IN SASKATCHEWAN 227 



joined and took an active part in the debates. Finally 

 he was chosen as delegate for the district at the annual 

 Grain Growers' convention at Prince Albert on con- 

 dition that he could finance the trip on $17.50. The 

 story is told that Dunning figured by making friends 

 with the furnace man of one of the hotels he might be 

 allowed to sleep in the cellar for the week he would be 

 in Prince Albert and manage to get through on this 

 meagre expense fund ! At any rate he did find a place 

 to lay his head and, if reports be true, actually came 

 back with money in his pocket. 



It was at this convention that the young man first 

 attracted attention. Several contentious matters were 

 under discussion, among others a scheme for insuring 

 crops against hailstorms in Saskatchewan. The young 

 homesteader from Beaverdale took such an intelligent 

 part in the various discussions and offered so many 

 valuable suggestions that the convention elected him 

 as a director of the Association and later when the 

 co-operative elevator scheme was broached he was 

 elected vice-president of the Association and the sug- 

 gestion was made that he undertake the work of 

 organizing the new elevator concern. Incidentally, 

 the man who suggested this was E. A. Partridge, of 

 Sintaluta the same Partridge who had fathered the 

 Grain Growers' Grain Company and who already had 

 located T. A. Crerar, of Russell, Manitoba. 



Out of the discussion at Prince Albert in regard 

 to hail insurance grew the Saskatchewan Hail 

 Insurance Commission, with J. E. Paynter, of Tan- 

 tallon, as Chairman. Mr. Paynter is universally 

 acknowledged to have initiated co-operative hail 

 insurance in Saskatchewan. The Commission was 

 recommended to the Provincial Government by the 



