A CALL TO ARMS
And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people: and as one
gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth.--_Isaiah_
10:14.
For five thousand years Man has grown wheat for food. Archaeologists
have found it buried with the mummies of Egypt; the pictured stones of
the Pyramids record it. But it was the food of princes, not of
peasants--of the aristocracy, not of the people; for no man could
harvest enough of it with his sickle to create a supply which would
place it within the reach of the poor. While century after century[1]
has passed since wheat was first recognized as the premier nourishment
for the human body, it is only of recent times that it has become the
food of the nations.
The swift development of grain growing into the world's greatest
industry goes back for a small beginning to 1831. It was in that year
that a young American-born farm boy of Irish-Scotch extraction was
jeered and laughed at as he attempted to cut wheat with the first crude
reaper; but out of Cyrus Hall McCormick's invention soon grew the
wonderful harvesting machinery which made possible the production of
wheat for export. Close on heel the railways and water-carriers began
competing for the transportation of the grain, the railways pushing
eagerly in every direction where new wheat lands could be tapped. In
1856 wheat was leaving Chicago for Europe and four years later grain
vessels from California were rounding Cape Horn. The nine years that
followed saw the conquest of the vast prairies of the American West
which were crossed by the hissing, iron monsters that stampeded the
frightened bison, out-ran the wild horses and out-stayed the lurking
Indian.
No sooner had the railways pushed back the frontier than wheat began to
trickle steadily upon the market, to flow with increased volume, then
to pour in by train-loads. Sacks were discarded for quicker shipment
in bulk; barns and warehouses filled and spilled till adequate storage
facilities became the vital problem and, the need mothering invention,
F. H. Peavey came forward with an idea--an endless chain of metal cups
for elevating grain. From this the huge modern elevator evolved to
take its place as the grain's own particular storehouse. With the
establishment of exchanges for conducting international buying and
selling the universalizing of wheat was complete.
These things had come to pass while that great region which is now
Western Canada was still known as a Great Lone Land. Pioneer settlers,
however, were beginning to venture westward to the newly organized
Province of Manitoba and beyond. The nearest railroad was at St. Paul,
Minnesota, from which point a "prairie schooner" trail led north for
450 miles to Winnipeg at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine
rivers; the alternative to this overland tented-wagon route was a
tedious trip by Red River steamer. It was not until 1878 that a
railway was built north into Manitoba from St. Paul; but it was
followed shortly after by the projection of the Canadian Pacific
Railway, which reached Vancouver in 1886.
Then began what has been called the greatest wheat-rush ever known.
Land, land without end, to be had for the asking--rich land that would
grow wheat, forty bushels to the acre, millions of acres of it!
Fabulous tales, winging east and south, brought settlers pouring into
the new country. They came to grow wheat and they grew it, the finest
wheat in the world. They grew it in ever increasing volume.
Successful operation of new railroads--even ordinary railroads--is not
all glistening varnish and bright new signal flags. The Canadian
Pacific was no ordinary railway. It was a young giant, reaching for
the western skyline with temerity, and it knew Trouble as it knew sun
and wind and snow. The very grain which was its life-blood gorged the
embryo system till it choked. The few elevators and other facilities
provided could not begin to handle the crop, even of 1887, the heavy
yield upsetting all calculations. The season for harvesting and
marketing being necessarily short, the railroad became the focus of a
sudden belch of wheat; it required to be rushed to the head of the
lakes in a race with the advancing cold which threatened to congeal the
harbor waters about the anxiously waiting grain boats before they could
clear. With every wheel turning night and day no ordinary rolling
stock could cope with the demands; for the grain was coming in over the
trails to the shipping points faster than it could be hauled out and
the railroad was in a fix for storage accommodation.
It was easy to see that such seasonal rushes would be a permanent
condition in Western Canada, vital but unavoidable; so the Canadian
Pacific Railway Company cast about for alleviations. They hit upon the
plan of increasing storage facilities rapidly by announcing that the
Company would make special concessions to anyone who would build
elevators along the line with a capacity of not less than 26,000
bushels and equipped with cleaning machinery, steam or gasoline
power--in short, "standard" elevators. The special inducement offered
was nothing more nor less than an agreement that at points where such
elevators were erected the railway company would not allow cars to be
loaded with grain through flat warehouses, direct from farmers'
vehicles or in any other way than through such elevators; the only
"condition" was that the elevator owners would furnish storage and
shipping facilities, of course, for those wishing to store or ship
grain.
At once the noise of hammer and saw resounded along the right-of-way.
