tock to be ready for business by the middle of the following month.

By this time the harvest season was so near at hand that prompt action
was necessary if they were to do any business that fall. Under the
Manitoba charter the company could open for business with a provisional
directorate and as five members of the original committee were in
Winnipeg and available for quick action, it was decided to go ahead as
it would be impossible to hold a representative general meeting of the
shareholders before harvest and it was advisable in the interests of
the subscribers to take advantage of the opportunity to do business in
the meantime.

Provisional organization therefore was undertaken during the week of
the Winnipeg Industrial Exhibition, in a tent on the Fair grounds, and
July 26th was set as the date. When space was sought for the erection
of their sixteen-foot tent, however, they found themselves classed with
the "Sunflower Belles" and "Katzenjammer Castle" and it was only after
the payment of fifty dollars that permission was granted for the
erection of the tent. Here to the accompaniment of a raucous medley of
sounds--the beating of tom-toms, the ballyhooing of the sideshows, the
racket of the machinery exhibits and the cries of the peanut and
lemonade vendors--the farmers' trading company was organized with
provisional officers[1] and directorate in legal shape to start the
wheels in motion as a joint stock company.

But before actual business could begin a manager must be located who
knew all the ins and outs and ups and downs of the grain business; also
a seat upon the Winnipeg Grain Exchange must be purchased before the
farmers could enter the arena as dealers in grain. None of the
officers of the young company which was about to try its wings
overlooked the fact that nothing could be more foolhardy than for
farmers like themselves, direct from the green pastures, to attempt the
plunge they were about to take without proper guidance as to the depth
of the water and the set of the currents. They knew they were
embarking in a most intricate and difficult business and with so much
at stake on behalf of the whole farming population of Western Canada it
was necessary to place the helm in the hands of somebody who could
pilot them through the shoals. At best it promised to be a stormy
passage.

About the only man in sight for the position was Thomas Coulter, of the
Independent Grain Company. He had treated E