122 DEEP FURROWS 



only a certain amount of street wheatjyould be received 

 at the various elevators, the whole thing amounting to 

 the restriction of wheat buying within certain limits 

 fixed by the combination of the buyers who belonged to 

 the combine this to the consequent barring out of the 

 small buyer from the trade. The latter, the Grain 

 Growers argued, was prevented from buying by the 

 rule which called for the payment of a salary to track 

 buyers and prohibited the hiring of men on commis- 

 sion; there were points where the quantity of grain 

 offered for sale was too limited to justify the payment 

 of a fifty-dollar salary to the buyer. 



Another point of complaint was that the Grain 

 Exchange membership was restricted to three hundred, 

 the members having agreed among themselves that no 

 more seats be added although all present seats were 

 sold and many more might be sold to eligible citizens. 



Also, claimed the prosecution^ there was a practical 

 boycott of expelled members in that the members of the 

 Exchange were forbidden to deal with expelled mem- 

 bers; it was practically impossible to do business in 

 grain in Western Canada unless connected with the 

 Grain Exchange, one firm having experienced this 

 difficulty. 



The rule which barred the purchasing of grain on 

 track during the hours of trading on the Exchange was, 

 they would endeavor to show, an act in restraint of 

 trade and the three men under indictment, the prose- 

 cution hoped to prove, had been active in the enactment 

 of the alleged illegal by-laws of the Grain Exchange. 



Prior to the enactment of these obnoxious laws of 

 the Exchange the farmers had been sought by the 

 buyers, whereas since the rules had been established 

 the farmer must seek the purchaser. While the prices 



