REPORT OF MINNEAPOLIS WEIGHING DEP ARTMENT.

OFFICE OF STATE WEIGHMASTER,

MINNEAPOLIS, MINN., September 1, 1891.

To the Honorable Railroad and Warehouse Commission.

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GENTLEMEN:-In conformity with the requirements of the rules established, I herewith respectfully submit my annual report for the year beginning September 1st, 1890, and ending August 31st, 1891, the same being the sixth annual report of the Minneapolis State Weighing Department.

A careful review of the business of the past year again shows a great increase. The places of state weighing have been perceptibly increased by the erection of new elevators and by state weighing at places that heretofore had ignored the service. By this, the receipts of this department have been considerably augmented, although not in proportion to the additional places that now enjoy state weighing, or in other words, the additional work has increased our expenses at a greater ratio than the receipts, owing to many smaller places where we furnish weighers. It is evident that it requires the service of a weigher at an elevator a quarter of a mile or more from another, whether it handles ten cars per day or one hundred, but the receipts will, as a matter of course, be accordingly.

The force has been materially increased since last year for reasons given; besides this a number of places require night service, which also takes additional help. Our weighing force at the present time consists of thirty-five (35) men, viz: one weighmaster, two clerks, one scale expert, and thirty-one deputy weighers.

We are now weighing at forty-nine different places: twentyfour elevators, twenty-one mills, and four railroad yards, as follows:

ELEVATORS.

"A 1," "A 2," "Interior 1," "Interior 2," "K," "Central, "City," "Star," "Pillsbury B," "B," "North Dakota," "Brighton," Victoria," "Diamond," "E," "Pillsbury," "Midway, "Woodworth," "Union," "Inter State," "St. Anthony 1," "St. Anthony 2," "Transfer 1," and "Transfer 2.1

MILLS.

"Pillsbury A," "Washburn A," "Washburn B," "Washburn C," "Anchor," "Humboldt," "Palisade," "Galaxy," "Zenith," "Northwestern," "Excelsior," "Minneapolis," "Pillsbury B,”

"Dakota," "Crown Roller," "Cataract," "Standard," "Holly," "St. Anthony," "Columbia," and "Occidental,"

RAILROAD YARDS.

Minneapolis & St. Louis, Great Northern, Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, and Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha. We have endeavored to continue improvements in this de partment and can say that it is giving general satisfaction. Notwithstanding our efforts, shortages do occur. Shortages, although seldom on cars weighed by us from elevators in this city and again into mills here, do take place. Some of these shortages are of a very mysterious character, others can be traced to leaking of cars, wrong spouting at the elevators, transposition of car numbers, stealing, and dropping of grain through scale hopper before weighed. These mistakes are not committed by the employes of the state, but are the results of accidents, and sometimes carelessness on the part of the employes of elevators and mills. We constantly admonish these to exercise the utmost caution, as to a certain degree the correctness of our work is dependent upon their action. Again, shortages are frequently reported by commission-men acting for country shippers, but investigation has demonstrated that the great majority of these complaints are unjustifiable. It is an apparent fact, that as stated before, the shortages of cars shipped from elevators to the mills are few and far between. They hold up so close in weight that the average shortage on grain thus weighed out of elevators and into mills in this city, is from seven to thirty-five pounds per car, and as the weighing of cars from the country is done in the same manner and by the same men, the result should be and must be the same. Shippers from the country frequently put a card in the car containing the weight of the contents of same, and we of ten find that they weigh considerable more than the amount claimed. In several instances averages exceeding five thousand pounds have been found; this is an indication of the unreliability of primary or country weighing. In this connection I will say, that shortages are always reported, while shippers invariably keep quiet about overages.

I drafted a bill and caused the same to be introduced in the last legislature, providing for the appointment of one or more scale experts whose duty it should be to travel about the state, examine and correct scales in primary elevators, together with

their respective modes of handling grain." but the law makers of that session did not see fit to pass the same.

Often when a shortage is reported on a car and it is practicable to do so, we weigh up the whole bin in an elevator into which the grain has been put, and invariably do we find that such bin is a few pounds short of what it ought to contain; this is conclusive proof that the house has not received more than the weighing calls for.

By examining the books of an elevator company, owning a large number of country elevators, I find that at some stations the weights will be just about even with ours; at some they will overrun, and at others they will be short. This is another indication that there is something wrong about the scales in the country; besides this their cars are unloaded at nearly every place in our system during the season and it would be impossible for our weights to be wrong at all of them.

