CHAPTER XV 



CONCERNING THE TERMINALS 



I have but one lamp by which my feet are 

 guided; and that is the lamp of experience. I 

 know no way of judging the future but by the 

 past. 



Patrick Henry. 



WITH the establishment of co-operative elevators 

 for the storing of grain at interior points the 

 farmers of Western Canada launched out upon 

 the greatest experiment in co-operation this continent 

 has seen. The success of these elevators, owned and 

 controlled by the farmers themselves, in all probability 

 would evolve the final phase of internal storage in 

 connection with the Canadian grain fields. 



Co-incident with their agitation for government 

 ownership of elevators at country points, the farmers 

 were urging upon the federal authorities the desir- 

 ability of government control and operation of terminal 

 storage facilities. It was not enough that the Provin- 

 cial Governments of the Prairie Provinces should 

 protect the farmers within their boundaries; for the 

 terminal storage of grain was a part of the system and 

 the farmers contended that corporation control of the 

 terminals by grain dealers was leading to abuses and 

 manipulations of the grain that were not in the best 

 interests of the country. 



Grateful as they were, therefore, for the efforts to 

 improve early conditions by legislation, it was the 



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