' 38 DEEP FURROWS 



be a permanejtLcpndition in Western Canada, vital but 

 unavoidable; so the Canadian Pacific Railway Com- 

 pany cast^about for alleviations. They hit upon the 

 plan of increasin^storagefacilities rapidly by announc- 

 ing that the Company would maTEe special concessions 

 to anyone who would build elevators along the line 

 with a capacity of not less than 25,000 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 



1 erected the railway company would iaStjngw^car^ to 

 be loaded with grain through flat warehouses^ direct 

 from farmers' Vehicles ur m"~~7my~"oT:her 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 



if, were quick to take advantage of the opportunity; 



\ sfpr the protection offered by the railway meant that 



iJj*. here was shipping control of the grain handed out on a 



r^v silver platter, garnished with all the delectable pros- 



fr pects 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 



