e.--_Earl Grey_.

What is to be the final outcome of the Western farmers' revolt and its
spread to rural communities in Eastern provinces? Is there to be greater
harmony among opposing interests or is Canada on the threshold of
internal strife which will plow deep furrows of dissension between class
and class to an extent hitherto unknown in this country? If there is to
be a pitched fight between capitalistic groups and the people at large,
led by the farmers, what are the chances of victory for the latter? If
they win, what will be the national effect?

These were a few of the questions which first turned the writer's serious
attention to the Grain Growers. It seems scarcely credible that this
great economic movement has attained present momentum practically
unheralded; yet such is the case. The writer had watched its early
struggles to success from Government windows and as preparation for a
brief historical sketch it seemed desirable to get out among the farmers
themselves and study the situation from their angle.

Frankly, the task was not approached without some skepticism as to the
motives which might be uncovered. Almost the only occasions on which the
Grain Growers revealed themselves to the public were when they waited
upon politicians for this, that or the other. So often did this happen
and so insistent were they that there seemed some grounds for the belief
that to satisfy a Grain Grower was humanly impossible. From Legislative
casements it even looked at times as if they were a new species of
Indian, collecting political scalps! All manner of people accused them
of all manner of things. In the East they were called "blacksmith-shop
politicians, nail-keg economists, grousers and soreheads"; in the West
they were dubbed "corner-grocer statesmen and political football players."

When the caravans of the Eastern political chieftains, Liberal and
Conservative, came West they knew they were going to be held up by the
outlaws. Long before these respective expeditions started across the
plains infested with wild and dangerous Grain Growers, their scouts--the
Western M.P.'s--were ranging far and wide in preparation.

And when those Grain Growers in turn rode East to take possession of
Ottawa there was a popular expectation that they were about to whoop in
and shoot up the town in the real old wild and woolly way. They were
referred to cleverly as "Sod-Busters." It was rather startling to find
them