tly about government
ownership. They were more interested in the fact that the volume of
grain which had flowed so faithfully all these years was being split up
by all these commission men--these hangers-on who invested little or no
capital but necked right up to the profits of the trade as if they
owned the whole business!

Trouble was brewing on the Winnipeg Grain Exchange--had been for some
time.

Then one day word reached the office of the Grain Growers' Grain
Company that by a majority vote the Grain Exchange had suspended, for a
period of one year, the Commission Rule under which grain was handled.

Thus did things come to a showdown.

[1] See Appendix--Par. 10.

CHAPTER XII

THE SHOWDOWN

It's scarcely in a body's power
Tae keep at times frae being sour
Tae see how things are shared.
--_Robert Burns_.

A fight was on between the elevator interests and the commission
merchants of the Winnipeg Grain Exchange--a fight for existence. For,
with the Commission Rule of the Exchange eliminated, those firms which
handled grain on a straight commission basis would be forced to meet
the competition of the elevator buyers and the chances were they would
be forced to handle grain at a loss; the best they could hope for would
be to cover their costs.

It will be remembered that this Commission Rule, established in 1899,
was that a charge of one cent commission per bushel should be made for
handling grain and that all members of the Exchange dealing in grain
must show that the price paid was the price at the terminal (Fort
William) less the freight and one cent per bushel commission. This
commission could be neither more nor less than one cent; for at that
time it was felt that business could not be done, offices maintained
and an efficient and reliable service given for less. It was a charge
which both farmers and grain men considered fair and reasonable.

The trouble in the Exchange started when the commission men claimed the
right to have country agents and to pay them on a commission basis of
one-quarter cent per bushel. The elevator companies were able to buy
at elevator points through their salaried representatives but the
commission men were prohibited from having country agents except on a
salary basis, and this they could not afford, handling grain on
commission.

For some years past there had been considerable dissatisfaction among
Exchange members in regard to the o