THE BEGINNING OF THE U.F.O. 53 



which had a tremendous effect in demonstrating 

 to the farmers of the Province of Ontario their v^ 

 great need of an adequate and powerful Pro- 

 vincial organization. In the Fall of 1917 av 

 Dominion election had been run upon the issue 

 of Conscription. Of the politics in this election 

 we need have nothing to say, but it is a fact that 

 the farmers of the Province had been definitely 

 assured by the representatives of the party which 

 won the election, that in the event of their elec- 

 tion and the carrying of the conscription issue, 

 the farms would not be denuded of necessary help, v 

 Further, in March, 1918, the then Dominion * 

 Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Crerar, had called 

 in Toronto, a meeting of representative farmers 

 of the Province of Ontario and had urged upon 

 them the absolute necessity of the greatest \ 

 possible production of food-stuffs during the 

 coming season. The farmers had already re-' 

 sponded to the utmost in production, and, though 

 it may be urged that in doing so they had been 

 partly influenced by the war prices of food-stuffs, 

 yet it is well to remember that unlike most 

 classes of producers, the price of their products . 

 had been regulated so as to prevent their attain- 

 ing the high levels that without regulation they 

 would have undoubtedly reached, and that in] 

 responding to the call for production they had 

 really put forth an heroic effort which involved ini 



