THE STORY OF THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 



But there is still another story here. " Some- 

 body was a defaulter," says Mr. Koon, in- 

 cautiously. As to who did the defaulting 

 there is other testimony available of which 

 Mr. Koon at that time was not aware. 



When its application had at last been turned 

 down by the management of this strange 

 kind of public market, the Farmers' Exchange 

 was driven to seek another way to dispose 

 of the wheat that was being shipped to it 

 by the growers in the country. So it made 

 an arrangement with a firm of regular brokers, 

 McKinnon & Son, to take this business on 

 the usual commission basis. 



Very soon afterward McKinnon & Son, 

 though apparently in sound condition when 

 the arrangement was made, suddenly failed. 

 Nobody seemed to know exactly why they 

 should fail, and the news caused much aston- 

 ishment in some quarters. The firm was 

 immediately succeeded in the Chamber by 

 another firm with which the Farmers' Ex- 

 change had no arrangement. Among the 

 consignments of grain to the Farmers' Ex- 

 change was one of twelve cars that it had 

 handed over to McKinnon & Son before the 

 failure. The new firm refused to release 

 these, and neither the Farmers' Exchange 

 nor the shippers of the grain, who were its 

 lawful and true owners, could ever recover 

 it or get paid for it. The Chamber of Com- 



118 



