ON A CARD IN THE WINDOW OF WILSON'S OLD STORE
. . . Is it vain to hope
The sons of such a land will climb and grope
Along the undiscovered ways of life,
And neither seek nor be found shunning strife,
But ever, beckoned by a high ideal,
Press onward, upward, till they make it real;
With feet sure planted on their native sod,
And will and aspirations linked with God?
--Robert J. C. Stead.
Ideas grow. The particular idea which now began to occupy the thoughts
of E. A. Partridge to the exclusion of everything else was a big idea
to begin with; but it kept on growing so rapidly that it soon became an
obsession.
Why couldn't the farmers themselves form a company to undertake the
marketing of their own wheat? That was the idea. If a thousand
farmers got together in control of ten million bushels of wheat and
sold through a single accredited agency, they would be in the same
position exactly as a single person who owned ten million bushels. If
the owner of ten thousand bushels was able to make a better bargain
than the owner of one thousand, what about the owner of ten million
bushels?
"Would the owner of ten million bushels peddle his wheat by the
wagonload at the local shipping point or by the carload in Winnipeg?"
mused Partridge. "Would he pay one hundred thousand dollars to a
commission man to sell his wheat, with perhaps a nice rake-off to an
exporter, who turns it over at a profit by selling it to a British
dealer, who blends it and makes a good living by selling the blend to a
British miller?"
His pencil travelled swiftly on the back of an envelope.
"Would he pay one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars to the line
elevator and stand a dockage of one hundred thousand bushels in
addition? Would he pay the terminal elevator seventy-five thousand
dollars' worth of screenings? Would he pay two and one-half million
dollars for transportation when 'by a little method known to large
exporters' he could save one and a quarter million dollars out of this
item?
"You just bet he wouldn't!" concluded this man Partridge. "And
supposing we had ten thousand farmers in one company and each farmer
produced, on an average, five thousand bushels of wheat--that would put
the company in control of the sale of _fifty_ million bushels, not ten!
Why, there's the answer to the whole blame thing--so simple we've been
stepping right over it!"
Pools, mergers, combines, trusts and monopolies were but various forms
of the same co-operative principle acting within narrow limits to the
benefit of the co-operatives and the prejudices of the outsiders. The
remedy lay not in legislative penalties against co-operation but in the
practice of co-operation on a large scale by the people. That would
provide the most powerful weapon of defence against financial
buccaneering. Universally employed, it would bring about an industrial
millennium!
But this was dreaming, of course. None knew better than E. A.
Partridge that if even a small part of it was to come true, there lay
immediately ahead a great educational campaign. Ignorance and
suspicion would require to be routed. It would be difficult to
convince some farmers that his motives were unselfish. Others would be
opposed to the idea of a farmers' trading company in the belief that it
would wreck the Association. "We must keep our organization
non-partizan, non-political and non-trading" had been the slogan from
the first.
Nothing daunted by the difficulties which loomed in the foreground,
Partridge obtained permission from his Territorial associates to tell
the central Manitoba Grain Growers' Association the result of his
investigations at Winnipeg. The Manitoba convention was about to be
held at Brandon and on his way back home he remained over to address
the delegates. They listened carefully to what he had to say; but when
he began to urge the necessity of the farmers themselves going into
trading in grain his fire and enthusiasm caused more excitement where
he was standing on the platform than in the audience. The best he
could do by his earnestness was to create sufficient interest for a
committee[1] to be appointed with instructions to investigate the
possibilities of the scheme and report at the next annual convention of
the Manitoba Grain Growers' Association.
On arrival at Sintaluta, however, he succeeded in stirring up his
neighbors to the proper pitch of enthusiasm. They knew him at
Sintaluta, listened to him seriously, and the leaders of the little
community shook hands on the idea of organizing, in the form of a joint
stock company, "a scheme for the co-operative marketing of grain by
farmers."
When he made his report of the Winnipeg investigations at the annual
convention of the Territorial Grain Growers' Association at Moose Jaw
he found that while the principle which he advocated was favorably
received--just as it had been in Manitoba--many farmers drew back
distrustfully from the idea of "going into business." Their experience
with business in the past had not been of a nature to instill
confidence in such a venture and if the enterprise failed, they feared
it would discredit the Association. There was a strong prejudice
against any Association director or officer being closely identified
with such a propaganda.
Back to Sintaluta went E. A. Partridge. A public meeting was called to
discuss the situation. It was to be held in the Town Hall on January
27th (1906) and in preparation for it a preliminary meeting was held in
the sitting-room of the hotel and a committee[2] appointed to prepare a
synopsis of what was to be done.
This synopsis was presented to the thirty farmers who gathered in the
Town Hall and a lengthy resolution was passed unanimously, setting
forth the aims and objects of the prospective trading company.
Everybody present undertook to subscribe for shares.
Justification for what they were attempting was found in "the
widespread discontent existing among the grain growers of the West with
conditions governing the marketing of their grain." It was pointed out
also that the isolation of farmers from each other, their distance from
the secondary and ultimate markets and their ignorance of the details
of the grain business--that these things rendered them individually
liable to suffer grave injustices, even without their knowledge and
certainly without hope of remedy by individual efforts. The scientific
selling of wheat was just as important to the farmer as the scientific
growing of it and this scientific knowledge could be obtained only by
actually engaging in the business at some important commercial centre
where the methods of successful operators could be studied.
