THE STORY OF THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 



the Chamber of Commerce, the product of 

 a generation of costly experience. They 

 wished to have the facts about the Chamber 

 laid bare. In the House of Representatives, 

 therefore, they introduced a bill that pro- 

 vided for a committee of members to inves- 

 tigate grain exchanges. 



It was a time when the Equity co-operative 

 exchange was under fierce attack by the 

 Chamber and its allies, and this condition is 

 held responsible for the passing of legislation 

 that otherwise would never have gone through, 

 for there was an impression that the measure 

 aimed at the Equity. The committee was 

 duly constituted and went to work. At once 

 the fact appeared that the farmers had out- 

 witted their opponents, for they were ready 

 with a mass of startling testimony and fur- 

 nished with an array of able counsel, and 

 day after day they were turning up the his- 

 tory and operations of the Chamber in a way 

 most painful to the Interests concerned. 

 These made haste to slip through the Senate 

 a bill constituting another committee to in- 

 vestigate grain exchanges. It was made up 

 carefully and scrupulously of trustworthy reac- 

 tionaries, and endeavored to negative, distort, 

 nullify, or obscure every disclosure made be- 

 fore the committee of the other house. The 

 result of all this was that for immediate effect 

 the one balanced the other, and the farmers 



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