And what had the elevator men to say about all this? Surely these farmers were becoming a menace! At the present rate of speed another three years would see them in control of the grain business and was that good for the grain business? Was it good for the farmer? The elevator men did not think so.
Strangely enough, they were not worrying greatly about government ownership. They were more interested in the fact that the volume of grain which had flowed so faithfully all these years was being split up by all these commission men—these hangers-on who invested little or no capital but necked right up to the profits of the trade as if they owned the whole business!
Trouble was brewing on the Winnipeg Grain Exchange—had been for some time.
Then one day word reached the office of the Grain Growers' Grain Company that by a majority vote the Grain Exchange had suspended, for a period of one year, the Commission Rule under which grain was handled.
Thus did things come to a showdown.
[1] See Appendix—Par. 10.
CHAPTER XII
THE SHOWDOWN
It's scarcely in a body's power
Tae keep at times frae being sour
Tae see how things are shared.
—Robert Burns.
A fight was on between the elevator interests and the commission merchants of the Winnipeg Grain Exchange—a fight for existence. For, with the Commission Rule of the Exchange eliminated, those firms which handled grain on a straight commission basis would be forced to meet the competition of the elevator buyers and the chances were they would be forced to handle grain at a loss; the best they could hope for would be to cover their costs.