the people had been so long accustomed to 

 be robbed they were shocked at the suggestion 

 of a life of security. No living man was re- 

 sponsible for the system that had grown up 

 in the grain trade, nor any part of it; in the 

 main, no living man had known anything 

 else; and, like all such things that go uncom- 

 bated, it had a tendency all the time to get 

 worse. Even the farmers, always smarting 

 under a vague sense of injustice, had never 

 revolted effectively against it, and to a cer- 

 tain extent even helped it along by what 

 was assumed to be an inviting patience. 



If the victims did not object, why should 

 anybody else bother? 



There was, however, a certain great prin- 

 ciple involved in all these matters, a principle 

 coming home to every person that ate bread 

 as well as to the farmers that grew the wheat, 

 and what that principle was we can see better 

 from the next incident in this history. 



The Agricultural Department of the United 

 States and similar beneficent institutions in 

 the individual states are continually trying 

 to improve the product of our fields by intro- 

 ducing new varieties of seed or of plant, 

 developed abroad or in our own experimental 

 stations. About twelve years ago there was 

 brought into North Dakota in this manner 

 a new species of wheat that bore the name 

 of "velvet chaff." It proved hardy and well 



77 



