WHAT HAPPENED IN ALBERTA
Beyond the fields we plough are others waiting,
The fallows of the ages all unknown.
Beyond the little harvests we are reaping
Are wider, grander harvests to be grown.
--_Gerald J. Lively._
Out in the great Range Country all this time the United Farmers were
lickety-loping along the trail of difficulties that carried their own
special brand. The round-up revealed increasing opportunities for
service and one by one their problems were cut out from the general
herd, roped, tied and duly attended to for the improvement of
conditions in Alberta. Here and there a difficulty persisted in
breaking away and running about bawling; but even these finally were
coralled.
Along with the Grain Growers of Manitoba and Saskatchewan the United
Farmers of Alberta had campaigned consistently for government ownership
of elevators, both provincial and terminal. They had received
assurance from Premier Rutherford that if a satisfactory scheme could
be evolved, the Provincial Government was prepared to carry out the
establishment of a line of internal elevators in Alberta. It looked as
if all that remained to be done was to follow the lead of Manitoba or
Saskatchewan.
But on careful consideration neither of the plans followed in the other
two provinces appeared to fit the special needs of the Alberta farmers.
The province at the western end of the grain fields accordingly
experienced quite a delay in obtaining elevator action.
In the meantime the discussion of terminal storage facilities was going
on at Ottawa. The need for such facilities at Calgary and Vancouver
was pressed by the Alberta representatives on various farmer
delegations and finally the Dominion Government declared its intention
of establishing internal elevators with full modern equipment at Moose
Jaw and Saskatoon in Saskatchewan and at Calgary in Alberta; a Dominion
Government terminal elevator at the Pacific Coast likewise was on the
programme.
By this time the government operation of the Manitoba elevators had
proved a complete failure and they had been leased by the Grain
Growers' Grain Company. In Saskatchewan, however, the co-operative
elevators were proving successful.
A close study of the co-operative scheme adopted in the province just
east of them enabled the United Farmers of Alberta to work out a plan
along similar lines. This was presented to the Premier, whose name
meanwhile had changed from Rutherford to Sifton. The Act incorporating
the Alberta Farmers' Co-Operative Elevator Company, Limited, was
drafted in the spring of 1913 and passed unanimously by the
Legislature. The new company held its first meeting in August, elected
its officers[1] and went to work enthusiastically.
It had been decided by the United Farmers that full control and
responsibility must rest in their own hands. They proposed to provide
the means for raising at each point where an elevator was built
sufficient funds to finance the purchase of grain at that point from
their own resources, at the same time providing for the handling of
other business than grain.
Under the Act the Provincial Government made cash advance of
eighty-five per cent. of the cost of each elevator built or bought by
the Company, but had no say whatever as to whether any particular
elevator should be bought or built at any particular place, what it
should cost or what its capacity or equipment should be. In security
for the loan the Government took a first mortgage on the elevator and
other property of the Company at the given point. The loans on
elevators were repayable in twenty equal annual instalments.
The Company started off with the organization of forty-six Locals
instead of the twenty which the Act called for and the construction of
forty-two elevators was rushed. Ten additional elevators were bought.
Although construction was not completed in time to catch the full
season's business the number of bushels handled was 3,775,000, the
Grain Growers' Grain Company acting as selling agent. By the end of
the second year twenty-six more elevators had been built and the volume
of grain handled had expanded to 5,040,000 bushels.
Now, this progress had been achieved in the face of continuous
difficulties of one kind and another. Chief of these was the attempt
to finance such a large amount of grain upon a small paid-up capital.
The Company found that after finishing construction of the elevators
they had no money with which to buy grain nor any assets available for
bank borrowings. It was impossible to obtain credit upon the unpaid
capital stock. The Provincial Government was approached for a
guarantee of the account along the lines followed in Saskatchewan; but
the Government refused to assume the responsibility.
It was at this juncture that the enemies of co-operation were afforded
a practical demonstration of the fact that they had to deal not with
any one farmers' organization but with them all. For the Grain
Growers' Grain Company stepped into the breach with its powerful
financial assistance.
The Alberta farmers were clamoring for the handling of farm supplies as
well as grain; so that the young trading company in Alberta had its
hands more than full to organize a full stride in usefulness from the
start. The organization of the United Farmers of Alberta was growing
very rapidly and the co-operative spirit was tremendously strong
throughout the province. There was a demand for the handling of
livestock shipments and soon it was necessary to establish a special
Livestock Department.
