)31 



May, 19)1 



THE I. A. A. RECORD 



Page Fifteen 



The Canadian Wheat Pool 



Condensed from The New Freeman (February 4, 1931) by Reader's Digest 



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BEFORE 1923 (the period of war- 

 time regulation excepted) the 

 business of wheat marketing in Canada 

 was something of a racket. The wheat 

 producers — some 275,000 of them scat- 

 tered over more than 200,000 square 

 miles — were privileged to extract the 

 grain from the soil. Sometimes they 

 received a living wage; sometimes they 

 didn't. But the people who relieved 

 them of their grain and handled it from 

 warehouses grew fat. Wheat million- 

 aires and sub-millionaires appeared, lots 

 of them. But not on the farms. The 

 grain barons of Winnipeg and other 

 cities developed the most pernicious 

 commercial oligarchy in Canada's his- 

 tory. For nearly 40 years their wealth 

 and power increased while the poor 

 devils who grew the wheat struggled 

 to keep the sheriff beyond the fence. 



Shake Off Despair 



Small wonder, then, that a great 

 squawking ensued when the worm 

 turned. In 1923 the wheat farmers 

 shook off the despair that had been 

 welded to them. They organized pools 

 — co-operative associations — in Alberta, 

 Saskatchewan and Manitoba, to gather 

 their wheat together and sell it. The 

 movement started at the bottom; right 

 on the farmsteads and in the small vil- 

 lages. It looked back upon four decades 

 of unhappy exploitation by the private 

 marketing trade, and was impelled by a 

 grand spirit of sink-or-swim together. 

 It had not a red cent of capital, but 

 of new-born spirit there was ample. 

 The aims of the movement were stated 

 in simple terms: to attempt to sell 

 wheat in an orderly manner, i.e., as 

 actual demand for real wheat arose; to 

 try to eliminate the widespread gam- 

 bling in fictitious wheat which was 

 enervating the industry; and above all, 

 to return to the farmer every possible 

 sou which accrued from the sale of his 

 wheat. 



140,000 Sign 



A contract was prepared wherein the 

 farmer agreed with his neighbors to de- 

 liver his wheat to a common agency of 

 their own creation during a term of 

 years. More than 140,000 wheat grow- 

 ers signed the contract. The organiza- 

 tion was completed while the grain 

 trade was still blinking and, before the 

 public realized what it was all about, 

 the organized farmer was in the game. 

 During the past seven years these Ca- 

 nadian farmers have pounded their way 



to the front, battling every inch of the 

 way against the unscrupulous opposi- 

 tion of the grain trade gang. While 

 the provincial pools were busy attract- 

 ing new members, building up their 

 own elevator system of 1,600 country 

 houses and 12 terminals, collecting 

 more than a billion bushels of wheat, 

 distributing more than a billion and a 

 quarter dollars among their members, 

 creating circulating libraries and work- 

 ing to improve the quality of Canadian 

 grains, the Central Selling Agency con- 

 cerned itself with establishing branch 

 offices in New York, London, Paris and 

 Buenos Aires, and agencies in every im- 

 portant wheat-importing country. 



Costs Were Low 



Operating and overhead costs of the 

 entire system were amazingly small, and 

 the excess earnings from elevator opera- 

 tions which were returned to pool 

 members fairly staggered even the most 

 rabid pool enthusiasts. In its balmiest 

 year the turnover of the Central Sell- 

 ing Agency exceeded $323 million, and 

 its sales of wheat in 20 different coun- 

 tries totaled more than 222 million 

 bushels. 



The wonder of it all is that this 

 mighty business is owned and con- 

 trolled, and was built up, by farmers; 

 by honest dirt-farmers "with no knowl- 

 edge of big business." There are no 

 silent partners, no idle shareholders. The 

 directors of the pools are all pool farm- 

 ers, elected by their fellow members. 

 They receive no salaries; only allow- 

 ances while occupied with pool matters. 

 The whole thing belongs to the farm- 

 ers. It is an outstanding illustration of 

 triumph by the under-dog through 

 peaceful methods. 



What About Present 



At this point someone may ask omi- 

 nously: "What about the present situa- 

 tion*" Certainly the present situation 

 does splash the picture. Up to last year 

 the wheat pools stroked their boat with- 

 out financial assistance from any gov- 

 ernment. Last year, however, they 

 were caught, along with all other grain- 

 marketing agencies on this continent, 

 in the disastrous decline of prices. Each 

 of the prairie pools applied to its prov- 

 incial government for a guarantee of 

 its financial obligations to the banks, 

 based on adequate security in the form 

 of $30,000,000 worth of elevator fa- 

 cilities. ■ ■^^■:■.■■y^'■:■y■■'■.■■^■■.^'i <''.■' ■■:; -v-rv:. ',;'';■:■.■ ' 



Since the granting of the guarantees, 



even darker days have fallen upon the 

 grain markets. The price of wheat has 

 been more than halved; and it is now 

 obvious that the position of the pools 

 with the lending banks is such as to 

 necessitate calling in the government 

 guarantees to the amount of some mil- 

 lions. Already the pools have instituted 

 plans for the repayment, over a period 

 of several years, of any amount which 

 the governments may be required to 

 pay to the banks. The attitude of the 

 pools has inspired widespread admira- 

 tion. The pool has suffered a body 

 blow; but it is not whining for the 

 governments to pay its debts. It is sim- 

 ply asking them to give it a helping 

 hand until the worst of the storm is 

 over. The federal government of Cana- 

 da recently granted to the manufactur- 

 ing interests, tariff protection that 

 smells to high heaven. And yet some 

 people are complaining because the or- 

 ganized farmers, who are the backbone 

 of the nation, ask that some of the 

 blessings of government be turned their 

 way for a short period. 7 



"Kick 'im, 'arry!'» 



While the wheat pool has experienced 

 serious difficulties in the past year, the 

 attitude of the old established grain 

 trade has been similar to that of the 

 cockney who said: "Kick 'im, 'Arry! 

 'E's still breathin'!" Skullduggery has 

 been practiced in the markets to de- 

 preciate the value of the pool's wheat 

 supplies and weaken its financial posi- 

 tion. All the misfortunes of the land — 

 unemployment, traffic stagnation, re- 

 tarded collections, decline of export 

 trade, general depression — have been 

 placed on the pool's doorstep, while the 

 real fathers of these unwanted children 

 have been kept in the background. 



The wheat pools of Canada, being 

 c'omprised of human beings, have made 

 mistakes and have been flayed merci- 

 lessly for them. But today, when the 

 prices of agricultural products are such 

 as to involve a crisis for the rural com- 

 munity, the pool is in the heat of the 

 battle for economic and social rights 

 which are essential to a satisfactory 

 standard of living on the farm; rights 

 which the farmer could not hope to 

 gain through his individual efforts. 



Spirit Lives 



The Canadian wheat pool is still 

 pledged to the principle of co-operative 

 self-help and still convinced that the 

 '.^.-v. (Con finned on Pa<(c 17, Col. 1) ' ■■, 



