modation. Accordingly a site
for a permanent building of their own was purchased in 1914 at Regina
and the following year a modern, fireproof building was erected. It
stands two storeys on a high basement, with provision for additional
storeys, occupies a space of 9,375 square feet, has interior finish of
oak and architecturally it is a matter of pride to the farmers who own
it. This building has become the headquarters of the Saskatchewan
Co-Operative Elevator Company and likewise the Saskatchewan Grain
Growers' Association, the offices of the latter occupying the entire
top floor.
While the erection of this building afforded visible proof of financial
progress the Saskatchewan farmers were warned by the directors and the
general manager of the "Co-Op" that co-operation which was allowed to
degenerate into mere production of dividends would but reproduce in
another form the evil it was intended to destroy. The ideal of service
was the vital force which must be kept in mind and the work of the
Grain Growers' Association in fostering this ideal must be encouraged.
"The Association has its great work of organization, education and
agitation," stated Charles A. Dunning, the elevator company's manager,
"and the company the equally great work of giving practical effect to
the commercial and co-operative ideals of the Association, both
institutions being branches of one united Farmers' Movement having for
its object the social and economic uplift of the farming industry."
Not a little of the early success of the Saskatchewan Co-Operative
Elevator Company was due to the energy and business ability which
Dunning brought to bear upon its organization and development. The
story of this young homesteader's rise from the ranks of the Grain
Growers is worth noting. It was back in 1902 that he first reached the
West--a seventeen-year-old Englishman, "green" as the grass that grew
over there in Leicester. He did not know anything then about the
historic meeting of pioneer grain growers which Motherwell and Dayman
had assembled not long before at Indian Head. He was concerned chiefly
with finding work on a farm somewhere and hired out near Yorkton,
Saskatchewan, for ten dollars a month. After awhile he secured one of
the Government's 160-acre slices of homestead land and proceeded to
demonstrate that oxen could haul wheat twenty-five miles to a railway
if their driver sat long enough on the load.
There came a day when
|