We have a first-class scale expert connected with our department and we find that this is an absolute necessity, for scales very frequently need an overhauling, and by having such an expert always out in the various places where we weigh, we feel assured that the scales we operate are correct, and at the present time we operate on about one hundred and eighty (180) scales of large capacity. A great many of these scales have the so-called Fisher's Patent Scale Registering Device attached to them. This is an automatic machine, and if handled with reasonable care cannot fail to be correct. It serves as a check, and we have found it very valuable in cases where errors have been committed by the weighers in putting down their figures. We often find that cars have been badly coopered in the country, which is liable to cause leakage while in transit. We also find that they don't sweep the cars properly. Shippers should bear in mind that cars must be well swept and coopered before they are sent out on the road. Cars having been loaded with coal or oil must be well cleaned, for the millers are very particular in not wanting coal dust or oily wheat to get into their mills.

Continuing on the subject of shortages. I cannot refrain from alluding to what I consider one cause of actual shortage, and that is. stealing out of railroad cars while on the tracks in this city, and perhaps while in transit. The railroad yards of this city are very extensive and especially so in the outskirts where police protection on the part of the city is very meagre, and where there is none on the part of the railroad company.

Complaints are frequent on cars loaded and unloaded from places in or near the center of the city, which fact of itself goes to support the theory of extensive stealing from cars standing way out beyond patrol limits, and as a matter of fact cars sometimes remain in these yards for a week or more before they are unloaded, giving ample opportunity for plundering by parties desiring to do so. I know positively that large amounts of grain are being stolen from cars, and this is especially true in the fall and winter when idle men and boys make use of the long evenings and nights to pursue their nefarious business. Grain thus procured is constantly being sold to flour and feed dealers in this city who handle large quantities of it. A great deal of this grain sold to dealers is taken from the cars in broad daylight by men and boys carrying with them brooms, sacks and ladders, representing themselves as sweepers of empty cars, but I am well aware that they don't confine themselves to empty cars alone.

I desire right here to reiterate the recommendation made in my former reports, that the railroad companies should exercise more vigilance in excluding from their yards these parties who make a livelihood by plundering shippers, and to furnish better police protection. The Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad Company is the only one to my knowledge in this city that has police protection in its yards, and the result is indeed very apparent. I have done all in my power to put a stop to this evil, and will continue to do so, and to accomplish this in some degree, I drafted and had introduced in the last legislature, a bill "to prohibit loitering in and about railroad yards." The bill met with the same fate as the one above alluded to-it didn't pass. I have also written letters to the managers of all railroads centering in this city, as well as to the Chamber of Commerce, Grain Receivers' Association, and to the mayor of this city, setting forth these evils and asking co-operation to suppress them. They have all responded favorably, but it yet remains to be seen what will be done. This stealing should be stopped, not only because of the loss to shippers and receivers, but also of its becoming detrimental to this great grain market, and of the odium it is likely to throw upon this state weighing system.

Cars arrive at their places of unloading, not only with seals broken, but in many instances with doors wide open. This is due to the fact that samplers representing various firms who

handle this grain, open them for the purpose of procuring samples, and then sometimes fail to close the car doors.

We have no system for resealing. In this connection I would recommend that a system of sampling be established, either by the state or Chamber of Commerce, which shall provide for a resealing of the cars as soon as the same have been inspected and sampled.

The office work of this department has also increased as the result of increased service at the mills and elevators. Every morning this office is visited by a throng of men representing elevators, mills, railroad companies, commission men, and others, who are desirous of procuring weights for the previous day; which fact goes to show that the public has confidence in our work, and that a system is absolutely necessary; and it now requires the steady work of one man to make out state certificates of weights, which are sent out to all parts of the country on incoming and outgoing cars of grain.

Recent litigation has demonstrated the fact that the records of this office are not admissible in court. This is not right. The records of this office should be the only authority upon which a dispute in weights could be settled.

Therefore, I recommend the enactment of a law, or the amend ment of the statute to this effect.

Believing that the tables exhibiting the extent of our work of last year were easily comprehended, I herewith beg leave to submit similar ones for this grain year showing far greater results.

I add one exhibit, viz: Table I which shows the growth of our department since its organization.

Table II, receipts, disbursements, surplus and deficiency, with a total surplus for the whole year of $1,864.58.

Table III shows the sources of our revenues.

Table IV shows the amount of grain of various kinds in bushels, weighed into elevators and mills.

Table V shows the amount of grain weighed out of elevators and mills.

Table VI shows the number of cars weighed into elevators and mills.

Table VII shows the number of cars weighed out of elevators and mills.

Table VIII shows the number of cars and wagon loads weighed at railroad yards.