the surrounding territory to secure the necessary amount of farmer stockholders to make a successful start. The task proved to be much harder and more discouraging than we had anticipated, for there still rankled much ill feeling and prejudice in the breasts of the old stockholders. It taxed our powers of persuasion to the utmost to arouse confidence in our plan, although it required only $1600 to take over the property, such as it was. Once started, we met with fair success in the business, though we had bitter opposition from the grain dealers. At the end of the first year we were enabled to declare a liberal dividend, but at the beginning of the second year a serious backset awaited us in the shape of an order from the railway company to enlarge our storage capacity to fifteen thousand bushels or get off the right of way. This meant the building of an entire new elevator in place of our rotten old shack, which held only four thousand and five hundred bushels. So we started out again hustling for more farmer stockholders, for the plans of the new elevator called for a building of twenty-five thousand bushels' capacity at a cost of $8000. This time, however, we found our task easier, for the old prejudice was dying out and confidence returning. We kept hammering away until we had $5000 subscribed, then we started in and pushed the building to completion as fast as possible, borrowing the rest of the money needed for the business. Shortly after this we had the good fortune to hire a manager who was a born business man, and who, with the coöperation of the members, made the business an unqualified success. To-day we have over one hundred farmers as stockholders, have added large coal sheds and a feed warehouse, are entirely out of debt, have accumulated a working capital of $4000, and besides, have each year paid a liberal dividend to the stockholders. We have raised the price of wheat three cents a bushel and give absolutely honest weight to our patrons, whether they are stockholders or not. As a consequence our business has rapidly increased year by year. In consideration of our services as promoters the company has honored us by a unanimous vote for the directorate ever since the organization of the company.
I have neither regrets nor apologies for anything I have done or left undone; the mistakes I have made have been due to error of the mind and not of the heart. I am now in comfortable circumstances, and though there are some fellow pioneers around here who have accumulated more property I do not envy any one, for I know it all came by hard work, good management and strict economy. My family has always enjoyed the best of health, which is a great boon indeed, and they are all alive to-day, with the exception of my youngest son, Victor, who was killed by lightning on the 19th day of August, 1912, in his nineteenth year.
I have always taken an active part in reform movements for the benefit of the working classes, especially the farmers, because as a class they are the least organized and therefore imposed upon to a great extent. In my religious views I have been extremely liberal, and in politics an avowed socialist of eighteen years’ standing.
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