ed up.

"What about that company?" asked Partridge with visible interest.
"I've heard a lot about it."

"Oh, it's just a little dinky affair," laughed the traveller. "They've
got a little office about ten feet square and they actually have a
typewriter! They get a car or two a month. Don't amount to anything."

For a full hour he kept the chutes open and filled his interested
auditor with all the latest brands of misrepresentation and ridicule.
He explained why it was that the farmers' effort was nothing but a joke
and how foolish it would be for any farmer to send business to it. He
was a good salesman, this traveller, and he was sure he had "sold" this
rather intelligent hayseed when he got to the end of his talk and his
station was called.

"I've really enjoyed this," assured Partridge gratefully. "As a farmer
I'm naturally interested in that sort of thing, you know, and I've got
a particular interest in that little grain company. My name is
Partridge and I only want to say----"

But the traveller had grabbed his club bag and was off down the aisle
as fast as he could go. Salesmanship is punctuated by "psychological
moments" and good salesmen always know when to leave. He did not look
around. His ears were very red.

It was funny. No, it wasn't, either! Lies about the Company, thought
the then President, would travel a thousand miles before the Truth
could get its boots on! It was not a matter for amusement at all.

As the "little dinky affair" became a competitor of increasing strength
in the grain trade the efforts of a section of the grain men,
particularly the elevator interests, to discredit it among the farmers
became more and more marked. While the farmers' company was not openly
attacked, influences nevertheless were constantly at work to undermine
in roundabout ways. The elevator men were in a strong position to
fight hard and they pressed every advantage. At practically every
shipping point they had agents whose business it was to secure
shipments of grain in car lots as well as buying on street. Many of
these men were very popular locally and as individuals were good
fellows, well liked by their farmer friends. A rebate on the charges
for loading grain through an elevator or the mere fact that letting the
elevator have it saved the bother of writing a letter--these were
excellent inducements to the unthinking farmer, and when added to this
was the element of personal acquaintance w