gnified a
desire to load direct. It was unnecessary to carry out the threat of
proceeding against every delinquent railway agent in the Territories;
for the delinquencies were no longer deliberate. The book in which by
turn the orders for cars were listed began to be a more honest record
of precedence in distribution, as all good car-order books should be.

For the railway authorities were men of wide experience and ability,
who knew when they were defeated and how to accept such defeat
gracefully. It meant merely that the time had come to recognize the
fact that there was a man inside the soil-grimed shirt. The farmer had
won his spurs. While the railway people did not like the action of the
Association in hauling them into court, in all fairness they were ready
to admit that they had received full warning before such drastic action
was taken.

If the railway officials began to regard the farmer in a new light, the
latter on his part began to appreciate somewhat more fully the task
which faced these energetic men in successfully handling the giant
organization for which they assumed responsibility. After the tilt,
therefore, instead of the leaders of the grain growers and the railway
looking at each other with less friendly eyes, their relations became
more kindly as each began to entertain for the other a greater respect.

Best of all, applications were beginning to pour in upon the Secretary
of the Territorial Grain Growers' Association--applications from
farmers everywhere for admission to the organization. Skeptics who had
been holding out now enrolled with their local association and, as fast
as they could be handled, new locals were being formed.

And at this very time, over in the hotel at Sintaluta, a grain grower
of great ability and discernment was warning an interested group of
farmers against the dangers of over-confidence.

"At present we are but pygmies attacking giants," declared E. A.
Partridge. "Giants may compete with giants, pygmies with pygmies, but
pygmies with giants, never. We are not denizens of a hamlet but
citizens of a world and we are facing the interlocking financial,
commercial and industrial interests of a thousand million people. If
we are to create a fighting force by co-operation of the workers to
meet the giants created by the commercial co-operation of the owners,
we have scarcely started. If we seek permanent improvement in our
financial position and thereby an incre