ON A CARD IN THE WINDOW 87 



, lay immediately ahead a great 



[educational campaiflgL. /Ignorance and suspicion would 

 require to be routed. It would be difficult to convince 

 some farmers that his motives were unselfish. Others 

 would be opposed to the idea of a farmers' trading com- 

 pany in the belief that it would wreck the Association. 

 " We must keep our organization n on -partisan. non- 

 Rojitifial and non -trading " had been the slogan from 

 the first. 



Nothing daunted by the difficulties which loomed in 

 the foreground, Partridge obtained permission from his 

 Territorial associates to tell the central Manitoba 

 ftrain_ (jvrowera' A aanHation the result of his investiga- 

 tions at Winnipeg. The Manitoba convention was 

 about to be held at Brandon and on his way back home 

 he remained over to address the delegates. They 

 listened carefully to what he had to say; but when he 

 began to urge the, necessity of the farmers themselves 

 going into trading in grain his fire and enthusiasm 

 caused more excitement where he was standing on the 

 platform than in the audience.. The best he could do by 

 his earnestness was to create sufficient interest for a 

 committee* to be appointed with instructions to investi- 

 gate the possibilities of the scheme and report at the 

 next annual convention of the Manitoba Grain Growers' 

 Association. 



On arrival ft Sintaluta^however, he succeeded in 

 stirring up hi^-tteigLbers to the proper pitch of 

 enthusiasm. They knew him at Sintaluta, listened to 

 him seriously, and the leaders of the little community 

 shook hands on the idea of organizing, in the form of a 

 joint stock company, "a scheme for the co-operative 

 marketing of grain by farmers." 



* See Appendix Par. 4. 



