EVOLUTION OF FARMERS' ELEVATORS 357 



grain trade. Conceived in the brain of the late E. P. Bacon and forced through 

 a reluctant Congress in defiance of the opposition of the leaders of his own 

 party by the inflexible determination of President Roosevelt to do the right 

 thing in' this, the Hepburn Act made the railroads for the first time, what they 

 had been in name only before, 'common carriers/ compelled by law to treat 

 all men as equals. Those only who know to what depths of meanness the rail- 

 ways had descended in the treatment of individuals before the Hepburn Act 

 became law, and how they fought to retain their power to continue such 

 practices, can realize how great is the debt of the grain trade to these two men. 

 And yet so short is the public memory, or so great is public ignorance, most of 

 the things for which railway reform agitators to-day are still clamoring will 

 be found embodied in the Hepburn Act and its subsequent amendments bear- 

 ing the signature of Theodore Roosevelt. 



"The greatest evil of railroad management in the past was removed with- 

 out revolution, although the influence of the Hepburn Act upon the conduct 

 of the grain trade was revolutionary. It gave new life to competition in the 

 gram trade of individuals and localities and rescued the trade from a state of 

 monopoly that was rapidly becoming supreme throughout the surplus grain 

 States. In other lines of trade and industry the same tendency towards con- 

 centration of trade in a few hands was in like manner checked in so far as 

 equality of transportation service can ever stop that tendency." 



In recent years railroads are forbidden to operate terminal 

 elevators. Consequently their terminal elevators are either sold 

 or leased to grain firms. 



Terminal warehouses are now of two general kinds, public, and 

 private. In public houses, the grain of the public is stored for 

 fixed storage charges, and grains of different grades are kept in 

 separate bins. The owner of the warehouse is a custodian only 

 and cannot use the house for storing his own grain. Private ware- 

 houses are used by owners for storing their own grain, which they 

 are at liberty to mix in any manner they see fit. Grain sold for 

 future delivery must be stored in the regular public warehouses, 

 and receipts of these warehouses are used in making such deliveries. 

 Private houses often contain machinery for drying wet grain, a 

 serious problem in some years (as corn in 1917), and also machinery 

 for cleaning and conditioning out-of -condition grain and grain 

 not fit for storage or milling. These " hospital" elevators thus 

 make a market for low-grade grain. Some buy the grain outright; 

 some perform the service for the general public at fixed charges. 



Under the presidency of Hiram N. Sager, the Chicago Board of 

 Trade made a working agreement with the terminal elevator 

 interests (Fig. 73). The terminal market machinery, so far as 

 terminal storage is concerned, has finally been evolved so that the 

 benefits of it accrue to the grain trade in general, including the 

 country elevator and the farmer who raises the grain. 



(3) Evolution of Farmers' Elevators. Under the impetus of 

 the Grange movement a few farmers' grain elevators were started 



