THE FARMERS IN CONTROL 



the grain had always great advantage and the 

 producer never received the actual market 

 value of his produce. 



B. False scales and fraudulent weighing, 

 by which the farmer was deprived of a part 

 of his just returns. 



C. A system of toll-taking called dock- 

 age, by which the farmer was penalized ex- 

 cessively for foreign bodies in his grain, was de- 

 prived of ownership of these materials (often 

 of a considerable value), and finally was 

 obliged to pay the freightage to market on 

 these materials of which he had been unjustly 

 deprived. 



D. Mixing-houses and their operations, 

 by which his grain, having been artificially 

 and unjustly assigned a low grade, to his 

 great injury, was now restored to a high grade 

 for the sole benefit of the market manipulator. 



E. The long line of needless middlemen 

 that sold the gram back and forth among 

 themselves, involving superfluous commis- 

 sions; the "spread" or artificial difference be- 

 tween high price and low price for the same 

 grade, by which these wash sales were facil- 

 itated and protected. 



F. Excessive railroad rates, based not upon 

 service or distance or cost, but solely upon 

 what could be extracted from any commu- 

 nity to meet the exigencies of railroad over- 

 capitalization. 



255 



