Vol. LXXIV. No. 4310. 
NEW YORK, JUNE 12, 1015 
WEEKLY $1.00 PER YEAR. 
Co-operation in Western Canada. 
Where Farmers Hang Together. 
Part II. 
['POSITION FROM THE EXCHANGE.—We 
told last week of the organization and starting 
of the Grain Growers’ Company of Western 
Canada. After some years of successful operation 
the Winnipeg Grain Exchange became alarmed at 
the increase of business which this farmers’ com¬ 
pany had obtained. The farmers had accumulated 
a great surplus, every dollar of which represented 
money that would have gone to the middlemen and 
handlers had it not been for this organization. In 
1909 the Grain Exchange suspended what is known 
as the commission rule. The Grain Growers’ Com¬ 
pany transacts its business as a regular commission 
merchant for its members. It takes out one cent 
a bushel on consigned wheat which comes to it from 
farmers. The plan of the Grain Exchange was to 
put this new company 
out of business. The 
Exchange neve r be¬ 
lieved that the farmers 
would help their own 
organization. They fig¬ 
ured that the farmers’ 
grain company would be 
compelled to li a n d 1 e 
wheat at one-half cent 
a bushel or less in or¬ 
der to get business, and 
that this would cause 
them such a loss they 
w o u 1 d be obliged to 
quit. The plan of the 
Exchange was to get 
along as best they 
could with small profit, 
or no profit at all, until 
they could drive the 
Grain Growers’ Com¬ 
pany out of the field. The 
old-established g r a i n 
merchants felt that they 
could afford to conduct 
their business even at a 
loss, if they could ruin 
tills farmers’ organiza¬ 
tion. 
FARM LOYALTY.— 
Here was the crisis 
which has wrecked so 
many farm organiza¬ 
tions, but the Grain 
Growers met it bravely. 
T h e y went right to 
their farm members and 
explained the exact sit¬ 
uation. and then asked how much commission it 
should charge them. You see this was putting it 
right up to the farmers themselves, as is always the 
right way to do, and those farmers rose right to the 
occasion. They told their company to continue to 
charge the full one cent commission, which they 
would pay no matter what the other dealers did. 
The elevator companies, and many of the commis¬ 
sion men, went down to half a cent or even one- 
quarter of a cent in their offers, but those farmers 
continued to pay the full one cent commission, and 
stood by their company even though it did for the 
time take money right out of their own pockets. In 
this country we are sorry to say that at a crisis 
of this sort many a farmers’ organization has 
ciumbled and fallen apart. Those Canadian grain 
growers, however, knew that unless they hung to¬ 
gether they would all hang separately, and they gave 
the finest test of loyalty, which is always the will¬ 
ingness to stand the temporary loss of a dollar. 
They continued to pay the one cent commission, and 
to sell their grain to their own company even when 
private parties offered to handle it for less money, 
and to pay them somewhat more for the grain. This 
is the finest example of cooperative loyalty that we 
have yet heard of in American farming. The Grain 
Growers’ Company handled 7,000,000 bushels of 
grain the year before this effort was made to put 
them out of business. During the year of the sus¬ 
pension of this commission rule they handled 10,- 
000,000 bushels. The Winnipeg Grain Exchange 
finally saw there was no use fighting against such 
an army as that, and the following year they re¬ 
established the commission rule. The following 
table shows the growth of this Grain Growers’ Com¬ 
pany in the amount of grain which it has handled. 
FINANCIAL CONDITIONS.—The company start¬ 
ed in 1906 with $25,000 subscribed, and $5,000 paid 
Year Eliding Bushels 
June 30. 1907 . 2.340,000 
June 30, 1908. 4.990.542 
.Tune 30. 1909. 7,643,146 
June 30, 1910. 16,332,645 
June 30. 1911. IS,845.305 
June 30, 1912. 27.775,000 
June 30, 1913. 29,975.000 
June 30, 1914. 29,920,000 
up. In 1909 the capital subscribed was $1SS,950. 
In 1911 it was $615,000. On June 30, 1914, the sub¬ 
scribed capital was $1,061,925, of which $771,409 
had been paid in. On August 31, 1914, the total as¬ 
sets of this company amounted to $1,531,782 which 
included city real estate, elevators and stocks of 
other corporations. From its regular commissions 
and other operations the company earned a profit 
of $151,080. It paid dividends amounting to $73,- 
515 and the bulk of the remainder was thrown int<» 
a reserve fund which now amounts to nearly one- 
quarter of a million. Every dollar, and every cent, 
of this great profit and accumulation represents 
what would otherwise have gone to the handlers 
and commission men if the farmers had not organ¬ 
ized their own business and paid themselves for do¬ 
ing what in previous years they had hired others 
to do. The company has met with losses, and has 
faced troubles of many kinds, and it would have 
failed again and again had it not been for the splen¬ 
did loyalty of these farmer members who have will¬ 
ingly put up their money, accepted less than the 
real market price, and hung together in every way 
whenever necessity demanded it. This company 
operates elevators of its own, both in the country 
and at terminals. The picture at Fig. 296 shows one 
of the country elevators 
in Manitoba, owned and 
operated by this Farm¬ 
ers’ Company, w bile 
Fig. 297 shows a term¬ 
inal elevator w 1th a 
c a p a c i t y of 2.500.060 
bushels located at Ft. 
William. In addition to 
its business of handling 
and selling grain, the 
company has branch 
out until it acts as an 
agency through which 
supplies are gathered 
and sold to its farmer 
members in c a r 1 o a d 
lots. It distributes coal, 
apples in carload lots 
direct from fruit grow¬ 
ers’ associations in On¬ 
tario; it sells flour to 
its members, and has 
bought a large tract of 
lumber where it will use 
some of its surplus in 
building sawmills, the 
lumber to be distrib¬ 
uted at cost. Its cap¬ 
ital and surplus will in 
the future be invested 
in s u e h enterprises. 
WHAT HAS BEEN 
DONE.—Thus this com¬ 
pany has been of incal¬ 
culable benefit to the 
fa niters of West e r a 
Canada. Thus far it 
has been operated sole¬ 
ly for their interest, and its members are enthusi¬ 
astic and loyal. Probably nothing quite like this 
has ever been known in the history of farming. 
Probably there is no other place on the continent 
where such a company could have been worked out 
so well as in Western Canada. The settlers there 
were a body of picked men. It required brave and 
hardy people to settle in that cold country and suc¬ 
cessfully face the battle of pioneer life. As a rule 
these men were of high intelligence, and had the 
true fighting spirit which taught them that they 
must hang together to defend their rights. It is 
also a one-crop country to a large extent, grain be¬ 
ing the chief commodity, and as all know, in a 
single-crop country the middlemen or handlers have 
a superior opportunity for controlling trade. And 
