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 may hereafter be located or doing business within this state, as above described, whether said owners or operators reside within this state or not, are public warehousemen, within the meaning of this act, and none of the provisions of this act shall be construed so as to permit discrimination with reference to the buying, receiving, and handling of grain of standard grades, or in regard to parties offering such grain for sale, storage, or handling at such public warehouses, while the same are in operation.” Section 11 is as follows: “The charges for storage and hauling [handling] grain shall not be greater than the following schedule: For receiving, elevating, insuring, delivering, and twenty days’ storage, two (2) cents per bushel. Storage rates after the first twenty days, one-half (4) cent for each fifteen days or fraction thereof, and shall not exceed five (5) cents for six months. The grain shall be kept insured at the expense of the warehousemen for the benefit of the owner.” Section 12 provides the penalty for violating the act by declaring that all persons “who shall violate the provisions of any section of this act, or shall do or perform any act or thing therein forbidden, or who shall fail to do or keep the requirements as herein provided, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall, on conviction thereof, be subjected to a fine of not less than two hundred (200) dollars, nor more than $1,000, and be liable, in addition thereto, to imprisonment for not more than one year at the state penitentiary, at the discretion of the court.” Section 5 of the act requires “public warehousemen,” as defined in the statute, to file a bond with the railroad commissioners for the faithful performance of their duties as public warehousemen.

On petition of the relator the district court granted an alternative writ of mandamus, as follows: ‘The state of North Dakota to Norman Brass, respondent: Whereas, the following facts have been made to appear to this court by the verified petition of the above-named relator, to-wit: (1) That he is the relator in the above-entitled matter; that he owns and operates a farm containing 540 acres in the vicinity of the railroad station of Grand Harbor, in the county and state aforesaid, and during the year 1891 has raised on said farm about 4,000 bushels of grain, principally wheat. (2) That the relator has not sufficient