UNEQUAL FIGHTS 



named this Wisconsin inspection is superseded, and all 

 grain received at the head of the Lakes must be inspected 

 by Minnesota inspectors under Minnesota rules. 



Who were "the Interests above named," 

 and how did they do this amazing thing, the 

 nullifying of the law of a sovereign state? 

 One would think it impossible. On these 

 mysteries the report of the North Dakota 

 committee sheds the needed light. It says: 



The story of how the Wisconsin law was made ab- 

 solutely inoperative is an interesting one. The Du- 

 luth Board of Trade made a rule that no member of 

 the Duluth Board could hold membership in a similar 

 organization within a hundred miles of Duluth. 1 This 



1 1 think I had better illustrate this from the regulations of the 

 Duluth Board of Trade, otherwise readers unfamiliar with the ex- 

 cesses in autocracy that undisturbed monopoly had bred in the grain 

 business may think the committee's comment unjustifiable. An 

 applicant for membership had to make an affidavit in which he agreed 

 that he would not be a member, stockholder, or officer of, or be in 

 any way directly or indirectly interested in any similar organization 

 located within one hundred miles of the city of Duluth, for dealing 

 in any commodity dealt in by the members or quoted upon the 

 board of this association. The affidavit then goes on: 



"Or be a partner in any firm or stockholder in any corporation so 

 dealing, having any office or place of business or transacting such 

 business upon the Duluth Board of Trade. 



"Or shall directly or indirectly aid or assist in the building up of 

 any similar organization to this association within one hundred miles 

 of the city of Duluth; 



"Or shall directly or indirectly do any such act or use any influence 

 which shall tend to injure or destroy the business of this association, 

 or of its members as a body, or shall refuse to act or use your in- 

 fluence toward the protection and upbuilding of the business of this 

 association and of its members as a body in every way in your power 

 to the best of your ability. . . . 



"Then upon the happening of any such event or contingency you 

 will forthwith resign your membership in the Duluth Board of 

 Trade," and failing to resign within five days of the happening of 

 any such event or contingency [meaning the violation of the rules 

 About competitive organizations] the member is to be expelled. 



143 



