MEANWHILE, IN SASKATCHEWAN--
An old man on the point of death summoned his sons around him to give
them some parting advice. He ordered his servants to bring in a faggot
of sticks, and said to his eldest son: Break it. The son strained and
strained, but with all his efforts was unable to break the bundle. The
other sons also tried, but none of them was successful. Untie the
faggots, said the father, and each of you take a stick. When they had
done so, he called out to them: Now break; and each stick was easily
broken. You see my meaning, said their father. Let affection bind you
to one another. Together you are strong; separated you are
weak.--_Aesop_.
Eventful years, these through which the Grain Growers of Western Canada
were passing. While the Grain Growers' Grain Company was undertaking
the initial experiments in co-operative purchasing of farm supplies,
showing the Manitoba Government that farmers could run elevators
satisfactorily and fighting its way forward to success in the exporting
field, how were things getting along in Saskatchewan? With $52,000 and
another four or five hundred in loose change tucked away in its hip
pocket as the net profit of its first season's operations the new
system of co-operative elevators had struck out "on a bee line" for
Success and was swinging along at a steady gait, full of confidence.
The volume of business handled through these elevators the first year
had been affected by the failure of the contractors to finish
construction of all the elevators by the dates specified. Even so, the
new company had handled 3,261,000 bushels of grain, more than half of
it being special binned.
In planning to build eighty-eight new elevators in 1912 and to purchase
six, thereby bringing the total to 140 co-operative elevators, the
directors thought it wise to form a construction department of their
own instead of relying upon outside contractors. Also it was decided
to open a commission department of their own at Winnipeg, the volume of
business in sight being very encouraging. This move was not made,
however, because of any dissatisfaction with the Grain Growers' Grain
Company's services as selling agent; on the other hand, although crop
conditions had been perhaps the most unfavorable in the history of
Saskatchewan and the grain with its diversity of grades therefore very
difficult to market satisfactorily, the Board of Directors acknowledged
in their annual report that the wisdom of the arrangement with the
Grain Growers' Grain Company had been proved by the satisfactory
working of it.
The volume of business handled by the 137 elevators in operation the
second year jumped to 12,900,000 bushels with a net profit of
approximately $168,000, and it was apparent that the general acceptance
of the co-operative scheme throughout the province would mean
organization upon a large scale. This was emphasized during the 1913
grain season when 192 elevators were in operation and about 19,500,000
bushels of grain were hauled in to the co-operative elevators by
farmers.
This rapid expansion of the Saskatchewan Co-Operative Elevator Company
was entailing such an increase in staff organization that it became
necessary to provide special office accommodation. Accordingly a site
for a permanent building of their own was purchased in 1914 at Regina
and the following year a modern, fireproof building was erected. It
stands two storeys on a high basement, with provision for additional
storeys, occupies a space of 9,375 square feet, has interior finish of
oak and architecturally it is a matter of pride to the farmers who own
it. This building has become the headquarters of the Saskatchewan
Co-Operative Elevator Company and likewise the Saskatchewan Grain
Growers' Association, the offices of the latter occupying the entire
top floor.
While the erection of this building afforded visible proof of financial
progress the Saskatchewan farmers were warned by the directors and the
general manager of the "Co-Op" that co-operation which was allowed to
degenerate into mere production of dividends would but reproduce in
another form the evil it was intended to destroy. The ideal of service
was the vital force which must be kept in mind and the work of the
Grain Growers' Association in fostering this ideal must be encouraged.
"The Association has its great work of organization, education and
agitation," stated Charles A. Dunning, the elevator company's manager,
"and the company the equally great work of giving practical effect to
the commercial and co-operative ideals of the Association, both
institutions being branches of one united Farmers' Movement having for
its object the social and economic uplift of the farming industry."
Not a little of the early success of the Saskatchewan Co-Operative
Elevator Company was due to the energy and business ability which
Dunning brought to bear upon its organization and development. The
story of this young homesteader's rise from the ranks of the Grain
Growers is worth noting. It was back in 1902 that he first reached the
West--a seventeen-year-old Englishman, "green" as the grass that grew
over there in Leicester. He did not know anything then about the
historic meeting of pioneer grain growers which Motherwell and Dayman
had assembled not long before at Indian Head. He was concerned chiefly
with finding work on a farm somewhere and hired out near Yorkton,
Saskatchewan, for ten dollars a month. After awhile he secured one of
the Government's 160-acre slices of homestead land and proceeded to
demonstrate that oxen could haul wheat twenty-five miles to a railway
if their driver sat long enough on the load.
There came a day when Dunning, filled with a new feeling of
independence, started for Yorkton with a load of wheat and oats. It
was along towards spring when the snow was just starting to go and at a
narrow place in the trail, as luck would have it, he met a farmer
returning from town with an empty sleigh. In trying to pass the other
fellow Dunning's sleigh upset. While helping to reload the farmer
imparted the information that oats were selling for eight cents and all
he had been able to get for his wheat was something like thirteen cents
in Yorkton the day before! The young Englishman's new feeling of
"independence" slid into his shoe-packs as he stared speechless at his
neighbor. Right-about went his oxen and back home he hauled his load,
angry and dismayed and realizing that something was wrong with Western
conditions that could bring about such treatment.