Persons and corporations whose business it was to mill grain, to buy
and export it, were quick to take advantage of the opportunity; for the
protection offered by the railway meant that here was shipping control
of the grain handed out on a silver platter, garnished with all the
delectable prospects of satisfying the keenest money hunger.
On all sides protests arose from the few owners of ordinary warehouses
who found their buildings useless, once the overtopping elevator went
up alongside--from small buyers who found themselves being driven out
of the market with the flat warehouses. But these voices were drowned
in the swish of grain in the chutes and the staccato of the elevator
engines--lost in the larger exigencies of the wheat. The railway
company held to their promises and the tall grain boxes reared their
castor tops against the sky in increasing clusters.
To operate a standard elevator at a country point with profit it was
considered necessary in the early days to fill it three times in a
season unless the owner proposed to deal in grain himself and make a
buyer's profit in addition to handling grain for others. The cost of
building and operating the class of elevator demanded by the railway
company was partly responsible for this. Before long the number of
elevators in Manitoba and the North-West Territories increased till it
was impossible for all of them to obtain the three fillings per season
even had their owners been inclined to perform merely a handling
service.
But those who had taken up the railway's offer with such avidity and
had invested large sums of shareholders' capital in building the
elevator accommodation were mostly shrewd grain dealers whose primary
object was to buy and sell. These interested corporations were not
constructing elevators in order to admire their silhouettes against the
beautiful prairie sunsets! In every corner of the earth the Dollar
Almighty, or its equivalent, was being stalked by all sorts and
conditions of men, some of whom chased it noisily and openly while
others hunted with their boots in one hand. Properly enough, the grain
men were out for all that their investment could earn and for all the
wheat which they could buy at one price and sell at another. That was
their business, just as it was the business of the railway company to
transport the grain at a freight rate which would net a profit, just as
it was the farmer's business--
But to the farmer it seemed that he had no business! He merely grew
the grain. Apparently a farmer was a pair of pants, a shirt and a
slouch hat that sat on a wagon-load of wheat, drove it up the incline
into the elevator and rattled away again for another load! To farm was
an occupation easily parsed--subjunctive mood, past tense, passive
voice! The farmer was third person, singular! He came and went in
single file like an Indian or a Chinaman--John Doe, Yon Yonson and
Johann X (his mark)--every kind of Johnny on no spot but his own! As
soon as his grain was dumped each of him went back to the land among
the dumb animals where the pomp and vanity of this wicked world would
not interfere with preparations for next year's crop!
Wheat was bought upon the grading system--so much per bushel for this
grade, so much for that, according to the fluctuations of supply and
demand upon the world's markets. But the average farmer at that time
knew little or nothing about what went on in the great exchanges of the
cities; there was no means of learning the intricacies of the grain
business and many farmers even did not know what a grain exchange was.
All such a man knew was that his wheat was graded and he received a
certain price for it.
The railway company's refusal to furnish cars for loading direct from
the farmer's wagon compelled the shipper to sell to the elevator
operator for whatever price he could get, accepting whatever weights
the operator allowed and whatever "dockage" he chose to decree. The
latter represented that portion of the farmer's delivery which was
supposed to come through the cleaning sieves as waste material such as
dirt, weed seeds, broken wheat kernels, etc. To determine the
percentage of dockage in any given load of wheat the ordinary human
being would require to weigh and clean a pound of it at least; but so
expert were many of the elevator operators of those days that they had
no trouble at all in arriving at the dockage by a single glance. Nor
were they disconcerted by the fact that the country was new and grain
frequently came from the thresher in a remarkably clean condition.
With everything thus fallow for seeds of discord the Big Trouble was
not long in making itself manifest. All over the country the Bumping
of the Bumpkins apparently became the favorite pastime of elevator men.
Certain persons with most of their calluses on the inside cracked the
whip and the three-ring circus began. Excessive dockage, short
weights, depressed prices! The farmers grew more and more bitter as
time passed. To begin with, they resented being compelled by the
railway to deal with the elevators; it was a violation of that liberty
which they had a right to enjoy as British citizens. The grain was
theirs to sell where they liked, and when on top of the refusal to let
them do it came this bleeding of their crops, their indignation was
fanned to white heat.
It was useless for the farmers to build elevators of their own; for
these had to conform to the requirements of the railway and, as already
stated, it was impossible to run them profitably without making a
buyer's profit in addition to the commission for handling and storage.
The farmers were not buyers but sellers of grain and with very few
exceptions, where conditions were specially favorable, the farmers'
elevators that were attempted were soon in difficulties.
