face many more which were due to the special nature of its policies.
Manufacturers who disapproved of its attitude on the tariff, for
instance, refused for a long while to use its advertising columns.
Each year as the _Guide's_ struggle went on there was an annual deficit
and had it not been for the grants with which the Grain Growers' Grain
Company came to its rescue, the paper must have gone under. For this
financial assistance the farmers' trading company got no return except
the satisfaction of knowing that the money could not be spent to better
advantage in the interests of Western farmers.

With the rapid developments in Alberta and the probable future shipment
of Alberta grain via the Panama Canal route, branch offices were being
opened at Calgary by Winnipeg grain dealers. Not to be behind in the
matter of service, the farmers' company followed suit. A Seed Branch
Department to supply good seed grain was another improvement in service
and the farmers by this time were taking a keen interest in their
trading organization.

When the third annual meeting came around, there was no longer any
doubt that a farmers' business organization _could_ succeed--that this
venture of the Grain Growers was _not_ going to go off with a loud
bang--at least, not yet.

But, as the President remarked, it seemed that they had no more than
touched the fringe of what remained to be accomplished. One of the
immediate questions pressing for solution, he considered, was
government ownership of elevators.

"Our Company's experience has demonstrated completely," he said, "that
our grain marketing conditions can never reach a proper basis as long
as the elevators necessary for that marketing are allowed to remain in
private hands for private gain. The Grain Growers' Associations are
the one thing above everything else that stands between the farmer and
the power of merciless corporations. They have undoubtedly been the
greatest shield this Company has had since its organization; they have
helped the Company to prove, far beyond any question of doubt, the
advantages of co-operation."

And what had the elevator men to say about all this? Surely these
farmers were becoming a menace! At the present rate of speed another
three years would see them in control of the grain business and was
that good for the grain business? Was it good for the farmer? The
elevator men did not think so.

Strangely enough, they were not worrying grea