THE STORY OF THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 



According to the market prices current 

 at the time, the value of this wheat as it was 

 received at the elevator was $875,405.66, 

 and its value when shipped out was $959,- 

 126 .35. The elevator's profits by the changes 

 in the grades were $83,720.69— in three 

 months. 



There was also the matter of screenings 

 to be accounted for. Screenings are the 

 so-called dirt, the impurities and foreign 

 substances in the wheat for which the farmer 

 has already suffered dockage at his local 

 elevator. On this subject the committee 

 reported: 



The screenings actually taken out of the grain [in 

 this one instance] averaged three-fourths of a pound to 

 the bushel. From our knowledge of the dockage taken 

 at coimtry elevators, and also of that fixed by inspect- 

 ors at terminal points during the period named, we 

 believe this dockage of three-quarters of a pound act- 

 ually taken from the wheat to have been very much 

 less than that taken from the shipper or farmer. These 

 screenings sold for about eight dollars a ton. After 

 the dockage of three-quarters of a pound per bushel 

 was taken out, the grain was shipped [from the elevator] 

 as clean grain without any dockage. What an eloquent 

 story is told by the above figures! ^ 



This, you will remember, is the testimony 

 of grave and sagacious bankers and not the 



* Before the Interstate Commerce Commission in the Matter o£ 

 the Relations of Common Carriers to the Grain Trade, pp. 1061-62. 

 The testimony at this hearing was made a public document: Fifty- 

 ninth Congress, Second Session, Document 278. 



50 



