UNEQUAL FIGHTS 



to say that the political and business potency 

 of the small banks in North Dakota alone 

 was greater than that of all the newspaper 

 editorials in the United States. The banks 

 hold (or used to hold) over the farmer the 

 power of life and death. They could for any 

 reason or none withhold the money supply 

 by which alone he could continue to operate. 

 To stand well with the local banker became, 

 therefore, a matter of the first importance 

 to the average farmer, and when in any com- 

 munity a project to build a co-operative ele- 

 vator was broached, and the local bankers 

 were against it, the project usually failed in 

 that community. 



If it were built, nevertheless, and the 

 banker remained hostile, he could so manage 

 his great influence that many a farmer, even 

 if he held stock in the enterprise, dare not sell 

 his grain to it. "If I were you I'd sell my 

 grain to the Majestic people; they give you 

 the fairest price, and then, you know, they are 

 absolutely trustworthy, and you don't know 

 about the others." Thousands of times exactly 

 that significant hint has fallen from the lips 

 of the town banker and often it has been 

 effective in ruining a co-operative enterprise. 



4. In many places the fraudulent co-opera- 

 tive elevator was found the most useful de- 

 vice. If there came word that in this town 

 or that the farmers were uneasy, and much 



1*7 



