John Kennedy met him at the station.
"What's wrong?" demanded the Secretary of the Manitoba Grain Growers'
Association at once. "I came right along as soon as I got your wire,
Kennedy. What's up now?"
"The editor of the Grain Growers' Guide. Partridge wants you to take his place."
"ME? Why, I never edited anything in my life!" cried McKenzie, standing stock still on the platform.
"Pshaw! Come along," laughed Kennedy reassuringly. "You'll be alright. It ain't hard to do."
CHAPTER XI
FROM THE RED RIVER VALLEY TO THE FOOTHILLS
It ain't the guns or armament nor the funds that they can pay,
But the close co-operation that makes them win the day;
It ain't the individual, nor the army as a whole,
But the everlastin' team-work of every bloomin' soul!
—Kipling.
At one of the early grain growers' conventions it had been voiced as an ideal that there were three things which the farmers' movement needed—first, a trading company to sell their products (with ultimately, it might be, the cheaper distribution of farm supplies); second, a bank in which they could own stock; third, a paper that would publish the farmers' views. So that if the new Executive of the Company had done little else than break ground for better financial arrangements and a farmers' own paper, their record for the year would have shown progress.
But when the second annual meeting of the Company was held they were able to show that the volume of farmers' grain handled was almost five million bushels, double that of the first year, while the net profits amounted to over thirty thousand dollars. The number of farmer shareholders had increased to nearly three thousand with applications on file for another twelve hundred and a steady awakening of interest among the farmers was to be noticed all over the West. All this in spite of the general shortage of money, a reduced total crop yield and the keenest competition from rival grain interests.