BEGINNINGS OF THE NORTHWEST 



which these are upheld are always in ratio to 

 the size of the profits. 



For these reasons, the grain exchange came 

 to be in the mind of the Northwestern farmer 

 the symbol of all the wrongs that oppressed 

 him. Grain exchanges were the hives of 

 the commission men, elevator firms, manipu- 

 lators, speculators, millers, and the rest that 

 in his opinion had formed a combination to 

 take away his money. He saw his wheat 

 go into the exchange a heaping bushel and 

 come out a sorry two pecks and the sight filled 

 him with a rage as blind as the cupidity of 

 the grain broker. There were three of these 

 institutions that he chiefly cursed the Chicago 

 Board of Trade, the Duluth Board of Trade, 

 and the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce. 

 But the greatest of these was the Minne- 

 apolis Chamber of Commerce, which to the 

 grain grower combined all the evils of all the 

 rest. 



Minneapolis, which is in many ways one 

 of the most remarkable and admirable cities 

 of the world, is also the world's greatest grain 

 market. There is a tradition on the Cham- 

 ber of Commerce that it has been raised to 

 this eminence by the merits of its commission 

 men, but this is an amiable fallacy. It was 

 made a great grain mart by the Falls of St. 

 Anthony in the Mississippi River at its front 

 door, and by the prairie fires that the care- 



