[Duluth-Superior. Chicago. Milwaukee. Equity Cooperative Exchange, Farmers' Selling Agency. Corn Exchange, Minneapolis, Minn., Dec. 12, 1913.] The chamber of commerce now requires its members to sell grain delivered at the buyer's mill or elevator and thereby place the burden of expense for such delivery upon you. Every independent shipper should challenge the commission firm's right to observe this arbitrary rule. There is no more reason why the switching should be charged you than the charge for unloading or transferring through the elevator. The shipper's responsibility ceases after cars reach their destination. It should be borne in mind that this is the only terminal market in the United States where the shippers were forced to bear such expense. Write us for particulars as to the line of action necessary to head off this holdup. Attend the Sioux Falls convention December 16-18. EQUITY COOPERATIVE EXCHANGE. Duluth-Superior. Chicago. Milwaukee. Equity Cooperative Exchange. Farmers' Selling Agency. Corn Exchange, Minneapolis, Minn., Dec. 31, 1913.] 50 -53 1.47 44-67 1.47 AT THE DAWN OF THE NEW YEAR-1914. We extend to you the most seasonable and cordial greetings. We hope and wish you are as happy and contended with the future outlook for your business venture as we have reasons to be with the future outlook for the Equity Cooperative Exchange. THE OLD YEAR-1913 has been rich in developments. It has brought the cooperative movement forward as never before. Its onward and upward march has become rapid and decisive, with many victories won and others sure to follow. The closing days of the old year brought the finest victory-the strongest indorsement. The annual convention of the Farmers' Cooperative Association of South Dakota, held at Sioux Falls, December 16 to 18, approved the action of its directors who had indorsed the Equity Cooperative Exchange and reelected them with an overwhelming majority. The farmers of the Northwest will meet in Fargo, N. Dak., January 20 to 23, when the Equity Exchange and the cooperative movement will receive their indorsement. The searchlight of publicity is shining, lighting up the dark crevices of corporate greed and grasping combinations, revealing to the public view a condition which will no longer be tolerated. If you are undecided as to the merits of our movement, come to the Fargo meeting January 20 to 23. EQUITY COOPERATIVE EXCHANGE. These cards are dated in December. I have seen many issued at earlier dates. Prior to December and during the fall of 1913 the railroad and warehouse commission of Minnesota, under authority, sent out to independent lines and farmers' cooperative elevators daily cards showing closing prices at Minneapolis and Duluth, and these cards which were sent out by the Equity Cooperative Exchange during that time seemed to follow exactly the same principle, as illustrated by these two filed with your committee. They kept from onefourth to a half cent, in most instances, above the closing prices sent out by the official department of the State of Minnesota as well as above the published closing prices of the chamber. Thus the Equity cards were a continual representation that wheat was selling higher on the so-called independent grain exchange than it was elsewhere. I want to introduce in evidence a reprint from the National Grain Growers' Association, containing information that I have already referred to as to prices at which the grain was actually sold in the Minneapolis market by the Equity Cooperative Exchange. [Reprint from recent issues of the National Grain Grower and Equity Farm News, official organ American Society of Equity.] AN OPEN LETTER OF IMPORTANCE TO EVERY FARMER GRAIN DEALER IN THE NORTHWEST. The best way to sum up any proposition is to deal with cold, concrete facts, not generalities, but specific cases. Therefore, to place before our readers documentary evidence tending to sustain our attitude toward the Equity Cooperative Exchange, we publish the following letter: Mr. P. V. COLLINS, MINNEAPOLIS, August 22, 1913. Editor Northwestern Agriculturist, Minneapolis, Minn. DEAR SIR: In your August 16, 1913, issue you announce in your editorial that the Equity Cooperative Exchange will be conducted on a cooperative basis, beginning August 1, 1913. Your editorial proceeds to give your approval to the Equity Cooperative Exchange, and apparently recommends its support by the producers of the Northwest. Your editorial also states that the Equity Cooperative Exchange handled 1,800 cars in the past year, or 10 per cent of the total receipts of grain and seeds in Minneapolis and Duluth; and, further, predicts that this year the Equity Cooperative Exchange will handle one-fourth of the receipts in these two markets, and the year following one-half