THE SHOWDOWN 153 



than any other, though we believe they are after 

 all commission dealers. Some of them have said 

 so. They want to kill us and they think they have 

 at last found a way. Their dodge is simple. By 

 handling cars for half a cent or nothing, they are 

 going to bribe the farmers and our own share- 

 holders to send cars away from us, and by keeping 

 grain from us help to kill us and plant us that 

 deep we shall never come up again. 



" In this way hey hope to ' rule the roost ' and 

 get back the good old days they had ten or twelve 

 years ago. 



" Can they succeed ? It depends on the men who 

 ship the grain. If they support the combine by 

 giving the elevators (or the commission houses 

 that work for the elevators under a different 

 name) their cars, they may soon expect to find 

 themselves in a worse position than they have ever 

 been before. 



"As a prominent commission man said the 

 other day, ' The elevator companies are asking the 

 farmers to help at their own funeral/ It is an 

 anxious time for our own company. We have 

 shown that with anything like fair play it may 

 succeed. We have been growing stronger and, we 

 believe, doing some good. Are our shareholders 

 and friends going to take the bribe that is meant 

 to put us out of business? We hope and believe 

 not. For this reason we are taking a referendum 

 vote of our shareholders." 



It was at this crisis that the Grain Growers' Guide 

 had an opportunity of demonstrating its value to the 

 farmers as a fighting weapon. It seized the cudgels 

 and waded right into the thick of the controversy with- 

 out fear or favor. It came out flat-footed in its charges 

 against the elevator interests and emphasized the 



