HOUSE WITH CLOSED SHUTTERS 81 



There are two ways of reaching a conclusion- one 

 by approaching it logically on facts laid down; the 

 other by jumping to it across a yawning laqk of fletail. 

 At the end of his month of investigation the farmer's 

 scout had a regular rag-bag of material out of which 

 to fashion a patchwork report. A grain man might 

 have condemned it as a " crazy quilt " because bits of 

 high color obtruded inharmoniously. But if here and 

 there an end was short or a bit of information on the 

 bias, it was because the " Farmers' Representative " 

 had not been treated with sufficient frankness. He had. 

 to make the best of the materials allowed him and his 

 natural tendency to bright-colored metaphor may have 

 been quickened. He hit out straight from the shoulder 

 in all sinj4y a ^ conditions as they appeared to him. 



He (thought^ he sawjfive companies controlling the 

 exportmgTusiness, and also their margin of profit, so 

 that they were able to keep out smaller_dealers who 

 might have the temerity and the necessary capital to try 

 p TJL nr ting on t^ p i'r own account. He saw the smaller 

 dealers in turn stem-winding their prices by those of 

 the exporters, controlling the prices paid for street and 

 track wheat throughout the country; thereby, he 

 reasoned, it became possible to set special prices at any 

 given point by the simple expedient of wiring the neces- 

 sary instructions to the operator at that point to pinch 

 independent competition. He saw elevator companies 

 cutting their charges at certain points to kill off com- 

 petition from "farmers' elevators" which sold to 

 independent dealers. All this he was sure he saw. 



The sampling appeared to be carried on in a 

 systematic and satisfactory manner. The grading, too, 

 appeared to be uniform enough as regarded the stand- 

 ard grades ; but in the item of color there seemed just 

 6 