of the total receipts. On account of the undersigned being in possession of certain affidavits and other information pertaining to the Equity Cooperative Exchange, I have been requested to give you certain facts, which undoubtedly will be of interest to you, as I understand that your paper is published in the interests of the farmers in general of the Northwest, and believing such to be the case I deem it my duty to give you the following facts and figures, together with a copy of an affidavit of James De Veau, and also a letter from the secretary of state of North Dakota, and ask that you publish the same for the benefit of the people who read your paper; and I am giving you this believing that you have been deceived to a certain extent with reference to this Equity Cooperative Exchange, and knowing that you do not wish to deceive your readers I am submitting the following facts, affidavits, etc., for your own benefit, as well as your readers: In the first place, if the Equity Cooperative Exchange handled 1,800 cars during the past year, I wish to call your attention to the fact that the total number of cars of grain and flaxseed received at Minneapolis and Duluth, from August 1, 1912, to July 31, 1913, was 168,797 cars in Minneapolis, and Duluth received about 105,500, making total number of cars of grain and flaxseed received in the two markets of about 274,297. If your statement of the receipts of the Equity Exchange during the past year, viz., 1,800 cars, is correct, this would represent a little over 0.6 of 1 per cent of the total receipts in these two markets, or, to be exact, 0.00648, instead of the 10 per cent you stated in your editorial. I was much surprised at your indorsement of the Equity Exchange, in view of the fact that according to your own editorial, they have been falsely using the word "cooperative" during the past year, and posing as a cooperative institution, when in fact their use of the word "cooperative" was a fraud upon the country shipper, and misleading to the last degree. Second, if you had followed the evidence produced during the recent legislative investigation, you would be aware that for about a year past, the Equity Exchange falsely advertised "Our terminal elevator in St. Paul," and stated below the picture of this alleged elevator, "We are in a position to store your grain," this advertisement being absolutely false, as the Equity Exchange neither owned nor controlled any elevator in St. Paul, as advertised. Your editorial states that "the shipper receives at once as much for his grain as if he had sold it through the line elevators and the chamber of commerce," etc. I call your attention to the following copy of an affidavit signed by James De Veau, which was read at a meeting of the farmers' elevator at Kramer, N. Dak., in July. This affidavit sufficiently demonstrates the attitude of those in charge of the Equity Cooperative Exchange toward the farmer elevator company and the producer, and needs no comment: District Court, Ninth Judicial District. STATE OF MINNESOTA, County of Hennepin, ss: James De Veau, being duly sworn, deposes and says that he is a resident of the city of Minneapolis, State of Minnesota, County of Hennepin, and that from the 1st day of August, 1912, to October 15, 1912, he was working for the Loftus-Hubbard Co. of said city of Minneapolis, of whom George S. Loftus is the manager and the sales manager of the Equity Cooperative Exchange; and that this affiant worked at the abovedescribed time under George S. Loftus, as sales manager of the Equity Cooperative Exchange, and sold and disposed of all grain during the above-mentioned time that was shipped to Duluth for the Equity Cooperative Exchange, of which George S. Loftus, sales manager, and that the same was sold at Duluth, under the direction of George S. Loftus, to the Atwood-Stone Co., for 1 cent per bushel under the market (that is barley and wheat), and oats sold at one-half cent per bushel under the market; and after said sales were made, George S. Loftus charged Î cent commission per bushel on barley and wheat, one-half cent on oats. Affiant states that this was all done under the direction of George S. Loftus, and he well knew that by doing this the shippers were paying 2 cents per bushel commission on wheat and barley and 1 cent per bushel on oats. And that at the time these sales were made there was no misrepresentation made to George S. Loftus as to the market price, because Atwood-Stone, through this affiant, notified George S. Loftus that the market was a certain price; and affiant further states that this is the only way that he knew how to get a commission on the sale of said grain, for George S. Loftus, sales manager for Equity Cooperative Exchange, without notifying the said