When a branch of the Grain Growers' Association was formed at
Beaverdale, not far from his homestead, it is scarcely necessary to say
that young Dunning joined and took an active part in the debates.
Finally he was chosen as delegate for the district at the annual Grain
Growers' convention at Prince Albert on condition that he could finance
the trip on $17.50. The story is told that Dunning figured by making
friends with the furnace man of one of the hotels he might be allowed
to sleep in the cellar for the week he would be in Prince Albert and
manage to get through on this meagre expense fund! At any rate he did
find a place to lay his head and, if reports be true, actually came
back with money in his pocket.
It was at this convention that the young man first attracted attention.
The delegates had deadlocked over a discussion in regard to a scheme
for insuring crops against hailstorms in Saskatchewan, half of them
favoring it and half opposing it. The young homesteader from
Beaverdale got up, ran his fingers through his pompadour and outlined
the possibilities of co-operative insurance which would apply only to
municipalities where a majority of the farmers favored the idea. He
talked so convincingly and sanely that the convention elected him as a
director of the Association and later when the co-operative elevator
scheme was broached he was elected vice-president of the Association
and the suggestion was made that he undertake the work of organizing
the new elevator concern. Incidentally, the man who suggested this was
E. A. Partridge, of Sintaluta--the same Partridge who had fathered the
Grain Growers' Grain Company and who already had located T. A. Crerar,
of Russell, Manitoba.
Out of Dunning's suggestion at Prince Albert grew the Saskatchewan Hail
Insurance Commission which was recommended to the Provincial Government
by the Association in 1911 and brought into operation the following
year. The legislation provided for municipal co-operative hail
insurance on the principle of a provincial tax made operative by local
option. Twenty-five or more rural municipalities having agreed to join
to insure against hail the crops within the municipalities, authority
would be granted to collect a special tax--not to exceed four cents per
acre--on all land in the municipalities concerned. Administration
would be in the hands of the Hail Insurance Commission, which would set
the rate of the special tax. All claims and expenses would be paid
from the pooled fund and all crops in the respective municipalities
would be insured automatically. If damage by hail occurred insurance
would be paid at the rate of five dollars per acre when crop was
destroyed completely and _pro rata_ if only partially destroyed. This
co-operative insurance scheme was instituted successfully in the fall
of 1912, soon spread throughout Saskatchewan and was destined
eventually to carry more than twenty-five million dollars of hail
insurance.
Shortly after the launching of co-operative hail insurance the
discussions among the Saskatchewan farmers in regard to the
co-operative purchasing of farm commodities for their own use came to a
head in a request to the Provincial Government for the widening of
charter powers in order that the Association might organize a
co-operative trading department. In 1913 authorization to act as a
marketing and purchasing agent for registered co-operative associations
was granted and next year the privilege was extended to include local
grain growers' associations.
Thus the Trading Department of the Saskatchewan Grain Growers'
Association takes the form of a Central Office, or wholesale body,
through which all the Locals can act collectively in dealing with
miners, millers, manufacturers, etc. The Central sells to organized
Locals only, they in turn selling to their members. The surplus
earnings of the Central are distributed to the Locals which have
invested capital in their Central, such distribution being made in
proportion to the amount of business done with the Central by the
respective Locals.
During its first season of co-operative purchasing the Association
handled 25,000 tons of coal and in a year or two there was turned over
in a season enough binder twine to bind fifty million bushels of
grain--about 4,500,000 pounds of twine. When the Western potato crop
failed in 1915 the Association imported four and one-half million
bushels of potatoes for its members, cutting the market price in some
cases a dollar per bushel. Flour, apples, cord-wood, building
supplies, vegetables and groceries likewise were purchased and
distributed co-operatively. The savings effected by the farmers cannot
be tallied alone from actual quantities of goods thus purchased through
their own organization but must include a large aggregate saving due to
reduction of prices by outside dealers.
Such commodities as coal and flour being best distributed through local
warehouses, it is likely that eventually the Saskatchewan Co-Operative
Elevator Company will take a hand in helping the Association and the
Locals with the handling of co-operative supplies by furnishing the
large capital investment needed to establish these warehouses.
The necessary financial strength to accomplish this is readily
conceived to be available after a glance at later developments in
Saskatchewan. The co-operative elevators now exceed 300. The figures
for the season of 1915-16 show a total of more than 39,000,000 bushels
of grain handled with an additional 4,109,000 bushels shipped over the
loading platforms. Without deducting war-tax the total profit earned
by the Saskatchewan company within the year was in the neighborhood of
three-quarters of a million dollars. The Saskatchewan Co-Operative
Elevator Company in 1916 began building its own terminal elevator at
Port Arthur with a capacity of 2,500,000 bushels. By this time there
were 18,000 shareholders with a subscribed capital of $3,358,900, of
which $876,000 was paid up.
