pewritten pages, was handed to the Saskatchewan Government on October
31st, 1910.

In addition to the comprehensive scheme outlined by the Saskatchewan
Grain Growers many different suggestions were considered by the
commission, such as government ownership and operation, state aided
Farmers' Elevators, municipal elevators and various modifications of
these plans. All, however, were discarded by the commission in favor
of an experiment in co-operative ownership and management by the
farmers themselves, assisted financially by the Provincial Government.

The scheme presented by the executive of the Saskatchewan Grain
Growers' Association appeared to be unworkable because it overstepped
mere public ownership and operation of initial elevators to include
methods of sampling, grading before shipment, bank and government
loans, features outside the power of a provincial legislature. The
schemes of municipal and district elevators, while appealing to local
loyalty for patronage, did not secure the farmers' direct pecuniary
interest to make the elevators successful in the face of competition.
As to the Manitoba plan, the commission were unanimous in advising
against it in view of the financial risk and the disadvantages of
political influences which would tend to make themselves felt.

Instead, therefore, of a plan aiming at ownership of initial elevators
by the State and management by the Government of the day, the
commission recommended ownership and management by the growers of
grain. Such a co-operative scheme would aim equally well at removing
initial storage from the ownership of companies interested in grain
trading--would recognize as promptly the feeling of injustice in the
minds of many farmers--would seek just as fully to create marketing
conditions which would give the farmer satisfaction and confidence.
While both the Manitoba scheme and the proposed co-operative scheme
involved financial aid by the State, the commission saw reason to
believe that with control and management in the hands of the farmers
themselves many of the risks and limitations of other plans would be
avoided.

It is to be noted that in reporting upon general conditions in the
grain trade of Canada in 1910 the Saskatchewan Elevator Commission
pointed out the great change which had taken place since 1900. One
factor in this had been the construction of new transcontinental lines
and thousands of miles of branch railway lines together with