THE STORY OF THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 



It appeared certain, therefore, that, as I 

 have before indicated, the consuming pub- 

 lic had to bear a part of the cost of these 

 operations. 



The power of the Duluth Board of Trade 

 to punish and disable any person that incurred 

 its ill will might well cause just men to pause 

 and ponder. H. T. Fowler, of Superior, tes- 

 tified that he had been put out of the grain 

 business by the secret influence of the board. 

 He was a shipper of grain by Lake boat and 

 soon after the board had undertaken to sup- 

 press Superior he had a large vessel in port 

 that he was loading. When the load was less 

 than half completed the man of whom he 

 was getting the grain called him on the tele- 

 phone and said: 



"The stuff is off. I can't buy any more 

 for you." 



"I asked him what wa? the matter," Mr. 

 Fowler testified, "and he said they simply 

 would not let him buy. Then I sold him the 

 balance of it [the load]. Since that time I 

 have not attempted to ship a boat-load of 

 grain." 1 



It appeared further that the railroads as- 

 sisted the Board of Trade in its campaign by 

 obstructing the Wisconsin inspection on cars 

 of grain passing through Wisconsin to Duluth. 



1 Before the Interstate Commerce Commission. In re Relation 

 of Carriers to the Grain Trade, p. 1006. 



146 



