40 THE STORY OF THE U.F.O. 



The idea on which was based the plan for the 

 formation of the new organization, came from 

 J. J. Morrison, and, in order to understand it, 

 we must turn back some five years. In the year 

 1908, when the Grange, after its union with the 

 Farmers' Association, was showing some signs of 

 aggressiveness, the Ontario Department of 

 Agriculture began to organize Farmers' Clubs 

 over the Province. These Clubs were formed by 

 the Department to promote advanced methods 

 of agriculture, and received some aid, in the 

 way of being provided with speakers and regular 

 visits from the district representatives wherever 

 possible, but it is significant that in them all 

 political discussions were forbidden. Not a few 

 thought that these clubs were designed to stifle 

 the discussion of public questions by the 

 farmers, and to head off the Grange in the work 

 it was attempting to do in the formation of rural 

 public opinion. So strong indeed was this 

 belief that one agricultural journal in Ontario 

 (not the Sun) published a cartoon wherein the 

 then Minister of Agriculture was shown in the 

 act of knocking the Grange on the head with a 

 bludgeon labelled "Farmers' Club." These 

 clubs, thus organized, had not thriven as was 

 expected. They had no bond of union, no great 

 purpose, and interest in them was inclined to 

 flag. They had, however, a simple democratic 



