eligibility of a person as an employee or fix a limit to salary in any
way be denied; also that the expulsion of no member should be
considered final until assented to by the Minister of Agriculture and
that all by-laws should receive the assent of the Lieutenant-Governor
in Council before becoming legal and binding.

The farmers asked that the Government have full access to the minute
books, papers and accounts of the Grain Exchange and that provision be
made for the public to have free access to a gallery overlooking the
trading room during the sessions of the Exchange so that the
transactions occurring might be observed and the prices disseminated
through the public press. They further wished to see gambling in
futures made a criminal offence.

Roderick McKenzie, Secretary of the Manitoba Association, told how the
existing Grain Exchange had about three hundred members, of whom one
hundred were active and fifty-seven of these active members represented
the elevator interests. He said that the interests of the fifty-seven
were looked after by twelve elevator men in the Exchange and that these
twelve men agreed so well that they allowed one of their number to send
out the price which should be paid for wheat for the day.

The Committee on Agriculture promised to consider the requests and
later, when they met to do so, members of the Grain Exchange attended
in force to present their side of the case. They claimed that a great
deal of the trouble existing between the producer and the Grain
Exchange was due to misconception of the Exchange's methods of action.
The Exchange was only a factor in the grain business and under their
charter they were allowed to make by-laws and regulations, these being
necessary in such an intricate business as handling grain.

The wiring of prices to country points was done by the North-West Grain
Dealers' Association, which had nothing to do with the Exchange but was
a distinct and separate organization for the purpose of running
elevators at country points as cheaply as possible. The highest
possible prices were quoted and the plan was merely to avoid duplicate
wiring.

The grain men claimed that it was impossible to handle the wheat of the
country unless futures were allowed while to carry on its business
properly the Exchange must have the power to say who should be members
and otherwise to regulate its business. If the producer was getting
full value for his wheat why should t