in grain of a quarter section of land in North Dakota does not exceed twenty-five hundred bushels; that a granary sufficient in size to safely and securely store twenty-five hundred bushels of grain can be erected on any farm in North Dakota at a cost not exceeding one hundred and fifty dollars; that the business of respondent and all other persons, firms, and corporations engaged in the business of operating grain elevators, warehouses, and flathouses in North Dakots, and the manner in which said business is conducted, are not in any manner unwholesome or deleterious to the health, morals, welfare, or safety of the community or society; that the railroad and warehouse commissioners of North Dakota, on page 33 of their Annual Report to the Governor for 1890, said: ‘In view of the fact that, after thorough investigation, the board deem the charges allowed by § 22, c. 187, Laws 1890, and also § 10 of said chapter, as unreasonable, the following rules of storage are recommended: (1) For receiving, elevating, insuring, delivering, and fifteen days’ storage, two and one-half cents per bushel. (2) After fifteen days, one-half cent per bushel for each fifteen days or part thereof, but not to exceed five cents for six months.’ That the rates referred to by said commissioners as unreasonable were less than the rate recommended by said board; that the respondent denies that the legislature has any power whatever to say whether he shall rent the bins in his elevator or not, and wholly denies the power of the legislature to say what he shall charge for the use of his said elevator, or the bins therein; that since the enactment of § 9 of chapter 126 of the Laws of 1885, the amount of grain shipped directly by farmers, without the intervention of elevators, warehouses, or flathouses, has been increasing, and in 1890, as respondent is informed and believes, nearly fifty per cent. of the entire grain product of North Dakota was shipped to Minneapolis and Duluth, Minn., by farmers; that the amount of grain shipped in that manner is steadily increasing from year to year; that pursuant to § 7, chapter 122, Laws 1890, the railroad commissioners adopted and published the following rules to govern the distribution of cars and other freight, which rules are now in operation in said state of North Dakota, to-wit: ‘State of North Dakota. Office of commission-
Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 2).pdf/517
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NORTH DAKOTA EX REL. STOESER v. BRASS.
491