Leading farmers began to write strong letters to the newspapers and it
was not long before the agitation became so widespread that it reached
the floor of Parliament. Mr. James M. Douglas, member for East
Assiniboia, during two successive sessions introduced Bills to regulate
the shipping and transportation of grain in Manitoba and the North-West
Territories and these were discussed in the House of Commons. A
Special Committee of the House was appointed finally to investigate the
merits of the case and as considerable difference of opinion was
expressed as to the actual facts, the appointment of a Royal Commission
to make a full and impartial investigation of the whole subject in the
public interest was recommended.
This Royal Commission accordingly was appointed on October 7th, 1899,
and consisted of three Manitoba farmers--W. F. Sirett, of Glendale;
William Lothian, of Pipestone, and Charles C. Castle, of Foxton--with
His Honor E. J. Senkler, of St. Catharines, Ontario, as Chairman;
Charles N. Bell, of Winnipeg, acted as Secretary. Owing to the illness
and death of Judge Senkler, Albert Elswood Richards (afterwards the
late Hon. Mr. Justice Richards, of Winnipeg), succeeded as Chairman in
February, 1900.
Sittings were held at many places throughout Manitoba and the
North-West Territories and much evidence was taken as to the grievances
complained of, these being mainly: (1) That vendors of grain were being
subjected to unfair and excessive dockage at the time of sale; (2) That
doubt existed as to the fairness of the weights allowed or used by
owners of elevators; (3) That the owners of elevators enjoyed a
monopoly in the purchase of grain by refusing to permit the erection of
flat warehouses where standard elevators were situated and were thus
able to keep prices of grain below true value to their own benefit and
the disadvantage of the public generally as well as others who were
specially interested in the grain trade.
Meanwhile the railway companies had hastened to announce that they
would furnish cars to farmers who wished to ship direct and do their
own loading. This concession, made in 1898-9, resulted in somewhat
better prices and better treatment from the elevator operators. But
farmers who lived more than four or five miles from the shipping points
could not draw in their grain fast enough to load a car within the time
allowed by the railway; so that the situation, so far as these farmers
were concerned, remained practically unchanged.
In March, 1900, the Royal Commission made a complete report. They had
done their work thoroughly. They found that so long as any farmer was
hampered in shipping to terminal markets himself he would be more or
less at the mercy of elevator operators and that the only proper relief
from the possibility of undue dockage and price depression was to be
found in the utmost freedom of shipping and selling. To this end they
considered that the railroads should be compelled by law to furnish
farmers with cars for shipping their own grain and that flat warehouses
should be allowed so that the farmer could have a bin in which to
accumulate a carload of grain, if he so wished. This, the
commissioners thought, should be the farmer's legal right rather than
his privilege. Loading platforms for the free use of shippers were
also recommended.
It was the further opinion of the Commission that the law should compel
elevator and warehouse owners to guarantee the grades and weights of a
farmer's grain and to do this the adoption of a uniform grain ticket
system was suggested. At the same time, the commissioners pointed out,
these guarantees might lead to such careful grading and docking by the
elevator operator as might appear to the farmer to be undergrading or
overdocking; so that the farmer's right to load direct on cars was a
necessary supplementary protection.
The annual shortage of cars during the rush season following harvest
was found to be a direct cause of depression in prices. When cars were
not available for immediate shipments the grain soon piled up on the
elevator companies who were thereby forced to miss the cheaper
transportation by boat from the head of the lakes or assume the risk of
carrying over the grain until the following spring; in buying,
therefore, they naturally allowed a wide margin to cover all possible
contingencies. Increase of transportation facilities during October
and November accordingly was imperative.
With no rules to regulate the grain trade except those laid down by the
railways and the elevator owners, the need was great for definite
legislation similar to that which obtained in the State of Minnesota
and, as a result of the Royal Commission's recommendations, the
Manitoba Grain Act was placed upon the statutes and became operative in
1900. To supervise the carrying out of the law in connection with the
grain trade a Warehouse Commissioner was appointed, Mr. C. C. Castle
who acted on the Royal Commission being selected for this responsible
office.
A sigh of relief went up from many intelligent farmers who had begun to
worry over the conditions developing; for they looked upon the Manitoba
Grain Act as a sort of Magna Charta. With the grain trade under
official control and supervision along the lines laid down by the Royal
Commission, they felt that everything would be alright now. It was
like calling in a policeman to investigate suspicious noises in the
house; like welcoming the doctor's arrival upon an occasion of sudden
and severe illness. Unfortunately, the patient's alarming symptoms
sometimes continue; sometimes the thief makes a clean get-away; King
John had no sooner left Runnymede than he proceeded to ignore the Great
Charter and plan new and heavier scutages upon the people!