There was every reason to believe that a scheme which limited its
activities at first to acquiring a seat on the Grain Exchange and doing
a straight commission business, or at most a commission and
track-buying business--that such a co-operative scheme stood an
excellent chance of success. Without much financial risk, it should
prove immediately profitable, afford protection from crooked practices
and at the same time the shareholders could gain an insight into the
whole grain business and thereby equip themselves for greater
enterprises; it would not be long before they would be in a position to
deal intelligently with their problems and pertaining legislation.
Besides all this there was the possible piling up of a surplus revenue,
over and above dividends, which could be turned to good account in
uncovering conditions in Eastern Canadian and European markets and
learning the best ways to meet those conditions.
For these reasons the grain growers of Sintaluta, Saskatchewan, went on
record at this meeting in the little Town Hall as heartily recommending
the formation of a joint stock company which was to be composed wholly
of farmers and to be known as "The Grain Growers' Grain Company,
Limited," with shares at twenty-five dollars each. It was stipulated
that no one person could hold more than four shares, that even these
were not to be transferable except by vote at annual meeting, and that
no man could have more than one vote at annual meetings. With this
single far-sighted stroke the possibility of control passing into the
hands of any clique was removed.
In furtherance of the plans set forth a committee[3] was named to take
charge of the preliminary organization work until relieved by the
election of a provisional directorate at an organization meeting which
it was hoped to hold at Brandon the following March. This committee
was authorized to conduct a campaign for subscriptions in the meantime,
printed receipts to be issued for the same.
Such was the scheme to which the farmers of Sintaluta subscribed to a
man. Two hundred shares at Sintaluta to begin with and Sintaluta only
one point in the West! The Committee went to work with enthusiasm.
Ten dollars was spent in printing a prospectus. E. A. Partridge got a
card and blocked out on it: GRAIN GROWERS' GRAIN COMPANY. This he hung
in the window of Wilson's old store at Sintaluta, where a dollar was
paid for the use of a desk. Here in the evenings would assemble
William Hall, Al Quigley, William Bonner and E. A. Partridge to send
out circulars and keep the pot boiling till enough funds were on hand
to let Quigley out canvassing on board wages.
On February 28th the Manitoba Grain Growers' Association held their
1906 convention and as chairman of the committee appointed the year
before to report upon the matter, E. A. Partridge again urged the
advisability of establishing a company to handle the farmers' grain.
By this time the plan had taken more definite shape and he pressed the
claims of the proposed commission company with such logic and eloquence
that besides having the committee's report adopted by the Association
unanimously, he secured the interest of quite a few delegates. There
was, nevertheless, much adverse criticism, not a little apathy and some
levity.
"Let's hold a meeting of our own," suggested someone. The word was
passed for all who were interested to meet in the council chamber of
the Brandon Town Hall. Between twenty and thirty farmers attended this
meeting and the plans of the Sintaluta men for a co-operative trading
company were approved. It was decided to meet at the Leland Hotel in
Winnipeg some time in March or April to formulate plans for an active
campaign.
For two days those in attendance at this second meeting discussed the
details of the undertaking. A great many different views were
expressed, not all of them favorable. There were those who objected to
the chosen name of the prospective company as being a handicap upon the
Association movement in case the venture failed. The Sintaluta
provisional directorate was allowed to stand and the canvassing
committee was enlarged to include a number of Manitoba men who were to
take the field for a stock canvass.
That stock-selling campaign will dodder through to the Final Memory of
those who took part in it. The man who stood on the street-corner and
offered ten-dollar gold-pieces for a dollar had no harder task. Blood
from stones! Milk from dry cows! Although ten per cent. on each share
was all the cash that was asked apparently some farmers were so hard up
that if yarn were selling at five cents per mile, they couldn't buy
enough of it to make a pair of mitts for a doodlebug!
"If you take four shares," admitted Al Quigley at his meetings, "I
can't guarantee that you're not losing four times $2.50, which is ten
dollars. But you lose that much when you draw a load of wheat up to
the elevator anyway," he argued. "You might just as well let another
ten go to see what's become of the first ten!"
"Huh!" grunted a skeptical farmer after one of E. A. Partridge's
meetings. "This here thing's just a scheme for Partridge to feather
his nest! You bet he didn't get any o' my money," he bragged. "Did he
get you, Pete?"
"He did, Ben, an' I'll tell you why. This thing'll probably go bust;
but I put a hundred into it. Supposin' I put a hundred in a horse an'
he dies on me. Same thing, ain't it? I got to have horses to do
farmin' an' I just go an' buy another one. I figure it's worth takin'
a hundred-dollar chance on this thing to try her out."
Up in the northern part of Manitoba was one man who was meeting with
pretty fair success. His name was Kennedy and his friends who knew him
best called him "Honest John." His plan was simple--to start talking,
talk for awhile, then keep right on talking.
"For God's sake, Kennedy, if $2.50 will stop you talking, here it is!
We're sleepy!"
Then he would stop talking.
One by one the original canvassers dropped out of the field till almost
the only one left besides E. A. Partridge was this hard-talking
enthusiast up in the Swan River country who wound himself up for the
night and tired them out--but got the money!
[1] See Appendix--Par. 4.
[2] See Appendix--Par. 5.
[3] See Appendix--Par. 6.