Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 2).pdf/516

 houses have swarms of agents traveling throughout the state of North Dakota, going from town to town and farm to farm, purchasing grain from farmers in some instances, and in others soliciting farmers to ship their grain to said houses at Minneapolis or Duluth, Minn., to be by the latter sold on commission; that none of said grain commission houses have or own any storage capacity in North Dakota; that if chapter 126 of the Laws of 1891 is valid, and its effect is to compel respondent to receive all grain that may be tendered to him for storage by grain commission men, farmers, grain speculators, and others, without reference to the necessities or condition of respondent's business, at any particular time, the entire storage capacity of respondent’s elevator will be exhausted in storing grain for third persons, and the principal business of respondent, to conduct which his capital was invested in said elevator, will be utterly ruined and annihilated, for want of storage capacity to contain wheat purchased by him to fill contracts made by him in the conduct of his said business, and respondent subjected to suits for damages for nonfulfillment of his said contracts; that the relator only offered to pay respondent, for the service which he .Tequested him to perform, the rate fixed by chapter 126 of the Laws of 1891, that is, two cents per bushel; that respondent refused to perform the service for less than two and one-half cents per bushel; that respondent refuses to comply with the provisions of said chapter 126 on the ground that it abridges his privileges and immunities as a citizen of the United States; that it deprives him of his liberty and property without due process of law, and denies to him the equal protection of the laws, and amounts to a regulation of commerce among the states; that for thirteen years last past the rate charged for the storage of grain has been uniform at all elevators, flathouses, and warehouses in North Dakota, and during that time did not exceed the following schedule: For receiving, elevating, insuring, delivering, and fifteen days’ storage, two and one-half cents per bushel; after the first fifteen days, one-half cent per bushel for each fifteen days or part thereof, but not to exceed five cents per bushel for six months; that the average farm in North Dakota does not exceed in area 160 acres; that the average yield