Up till now the elevator owners had been operating with nothing more
definite than a fellowship of interests to hold them together; but upon
appearance of the Grain Act they proceeded to organize the North West
Elevator Association, afterwards called the North West Grain Dealers'
Association. By agreeing on the prices which they would pay for wheat
out in the country and by pooling receipts the members of such an
organization, the farmers suspected, would be in a position to strangle
competition in buying.
The new Act was aiming point blank at these very things by affording
the farmer an opportunity of loading his grain direct into cars through
flat warehouses, if he chose, and shipping where he liked. But because
many farmers did not know with just what the new weapon was loaded or
how to pull the trigger, the railways and elevators merely stepped up
and smilingly brushed the whole thing aside as something which were
better hanging on a high peg out of harm's way.
The crop of 1900 being comparatively light, the ignoring of the
car-distribution clauses of the Act did not obtrude as brazenly as it
did the year following. But when grain began to pour in to the
shipping points in 1901 and the farmers found the railway unheeding
their requests for cars their disgust and disappointment were as
complete as their anger was swift. It was the rankling disappointment
of men whose rights have been officially decreed only to be
unofficially annulled; it was the hot anger of a slap in the face--the
anger that makes men fight with every ounce of their strength.
The quick welling of it planted anxiety in the minds of such
level-headed farmers as W. R. Motherwell and Peter Dayman, of
Abernethy; Williams, of Balcarres; Snow, of Wolseley; Sibbold and
Millar, of Indian Head. While the two latter were riding into town
with wheat one day John Sibbold suggested to John Millar that, as
secretary of the local Agricultural Society, it might be a good thing
if he called a meeting to talk things over. It was the high state of
feeling manifested at this meeting which furnished W. R. Motherwell
with food for thought on the lonely Qu'Appelle trail. And it was the
idea that it might be advisable to hold similar mass meetings
throughout the country that brought Peter Dayman driving over to the
Motherwell place, not long after, to discuss it.
These two men had been friends and neighbors since 1883. Each of them
felt that the time had come for definite action of some kind and they
spent the greater part of the day in talking over the situation in
search of the most practical plan of campaign. There was little use in
the farmers attempting to organize in defence of their own interests
unless the effort were absolutely united and along broader lines than
those of any previous farmers' organization. Politics, they both
agreed, would have to be kept out of the movement at all costs or it
would land on the rocks of defeat in the same way that the Farmers'
Union and Patrons of Industry had been wrecked.
It was in the middle eighties when the West was settled but sparsely
that the farmers had attempted to improve their lot by the formation of
"Farmers' Unions." The movement had had a brief and not very brilliant
career and as the offspring of this attempt at organization some
progressives with headquarters at Brandon, Manitoba, had tried to enter
the grain trade as an open company. When one of the chief officers of
this concern defected in an attempt to get rich the failure dragged
down the earnest promoters to deep financial losses.
Again in the early nineties the farmers had rebelled at their pioneer
hardships by organizing the "Patrons of Industry," a movement which had
gained strength and for a while looked healthy. It had got strong
enough to elect friends to the Legislature and was sowing good seed
when again temptation appeared, centred in the lure of commercial
success and politics. Some of the chief officers began to misuse the
organization for selfish ends and away went the whole thing.
There was no use in repeating these defeats. Couldn't some way be
devised of sidestepping such pitfalls? The great weakness of the
farmers was their individual independence; if they could be taught to
stand together for their common interests there was hope that something
might be accomplished.
The sitting-room clock ticked away the hours unheeded as these two
far-sighted and conscientious farmers lost themselves in earnest
discussion. The lamps were lighted, but still they planned.
Finally W. R. Motherwell reached across the table for a pad of
note-paper and drafted the call to arms--a letter which summoned the
men of Wolseley, Sintaluta and Indian Head, of Qu'Appelle, Wideawake
and other places to gather for _action_. There and then copies were
written out for every leading farmer within reach, and in order that no
political significance might be attached to the call, both men signed
the letters.
When Peter Dayman drove away from the Motherwell place that night
perhaps he scarcely realized that he carried in his pocket the fate of
the farmers of Western Canada. Neither he, W. R. Motherwell, nor any
other man could have foretold the bitter struggles which those letters
were destined to unleash--the stirring events that were impending.
[1] Wheat was first grown in Canada in 1606 at Port Royal (now
Annapolis) in Nova Scotia, where Champlain and Pourtincourt built a
fort and established a small colony. A plot of ground was made ready
and wheat planted. "It grew under the snow," said Pourtincourt, "and
in the following midsummer it was harvested."