ith the buyer, it was hard to
refuse.

For your farmer is a man of simple code. He is not versed in
subterfuge and diplomacy. He takes words at their face value, unless
he distrusts you, just as he hands them out himself. He lives a clean,
honest life and earns his money. If in some cases his viewpoint is
narrowed by treading much in the same furrows, it is at least an honest
viewpoint in which he really believes. And one of the things in which
the average farmer prides himself is that he will "never go back on a
friend." Even a red Indian would not do that!

In selling to the elevator these same farmers probably had no intention
of unfriendliness to the farmers' trading company. They hoped to see
it succeed but did not appreciate their individual responsibility in
the matter or realize that while their own personal defection
represented a loss to the Company of just one shipment, the loss became
vital when multiplied many times all along the line. And the Company
had no agent on the ground to argue this out, face to face.

Although many requests for the appointment of such local agents reached
the office, the directors decided that it would be poor policy as it
would mean appointing agents everywhere and abuses might develop. It
would be easy under such a system for an impression to get abroad that
favoritism was being shown in appointments; jealousies and
disappointments might be the result. On the other hand, one of the
greatest sources of strength which the Company could foster would be a
sense of individual responsibility among its farmer shareholders--each
shareholder an agent for his own grain and that of his non-member
neighbors, each doing his part to keep down the handling cost of his
grain and build up his own company. In the meantime it were better to
lose some grain than run the risk of disrupting the whole movement--to
let the elevators enjoy their advantage until it became a nullity by
education of the farmer himself.

Such educational work was already a regular part of the routine.
Pamphlets and circulars were issued from time to time, dealing with
prevailing conditions, advocating amendments to the Grain Act, etc.,
and explaining the need for government ownership of elevators. The
feeling that the Provincial governments should acquire and operate all
storage facilities in the way of elevators and warehouses was spreading
rapidly among farmers and business men.

In the second year the G