It will be recalled that one of the subjects in which the Alberta
farmers were interested from the first was the possibility of
persuading the Provincial Government to undertake a co-operative
pork-packing plant. Following the report of the Pork Commission upon
the matter, however, official action on the part of the authorities had
languished. The various committees appointed from year to year by the
United Farmers gradually had acquired much valuable data and at last
were forced to the conclusion that the development of a packing
industry along co-operative lines was not so simple as it had appeared
at first. Even in much older settled countries than Alberta the
question, they found, had its complications. The first thing to
discover was whether the farmers of a community were able and willing
to adjust themselves to the requirements of an association for shipping
stock together in carload lots to be sold at the large markets. Until
such demonstration had been made it seemed advisable to defer the
organization of a co-operative packing business.
After the formation of the Co-Operative Elevator Company, therefore,
the Alberta farmers proceeded to encourage the co-operative shipment of
livestock on consignment by their local unions. The Livestock
Department entered the field first as buyers of hogs, handling 16,000
hogs in the first four months. The experiment bettered prices by
half-a-cent per pound and the expansion of the Department began in
earnest the following season when nearly 800 cars of hogs, cattle and
sheep were handled.
On top of all the other troubles of the first year the farmers lost a
valuable leader in the death of the president of the Co-Operative
Elevator Company, W. J. Tregillus. Complete re-organization of the
Executive was made and the question of his successor was considered
from every angle. It was vital that no mistake be made in this
connection and two of the directors were sent to study the business
methods and policies of the Grain Growers' Grain Company and the
Saskatchewan Co-Operative Elevator Company and to secure a General
Manager. They failed to get in touch with anyone to fill the
requirements and the management of both the other farmers' concerns
expressed grave doubts as to the wisdom of a farmers' company looking
for a manager whose training had been received with line elevator
companies and who had not seen things from the farmer's side.
One of the remarkable features of the advance of the Farmers' Movement
has been the manner in which strong leaders have stepped from their own
ranks to meet every need. It has been a policy of the organized
farmers to encourage the younger men to apply themselves actively in
the work in order that they might be qualified to take up the
responsibilities of office when called upon. There are many
outstanding examples of the wisdom of this in the various farmers'
executives to-day; so that with the on-coming of the years there is
little danger that sane, level-headed management will pass. Several of
the men occupying prominent places to-day in the Farmers' Movement have
grown up entirely under its tutelage.
So it turned out that in Alberta the man the farmers were seeking was
one of themselves--one of the two directors sent out to locate a
manager, in fact. His name was C. Rice-Jones. His father was an
English Church clergyman whose work lay in the slum districts of
London. This may have had something to do with the interest which the
young man had in social problems. When at the age of sixteen he became
a Canadian and went to work on various farms, finally homesteading in
Alberta, that interest he carried with him. Out of his own experiences
he began to apply it in practical ways and the Farmers' Movement drew
him as a magnet draws steel. He became identified with the Veteran
district eventually and there organized a local union. It was not long
before he was in evidence in the wider field of the United Farmers'
activities.
Fortunately the new President and General Manager of the Alberta
Farmers' Co-Operative Elevator Company was not a man to lose his sense
of direction in a muddle of affairs. Into the situation which awaited
him he waded with consummate tact, discernment and push; so that it was
not long before his associates were pulling with him for the fullest
weight of intelligent effort. The difficulties were sorted and sifted
and classified, the machinery oiled and running true, and with a
valuable directorate at his back Rice-Jones "made good."
The third season of the Alberta Farmers' Co-operative Elevator Company
brought the final proof that the farmers knew how to support their own
institutions. For through the 87 elevators that the farmers operated
in Alberta flowed a total of nearly twenty million bushels of grain,
with well over ten and one-quarter million bushels handled on
commission. The Livestock Department in the face of severe competition
achieved a permanent place in the livestock business of the province
with offices of its own in the stock yards at Calgary and Edmonton. By
this time livestock shipments had amounted to a value in excess of two
million dollars. The Co-Operative Department had handled farm supplies
to a total turnover of approximately $750,000.
As in the case of the Grain Growers' Grain Company and the Saskatchewan
Grain Growers' Association's trading department the list of articles
purchased co-operatively by the Alberta farmers grew very rapidly to
include flour, feed, binder twine, coal, lumber and fence posts, wire
fencing, fruit and vegetables, hay, salt, etc. In 1915-16 a thousand
cars of these goods were purchased and distributed co-operatively,
besides which a considerable volume of business was done in
less-than-carload lots. Coal sheds were built in connection with many
elevators, the staff increased and the entire Co-Operative Department
thoroughly organized for prompt and satisfactory service.
[1] See Appendix--Par. 13.