d the figures with the
returns made to the authorities by these concerns themselves. He shook
his head at the discrepancies and started an investigation. There were
three companies involved and after full evidence was taken legally
these three companies were prosecuted for returning untrue statements
and in the Police Court at Winnipeg they were fined a total of $5,550
by the Magistrate.

The next thing was the drafting of a Grain Bill which aimed to improve
certain matters. It was considered by the Senate and passed. It
reached the House of Commons and Hon. Frank Oliver took it by the
halter and led it about. Before anything could happen to it, however,
and the judges get a chance to study its good and bad points, July
(1911) came along and Parliament dissolved like a lump of sugar dropped
into a cup of tea and in the hub-bubbles of a general election
everything was _in statu quo_, as they say. And when the race was over
and the Party Nags back in their stalls, lo! new tenants were taking
their turn at sliding around on the polished Treasury Benches and
having a sun bath!

The new Minister of Trade and Commerce was Hon. George E. Foster. He
looked over the Grain Bill, passed his hand along its withers and
patted it on the rump. Then he sat down and made a copy of it,
idealizing it by injecting a few "betterments," then trotted it out for
inspection with tail and mane plaited and bells on its patent-leather
surcingle. He did not claim to be its real father--only its
foster-father. He introduced it to the House with a very lucid review
of the whole agitation for improvement in the Grain and Inspection Acts
since "Johnny" Millar, of Indian Head, Saskatchewan, handed in the
Royal Grain Commission report in 1907.

The new Government proposed to grant government control of terminal
elevators only on a limited and experimental scale. They wanted to
test out the principle by lease or construction of two or three
terminals at the head of the lakes before undertaking the financial
responsibility of handling the entire terminal system. Heretofore
there had been government supervision merely; but now for an experiment
there would be government operation as well while the management of the
remaining terminals would have to be satisfactory to the Government.

"The demand of the West is that the grain should not be manipulated at
the terminals," declared Mr. Foster. "It does not matter a pin as to
how that is brough