NEW FURROWS
Fishes, beasts and fowls are to eat each other, for they have no
justice; but to men is given justice, which is for the best.--_Hesiod_.
The situation was changing indeed for the Grain Growers in Western
Canada. In spite of all opposition the farmers had made themselves a
factor in the grain trade and had demonstrated their ability to conduct
their affairs on sound business principles. Co-operative marketing of
grain no longer was an untried idea, advocated by a small group of
enthusiasts. The manner in which the farmers' pioneer trading agency
had weathered the stormy conditions of its passage from the beginning
and the dignified stand of its directors--these gradually were earning
status in the solid circles of the business world.
Out in the country also things were different. Those farmers who at
first had been most certain that the trading venture would crumble away
like so many other organized business efforts of farmers in the past,
now were ready to admit their error--to admit that a farmers' business
organization, managed by farmers, could succeed in such ample measure
that its future as a going concern was assured. Instead of hovering on
the outskirts of its activities, like small boys surrounding a giant
fire-cracker on Victoria Day--waiting for the loud bang so freely
predicted--these gentlemen were beginning to look upon it as a safe
investment.
The success of the Grain Growers' Grain Company was an argument for
co-operation which could not be overlooked and the co-operative spirit
spread rapidly among the farmers in many districts.
It will be remembered that the promoters of the grain company had
intended originally to operate under a Dominion charter but were
compelled by circumstances to content themselves with provincial
powers. The farmers now were finding themselves too restricted and
application was made for a new charter which would facilitate the
transaction of business in other provinces than Manitoba. Special
powers were asked for and by special Act of Parliament the charter was
granted in 1911 in the face of considerable opposition at Ottawa from
those whom the farmers regarded as representing the Canadian
Manufacturers' Association and the Retail Merchants' Association.
For the trend of the organized farmers was quite apparent. No secret
had been made of the views entertained by the Grain Growers regarding
co-operation. To familiarize every member of the various organizations
with the history of co-operative achievements in other countries had
been the object of many articles in the _Grain Growers' Guide_ and much
speech-making from time to time. The possibility of purchasing farm
supplies co-operatively in addition to co-operative marketing of grain
was being urged convincingly. And during the long winter evenings when
the farmer shoved another stick into the stove it was natural for him
to ask himself questions while he stood in front of it and let the
paring from another Ontario apple dangle into the ash-pan.
"The fellow who made that stove paid a profit to the Iron an' Steel
Trust who supplied the raw iron ore," considered he. "Then he turned
around an' added a profit of his own before he let the wholesaler have
it. Then the wholesaler chalked up more profit before he shipped it
along to Joe Green over in town an' Joe just naturally had to soak me
something before I got her aboard for home. That's profits on the
profits! It's a hot proposition an' it's my money that goes up the
flue!"
When he added further profits which he figured might be due to
agreements between supposed competitors in prices, the Grain Grower was
quite ready to believe that he had paid about twice as much for that
stove as the thing would cost him legitimately if he dealt with the
maker direct. Here was the High Cost of Living that everybody was
talking about. The remedy? The same chance as the Other Fellow for
the farmer to use the resources of Nature and, by co-operation, the
reduction to a minimum of production and distribution cost.
"I've done it with my grain. Why can't I do it with what I need to
buy?" That was what the Grain Grower was asking himself. "Why must I
feed and clothe and buy the smokes for so many of these middlemen?"
So when the directors of the grain-trading company came before him with
the suggestion of buying a timber limit in British Columbia in order to
put in their own saw-mills eventually to supply building materials on
the prairie, the Grain Grower slapped his leg and said: "Good boy! An'
say, what about a coal mine, too?"
That was the beginning of great developments for the organized farmers
of Western Canada. It was the beginning of new furrows--the opening up
of new vistas of emancipation, as the farmer saw it. And as the
furrows lengthened and multiplied they were destined to cause much
heart-burning and antagonism in new directions.
The timber limit which the Grain Growers' Grain Company purchased was
estimated to contain two hundred and twenty-two million feet of lumber.
A Co-Operative Department was opened with the manufacture and sale of
more than 130 carloads of flour at a saving to the farmer of fifty
cents per cwt, even this small beginning registering a drop in milling
company prices. Next they got in touch with the Ontario Fruit Growers'
Association and sold over 4,000 bbls. of apples to Western farmers at
the Eastern growers' carload-lot price, plus freight, plus a commission
of ten cents per barrel. More than one hundred carloads of coal were
handled in one month and the farmers then got after the lumber
manufacturers for lumber by the carload at a saving of several dollars
per thousand feet.