In these later years a remarkable development is recorded also by the
Saskatchewan Grain Growers' Association until it is by far the largest
and best organized secular body in the province with over 1,300 Locals
and a membership exceeding 28,000.
The Secretary of the Association--J. B. Musselman, himself a
farmer--has done much hard work in office and looks forward to the time
when the Locals will own their own breeding stock, assemble and fatten
their own poultry, handle and ship their eggs, operate their own
co-operative laundries and bakeries, kill and cure meat in co-operative
butcher-shops for their own use--have meeting places, rest rooms, town
offices, libraries, moving-pictures and phonographs with which to
entertain and inform themselves. To stand with a hand on the hilt of
such a dream is to visualize a revolution in farm and community
life--such a revolution as would switch much attraction from city to
country.
Whatever the future may hold in store, the fact remains that already
much valuable legislation has been secured from the Government of
Saskatchewan by the farmers. Perhaps in no other province are the
Grain Growers in as close touch with the Government, due to the nature
of the co-operative enterprises which have been launched with
Government support financially. Three members of the cabinet are men
who have been identified closely with the Grain Growers' Movement.
Hon. W. R. Motherwell has held portfolio as Minister of Agriculture for
many years. Hon. George Langley, Minister of Municipal Affairs, helped
to organize the farmers of Northern Saskatchewan in the early days.
Finally in 1916 C. A. Dunning[1] resigned as general manager of the
Saskatchewan Co-Operative Elevator Company to become the youngest
Provincial Treasurer in Canada; for already the Saskatchewan Government
had called upon him for service on two official commissions to
investigate agriculture and finance in most of the European countries
and his services were valuable.
Langley has been a prominent figure in Saskatchewan affairs ever since
his arrival in the country in 1903. He was forty-one years old when he
came and he brought with him long training as a public speaker, a
knowledge of human nature and a ready twinkle in his eye for everything
humorous. According to himself, his first job was chasing sparrows
from the crops. After leaving the English rural life in which he was
reared, he had worked on the London docks and as a London business man.
In politics he became a disciple of the Cobden-Bright school and was
one of the first members of the Fabian Society under the leadership of
the redoubtable Bernard Shaw. It was Langley's habit, it is said, to
talk to London crowds on side thoroughfares, standing on a soap-box and
ringing a hand-bell to attract attention.
In becoming a Western Canadian farmer it did not take him long to slip
around behind the problems of the farming class; for there was no
greater adept at poking a cantankerous problem about with a sharp stick
than the Honorable George. It was natural for this short, stout,
bearded Englishman to gravitate into the first Legislature of the
newly-formed Province of Saskatchewan and just as naturally he moved up
to a place in the cabinet.
As one of the sponsors of the co-operative elevator scheme, by virtue
of his place on the commission which recommended it, Langley has taken
much interest in the co-operative activities of the farmers and on many
occasions has acted as their spokesman.
With the relationships outlined it was to be expected that now and then
opponents would hint that the Saskatchewan authorities had played
politics with the farmers. Such charges, of course, are refuted
indignantly. Knowing the widespread desire among the farmers
themselves to keep free from political alliances, it would be a foolish
government indeed which would fail to recognize that not to play
politics was the best kind of politics that could be played.
Other leaders of sterling worth have contributed to the acknowledged
success of co-operation in Saskatchewan, not forgetting John A. Maharg
who came from Western Ontario in 1890 to settle near Moose Jaw. From
the very beginning J. A. Maharg has worked for the cause of the
farmers. A pioneer himself, he has a deep understanding of the Western
Canadian farmers' problems and his devotion to their solution has
earned him universal appreciation among the Grain Growers of
Saskatchewan. Year after year he has been elected to the highest
office in the gift of the Association. He has been President many
times of both the Saskatchewan Grain Growers' Association and the
Saskatchewan Co-Operative Elevator Company.
The Grain Growers' Movement, then, in this Province of Saskatchewan
where it had its beginning, has grown to wonderful proportions with the
passing of the years. Co-operation has been a pronounced success. The
old conditions have passed far back down the trail. The new order of
things has been fought for by men who have known the taste of smoky
tea, the sour sweat of toil upon the land, the smell of the smudge
fires on a still evening and the drive of the wind on the open plain.
Out of the pioneer past they have stepped forward to the larger
opportunities of the times--times which call for clear heads and wise
vision.
For as they build for the future so will the Sons of the Movement watch
and learn.
[1] The Union Government at Ottawa decided in February, 1918, to
replace the office of Food Controller by the Canada Food Board,
organized as a branch of the Dominion Department of Agriculture under
Hon. T. A. Crerar. Hon. Charles A. Dunning was selected as Director of
Production. The other members of the Canada Food Board were: H. B.
Thomson, Chairman and Director of Conservation; J. D. McGregor,
Director of Agricultural Labor. (Mr. McGregor resigned after a year in
office.)