shippers, and that said confirmation on sales were made in this indirect manner to enable the Equity Cooperative Exchange to get their 1 cent per bushel and not evade the law of Minne sota. George S. Loftus well knew he was unable to get the same price as other commission houses, and knew that he was charging double the commission any other commission house would charge doing business in Duluth. This affiant further states that the reason this affidavit covers the above time is because the affiant left George S. Loftus on the 15th day of October, and refused to work for the Loftus-Hubbard Co, any longer. Further than this affiant saith not. Subscribed and sworn to before me this 14th day of July, 1913. [NOTARIAL SEAL]. JAMES DE VEAU, F. E. POMERY, Notary Public, Hennepin County. My commission expires August 27, 1915. It is mere nonsense to claim that grain can be sold as advantageously or at as high a price outside of the regular grain exchanges, as is the case in the exchange room of these organizations. The grain exchanges furnish their members a vast amount of valuable information, gathered at great expense from many sources, which naturally gives the members of these organizations an enormous advantage in the sale of grain over those not members of these exchanges. Practically all the buyers of any consequence are members of the recognized grain exchanges, and make their purchases only in the exchange room of these organizations, because of the safeguards thrown around the contracts and the responsibility of the parties from whom purchases are made. Grain which is peddled around by anyone not a member of the chamber of commerce must necessarily be sacrificed in price, because of the absence of competition between buyers. As an illustration of this my attention has been called to the following letter from a farmers' elevator company, which shipped a car of barley to a member of the chamber of commerce, and another car to the Equity Cooperative Exchange, both cars being loaded out of the same bin. This letter needs no comment, but it further appears that the car sold by the Equity Cooperative Exchange was sold to a member of the chamber of commerce, who promptly resold the same for 58 f. o. b. Minneapolis, the same price at which the car shipped direct to the member of the chamber of commerce was sold. A very large proportion of the grain received by the Equity Cooperative Exchange for several years past, including last year, has been sold upon the floor of the chamber of commerce, and in our opinion the members of the chamber of commerce on the whole make a larger profit of the grain shipped to the Equity Cooperative Exchange as if shipped direct to the members of the chamber of commerce to be sold on the usual commission: KENKEL-TODD & Co., Minneapolis, Minn. SHELLY, MINN., August 16, 1913. GENTLEMEN: I wired you to-day to demand car barley No. 211613 from the Equity Cooperative Exchange. The reason is simply this: On the 14th of August we got your notice of sale of car No. 11596 at 58 cents, the same identical barley, we got notice from the Equity that they had sold their car for us at 53 cents. In looking up the reports for August 13 and 14 I find that no barley was sold as low as 53 cents, and besides this barley was taken from the same bin as yours. Hope you will look into this matter and demand the car. H. G. AANENSON, Agent, Shelly Elevator Co. The chamber of commerce possesses no monopoly whatever, farmers' elevator companies or farmers are free to ship their grain wherever they see fit, regardless of the result financially. If shipments are secured, however, from farmers or farmer elevator companies, based upon false or fraudulent statements, this is entirely another matter, and an institution of this character should not receive the indorsement of a prominent agricultural journal such as your own which should naturally be interested in the protection of its subscribers' interests. In fact, it is mere nonsense to imagine that two market places can exist in the same city. The result of an effort to establish a second market place simply results in subjecting the grain to two or more commissions. A very large proportion of the grain shipped to the Equity Cooperative Exchange is immediately sold by the Equity Exchange to members of the chamber of commerce, and immediately resold by the members upon the floor of the exchange at an advance of one to several cents a bushel. As nearly as I can ascertain, from February 1, 1913, to August 11, 1913, the Equity Exchange appears to have received about 400 cars of grain at Minneapolis; about 280 of these cars, or about 70 per cent, were sold to members of the chamber of commerce; and all these cars but two were purchased at a price which allowed the purchaser a |