THE STORY OF THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 



testimony in the fact that under certain con- 

 ditions appeals were possible from the gradings 

 made by the state inspectors at Minneapolis. 

 Observe then that all of these appeals were 

 on the ground that the gradings had been 

 too low, and the great majority resulted in 

 the gradings being raised. That seems to 

 tell the story. But appeals were cumbersome, 

 slow, and tedious. Moreover, they availed 

 nothing in the case of the wheat sold at the 

 country elevator, and, practically speaking, 

 they were of little advantage to the farmer. 



If we go back now to the adventures of 

 John Evans's wheat on the Chamber of Com- 

 merce and connect it with the mystic trans- 

 formations of the terminal elevators, we shall 

 see the grain industry as it really is in America. 



Suppose Evans to have sent five cars of 

 wheat direct to a Chamber of Commerce com- 

 mission house, Roe & Company, and when 

 the railroad company has had its turn at it 

 and has charged for hauling it far more than 

 the service is worth, the five cars go the usual 

 way. They are inspected and graded, one 

 car, let us say, No. 1 Northern, one No. ^, 

 one No. 3, one Rejected, one No Grade. 

 Roe & Company, as before described, get 

 a sample of each car and before the gong 

 sounds on the exchange that morning one 

 of their agents has sold all five cars to another 

 of their agents operating under another name 



56 



