86 DEEP FURROWS 



commission man to sell his wheat, with perhaps a nice 

 rake-off to an exporter, who turns it over at a profit by 

 selling it to a British dealer, who blends it and makes 

 a good living by selling the blend to a British miller?" 



His pencil travelled swiftly on the back of an 

 envelope. 



" Would he pay one hundred and seventy-five thou- 

 sand dollars to the line elevator and stand a dockage 

 of one hundred thousand bushels in addition? Would 

 he pay the terminal elevator seventy-five thousand 

 dollars' worth of screenings? Would he pay two and 

 one-half million dollars for transportation when ' by a 

 little method known to large exporters ' he could save 

 one and a quarter million dollars out of this item? 



"You just bet he wouldn't!" concluded this man 

 Partridge. "And supposing we had ten thousand 

 farmers in one company and each farmer produced, on 

 an average, five thousand bushels of wheat that would 

 put the company in control of the sale of fifty million 

 bushels, not ten ! Why, there's the answer to the whole 

 blame thing so simple we've been stepping right over 

 it!" 



Pjyyia, niprgprSj rombines, trusts and monopolies were 

 but various forms of the same co-operative .prTncipl? 

 acting within narrow limits to the benefit of the co : 

 operatives and the prejudices of the outsiders 



e * remedy lay not in legislative 1J ~* * x ~~ 



tion J)utin the practice of co-operation on a large scale 

 by the people. That would provide the most powerful . 

 weapon of defence against financial buccaneering. 

 Universally employed, it would bring about an indus- 

 trial millennium! 



/ But this was dreaming, of course. None knew better 

 than E. A. Partridge that if even a small part of it was 



