tion opened,
they would be smashed.

But in attacking the credit of the Grain Growers, these opponents
overlooked the rapid increase in paid-up capital and the ability of the
farmers to secure money outside of Winnipeg. It was not being
forgotten by the Grain Growers that upon the first day of May there
would be delivered to them over 2,200,000 bushels of oats.

When the day arrived, therefore, the money was on hand to meet every
contingency. Every bushel was paid for immediately. Within a few
weeks half of the quantity was riding the waves of the Atlantic, bound
for the Old Country to fill part of the sales already made there.

Before long some of the grain companies which had sold the oats were
trying to buy them back. Had the farmers' company been a speculating
firm they might have turned upon the market and cornered the oats with
a vengeance. It was one of those rare occasions when a corner could
have been operated successfully to a golden, no-quarter finish; for the
export demand was sustained and the local market could have been made
to pay "through the nose" for its fun.

CHAPTER XVII

NEW FURROWS

Fishes, beasts and fowls are to eat each other, for they have no
justice; but to men is given justice, which is for the best.--_Hesiod_.

The situation was changing indeed for the Grain Growers in Western
Canada. In spite of all opposition the farmers had made themselves a
factor in the grain trade and had demonstrated their ability to conduct
their affairs on sound business principles. Co-operative marketing of
grain no longer was an untried idea, advocated by a small group of
enthusiasts. The manner in which the farmers' pioneer trading agency
had weathered the stormy conditions of its passage from the beginning
and the dignified stand of its directors--these gradually were earning
status in the solid circles of the business world.

Out in the country also things were different. Those farmers who at
first had been most certain that the trading venture would crumble away
like so many other organized business efforts of farmers in the past,
now were ready to admit their error--to admit that a farmers' business
organization, managed by farmers, could succeed in such ample measure
that its future as a going concern was assured. Instead of hovering on
the outskirts of its activities, like small boys surrounding a giant
fire-cracker on Victoria Day--waiting for the loud bang so freely
predicted-