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exception they said, "Guilty", and Oh ! what the Judge .said 

 10 them ! 



No man in Massachusetts Avould have faced an audience 

 again so long as he might live if he was spoken to as that 

 judge spoke to those commission men and wholesale butter 

 r,nd egg dealers of New York City, and then he fined them 

 from $2500 apiece to $12,500 per firm or corporation. The 

 highest fine in case of an individual was $6,000 or $7,000 

 each. These are the results which the exposure of those 

 conditions in New York City has brought about. 



People interested in the common people, producers and 

 consumers alike said we must have a change, those expos- 

 ures are so gross and flagrant that We must not continue as 

 we are. So they went to Governor Glynn and the legisla- 

 ture and asked that a commission might be appointed, that 

 a law might be passed regulating commission men. The law 

 v/as passed and the commission was appointed and it is that 

 commission that I have the honor to represent here tonight 

 You want to know how did our law operate? Well, it 

 operated as most laws do against people who are very 

 bright and very brilliant and very determined to be crooked 

 ?nd dishonest; in other words it did not operate very well 

 at all. 



They immediately sent out word to all their shippers, 

 ''We are not commission men any longer." They did not 

 say, "We have a law down here that is very stringent, very 

 impertinent and permits the State to come in and examine 

 our books and see what we are doing." No they did not 

 write them that, but they said, "We are not going to handle 

 ;\our goods on commission any more, but you may ship them 

 to us and we Avill return you a net price for them; we will 

 dIIow you all we think they are worth." 



The shipper had no other outlet in New York City ex- 

 cept the regular channels and they shipped to these men 

 under those conditions and signed contracts that they would 

 accept those prices. Now that was a business deal that was 

 an open bargain, and no one has any complaint to offer un- 



