UNEQUAL FIGHTS 



5. To secure by bribery or purchase the 

 secret assistance of the manager of the co- 

 operative elevator that he should ship the 

 grain to certain houses and thus maintain 

 the supremacy of the existing system; or to 

 buy a good manager away from his employ- 

 ment. 



The prevailing bonus or bribe (as you pre- 

 fer) was five dollars a car for each car diverted 

 from co-operative to regular commission chan- 

 nels. Where a brutally frank tariff like this 

 seemed for some reason inadvisable, or the 

 man they wanted was too honest to be bought, 

 the "line" company would lend money to 

 him or bestow upon him other advantages of 

 a tangible nature. 1 These transactions be- 

 came finally so much of an obstacle that the 

 Equity, which is the name of the greatest 

 and most efficient of these farmers' co-opera- 

 tive societies in the Northwest, was driven 

 to adopt one settled policy in relation thereto. 

 Whenever it learned that in any locality the 



1 Before a committee of the House of Representatives, Legislature 

 of Minnesota, investigating grain exchanges. Testimony of A. 

 Kuenig, who had been manager of a farmers' elevator at Garretson, 

 North Dakota. 



Question. Did you borrow money from them? 



Answer. Yes sir. 



Q. I say, then, it was the loaning of money to you by Stair, 

 Christenson & Timmerman and by Van Dusen-Harrington that 

 took you away from the Equity Society in the matter of handling 

 your grain, wasn't it? 



A. Yes sir. 



In the end the practice was admitted by Mr. Lind, counsel for the 

 commission men. Testimony, vol. vi, p. 1,688. 



