UNEQUAL FIGHTS 



right of way or owned land. This did not 

 always meet the requirements of the "line" 

 companies, because the railroad's right of 

 way was not always wide enough to exclude 

 the farmers or there might be a piece of land 

 adjacent thereto that could be had from some 

 other owner than the railroad company. Still 

 there is no question that in many instances it 

 was a good device and prevented the organiza- 

 tion of many a farmers' elevator concern. 



2. If in spite of the railroads' active opposi- 

 tion the farmers succeeded in getting their 

 site and in building their elevator, it was 

 always feasible to refuse (or to fail) to provide 

 such an elevator with cars. 



This is a delicate maneuver against which 

 there is no perfect remedy so long as the rail- 

 roads are in the hands of private companies. 

 The legislature may enact, Interstate Com- 

 merce Commissions may order; there will 

 always be room for a manipulation not to be de- 

 tected. The farmers' elevator and the "line" 

 elevator lie side by side. 1 Both want cars to 



1 Records in the possession of the farmers' organization contain 

 many such instances supported by investigation. I recall one 

 flagrant case, noted in October, 1915, where at a North Dakota 

 station a co-operative farmers' elevator and a "line" elevator occu- 

 pied adjoining sites on the same side-track. The co-operative ele- 

 vator, after days of frantic appealing to the railroad company for 

 cars, had been obliged to close with its bins full of grain. The "line" 

 elevator had no grain stored in it, but was daily shipping out full 

 cars and had three empties waiting for it on the side-track. It is 

 necessary to know these things and their multiplicity to understand 

 why the farmers were so bitter. 



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