 6, August 7, 1914. For a more critical account of 

 the financing of grain shipments by bankers and commission firms, see F.T.C., The 

 Grain Trade, III, 183-96. 



52. The New International 'Year Boo1{, 1912, p. 476. La Follette won the first 

 presidential primary election in North Dakota in 1912. Somewhat typical were the 

 remarks appearing in the Cooperators' Herald for March 6, 1914, and July 23, 1915. 



