STOCK-TAKING 161 



vitally connected with the price that he receives 

 for his load of hogs. 



In declaring for justice and setting out to 

 realise it, the farmer has undertaken a very 

 large order. Men outside his association, who 

 realize the size of the job, often laugh at him, but 

 let no one forget that he has already made some 

 progress toward his goal. He has attacked 

 those phases of weakness and injustice which 

 come closest to him and which are most obvious. 

 For instance he has seen the folly of grinding 

 away alone on his own little hundred acres, 

 regardless of how his neighbor may be conduct- 

 ing his farm, or how his fellow farmer on the 

 prairie may be marketing his wheat. In some 

 measure he has learned that farmers, wherever 

 they may live, have much in common, that the 

 prosperity of the whole body is measured by the 

 prosperity of each individual, and that any 

 prosperity desired can be best attained through 

 collective action. By co-operating, as a result of 

 organization, he has already wiped out some 

 glaring commercial abuses in the marketing of 

 his products, and has revived a splendid com- 

 munity spirit in hundreds of localities through- 

 out the Province. 



But the measure of his success is at the same 

 time the measure of his danger just now. The 

 farmer who has "joined up" has expected great 



