142 THE STORY OF THE U.F.O. 



follows night. The rural people did as all other 

 men have done. Once class consciousness 

 possesses men they demand a share in govern- 

 ment, and the U.F.O. was no exception. When 

 the step would be taken was only a matter of 

 time. It merely needed the conditions that 

 would crystalise into action the opinions already 

 formed. 



Such conditions appeared when in 1918 the 

 Dominion Government cancelled the military 

 exemptions granted to all young men between 

 the ages of nineteen and twenty-two years of 

 age inclusive, actively engaged in agriculture. 

 This action dealt a severe blow to agriculture, 

 more severe than to any other industry. Any 

 one familiar with farm life knows that the skilled 

 and efficient workman in agriculture is the young 

 man of just this age. He is the hustler. He it is 

 who runs the tractor and the gas engine, the 

 three or four horse team, and machinery gener- 

 ally. Moreover, not only is he the mainstay, but 

 he is the prospective future owner of the 

 homestead when the parents cease to operate it. 

 But this boy, who had been exempted on the 

 ground that the empire needed food just as 

 urgently as it needed soldiers, now had his 

 exemption cancelled, and was called to the 

 colors. The decision of the Government was 

 particularly onerous to agriculture because the 



