UNEQUAL FIGHTS 



with the governments of North Dakota and 

 Minnesota in the hands of the railroads, and 

 the railroads operating in closest conjunction 

 with the Chamber of Commerce, the chances 

 at that time, anyway, were too hazardous. 1 

 The railroads would thus have a garrote 

 around the neck of any such enterprise, and, 

 judging by all their past history, would not 

 hesitate to apply it instantly at the word of 

 the grain combination. There was but one 

 power able to deal with such a situation, and 

 that was the power of the state administered 

 in the interests of the public; and there was 

 but one effective way for that power to be 

 exercised and that was through the creating 

 of terminal elevators owned and operated in 

 the public behoof. The mere fact (shown be- 

 fore the Interstate Commerce Commission) 

 that the railroads could, if they wished, haul 

 their cars straight through Superior without 

 allowing any inspection they did not care to 

 allow, and the other fact that the Duluth 

 Board of Trade could practically put out of 

 business any dealer or handler or combina- 

 tion of dealers and handlers that incurred its 

 ill will, made cautious men too wary of such 

 a project, and the generous hopes of the com- 

 mittee soon proved to be but rosy dreams. 



1 Years later the Equity Society, becoming strong in Wisconsin, 

 erected a market of its own in Superior, and has made of it a success- 

 ful venture. 



149 