Still experimenting, the Grain Growers' Grain Company added to the list
of commodities in 1912-13--fence posts, woven fence wire, barbed wire
and binder twine. Followed other staples--cement, plaster, sash and
doors, hardware and other builders' supplies; sheet metal roofing and
siding, shingles, curbing, culverts, portable granaries, etc.; oil,
salt and other miscellaneous supplies; finally, in 1914-15, farm
machinery of all kinds, scales, cream separators, sewing machines and
even typewriters. Of binder twine alone nearly seven million pounds
was handled during this season. Thus did co-operative purchasing by
the farmers pass from experiment to a permanent place in their
activities.
Expansion was taking place in other directions also. In 1912 the
Company leased from the Canadian Pacific Railway a terminal elevator at
Fort William, capacity 2,500,000 bushels. A small cleaning elevator
was acquired at the same place and, with an eye to possible
developments at the Pacific Coast, a controlling interest in a small
terminal elevator in British Columbia was purchased. At Port Arthur,
on a six-hundred-foot lake frontage, a new elevator has just been built
with a storage capacity of 600,000 bushels.
So much for terminal facilities of this farmers' pioneer trading
organization. Now, what about the country elevators for government
control of which the farmers had campaigned so vigorously in the three
Prairie Provinces? As we have seen, the problem had been handled in
Saskatchewan along very different lines to the method adopted in
Manitoba. In Manitoba the 374 elevators, owned by the Provincial
Government and operated by the Provincial Elevator Commission, showed a
loss. It was even hinted in some quarters that the Manitoba Government
had no intention in the first place of operating at anything but a
loss. Whether or not there was any ground for these irreverent
suspicions, the fact remained that the Government elevator system in
Manitoba was beginning to assume the bulk of a snow-white elephant.
The Government, not entering the field as buyers, had tried to run the
elevators as a storage proposition solely. In 1910-11 the loss had
exceeded $84,000 and the year following was not much better. At last
the Government said in effect to the Grain Growers:
"We've lost money on this proposition. We tried it out to please you
farmers, but you're still dissatisfied. Try to run 'em yourselves!"
"We'll just do that," replied the farmers, although the Grain Growers'
Grain Company was not enthusiastic over the prospect of converting the
elevator failure into immediate financial success.
It was too much to expect. At many points the Government owned all the
elevators in sight. In some places there was too much elevator
accommodation for the district's volume of business. In certain cases
the elevators which had been sold to the Government were practically
discards to begin with. However, the need for improvement in the
service which the farmers were getting at country points was so very
great that finally, in 1912, the farmers assumed control of the
government system in Manitoba.
It was late in August when this came about. With only three or four
weeks in which to prepare for the season's crop, make repairs, secure
competent managers, travelling superintendents and office staff the
results of the first season scarcely could offer a fair test. Even so,
prices for street grain went up at competing points. Line elevator
companies began asking the farmer for his grain instead of merely
permitting him to place it in their elevators.
The farmers were quick to note this and asked that the elevator service
be continued by their company. With better organization the following
season brought still greater improvement in service. Prices rose. The
special binning service from their own elevators the farmers found
genuine, not just a last-minute privilege granted to secure their
grain. In spite of bad crop conditions in 1914-15, the elevators
continued to succeed under the farmers' own management and, the year
following, letters of highest praise from farmers everywhere marked the
complete success of the undertaking. So excellent was the service now
being rendered by the Company that independent Farmers' Elevators in
several instances approached the Grain Growers and sought their
management.
The handling of co-operative supplies at elevator points began in
1913-14. Flour houses were erected where prices were out of proportion
and at other places the elevator agents began to arrange for carload
shipments and proper distribution of coal among the farmers at a saving
of from two to three dollars per ton.
These co-operative lines at elevator points soon were enlarged with
much success. In addition to the elevators leased from the Manitoba
Government the Grain Growers' Grain Company bought outright, erected or
leased sixty elevators of its own.
Those who were watching all this steadily grew more restive. The
Farmers' Movement in the West was fast becoming a subject of bitter
debate.
"When farmers advance to the last furrow of plowed land on the farm
they breast the fence which skirts the Public Highway," argued many Men
of Business. "They are climbing over the fence!"
But the organized farmers were not inclined to recognize fences in
restriction of honest competition. They believed they were on the Open
Range and held unswervingly on their way.