,50 DEEP FURROWS 



Messrs. Motherwell and Dayman had chosen their 

 date well, many farmers having planned already to be 

 at Indian Head on the 18th. The grain growers' meet- 

 ing was announced for the afternoon and so keen was 

 the interest that when order was called the chairman 

 faced between sixty and seventy-five farmers, as well 

 as a number of public men, instead of the dozen-or-so 

 whom W. R. Motherwell had ventured to expect. 



Although it was December out of doors, the tempera- 

 ture of that meeting was about one hundred in the 

 shade! As the discussion expanded feeling^ran higlL 

 Farmer after farmer got to his feet and told the facts 

 as he knew them, his own personal experiences and 

 those of his neighbors. <There was no denying the 

 evidence that it was full time the farmers bestirred 

 themselves. /* 



W. K. Motherwell and Peter Dayman spoke earnestly 

 in favor of immediate organization along strong, sane 

 lines. The farmer was always referred to as the most 

 independent man on earth, and so he was; but it was 

 individual independence only. He had come lumbering 

 into the country behind his own oxen with his family 

 and all his worldly goods in his own wagon ; had built 

 a roof over their heads with his own hands. Alone on 

 the prairie, he had sweated and wrestled with the prob- 

 lem of getting enough to eat. One of the very first 

 things the pioneer learned was to stand on his own two 

 feet to do things by himself. His isolation, the 

 obstacles he had overcome by his own planning, the 

 hardships he had endured and survived these were 

 the excuses for his assertiveness, his individualism, his 

 hostility to the restrictions of organization. He was a 

 horse for work ; but it was an effort for him to do team 

 because he was not used to it. 



