 SCEC Calendar - 1926 | |
| Type | Farmers' cooperative |
|---|---|
| Industry | Grain |
| Founded | 1911 |
| Defunct | 1926 |
| Headquarters | Canada |
Area served | Saskatchewan |
The Saskatchewan Co-operative Elevator Company (SCEC) was a farmer-owned enterprise that provided grain storage and handling services to farmers in Saskatchewan, Canada between 1911 and 1926, when its assets were purchased by the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool.
In the early 20th century wheat farming was expanding fast in the Canadian prairies. Saskatchewan had 13,445 active farms in 1901 covering 600,000 acres (240,000 ha). By 1911 the province had 95,013 farms covering 9,100,000 acres (3,700,000 ha), mostly growing wheat. By 1916 there were 104,006 farms with 14,000,000 acres (5,700,000 ha) of cultivated land. [1] For years the prairie farmers complained of unfair treatment and lack of true competition between the existing line elevator companies, who owned the grain elevators where the grain was stored before being loaded into railway cars. [2] In response to these complaints the Manitoba Grain Act was passed in 1900. The act was well-meaning, but at first was ineffective, and a series of amendments were needed to iron out the flaws. [3]
The Saskatchewan Co-operative Elevator Company (SCEC) had its roots in agitation by the agrarian reformer Edward Alexander Partridge of Sintaluta. The organization meeting for the Grain Growers' Grain Company (GGGC) was held in Sintaluta, Manitoba on 27 January 1906, with Partridge as the first president. The GGGC was a cooperative marketing company, but at first did not own elevators. [4] In 1908 Partridge published the "Partridge Plan" in which he advocated many reforms to the structure of the grain industry, including government ownership of elevators. Under pressure, the Manitoba government purchased elevators in 1910, but the operation was not successful. [2] The elevators were leased by the GGGC in 1912. [4]
In Saskatchewan premier Thomas Walter Scott arranged for a Royal Commission on Elevators in 1910. The commission recommended a system where the elevators would be cooperatively owned by the farmers rather than by the government. In 1911 legislation was passed by which the Saskatchewan Co-operative Elevator Company (SCEC) was incorporated to run elevators under this model. [2] The SCEC was a joint-stock cooperative company whose shares would be sold only to farmers, who could not buy more than ten shares each. The government guaranteed the company's credit. [5] The SCEC was to provide elevator services for local farmers, and later expanded into selling grain. [6] Farmers could buy shares with nominal value of CAN$50 for just CAN$7.50. The remainder of the company's capital requirements came from a government-guaranteed loan that the SCEC would repay from its income. [2] John Archibald Maharg (1872–1944) was the first president, holding office until 1923. [7]
The SCEC built forty elevators in 1911 and leased six. It built 93 elevators in 1912. In 1913 the Alberta Farmers’ Co-operative Elevator Company (AFCEC) was created using the same model. By 1916 the SCEC was operating 190 elevators, and by 1917 had 230. [2] In 1912 the GGGC had also entered the elevator business when it began to operate 135 country elevators leased from the government of Manitoba. [4] In 1917 the GGGC merged with the AFCEC to form the United Grain Growers (UGG). [8] The SCEC was involved in the merger discussions, but in the end decided not to join the UGG. [9] By 1920 the SCEC had 318 licensed elevators, and was the largest operator of grain elevators on the prairies, ahead of the UGG. By the mid 1920s it had more than 400 elevators. [2]
The SCEC was closely aligned with the Saskatchewan Grain Growers' Association (SGGA), a farmer's group, and with the Liberal Party of Saskatchewan. Maharg, president of the SCEC was also president of the SGGA, and in 1921 was provincial minister of agriculture in the Liberal government. Charles Avery Dunning, the first manager of the SCEC, was later premier of Saskatchewan. J. B. Musselman, an influential Liberal and former secretary of the SCEC, was given a position in the SCEC when he was forced to leave the SGGA by reformers. The SCEC's relationship with the Liberals drew criticism from those who felt that a cooperative should be politically neutral, particularly from those who did not support the Liberals. [2] The SCEC drew criticism for being too conservative, unwilling to expand from running elevators into marketing grain. Its directors were elected at central meetings, so did not represent local needs. [2]
The SCEC was highly profitable. It paid 8% dividends between 1917 and 1924, and annual bonuses that ranged from CAN$0.50 and CAN$4.50 a share. However, it did not pay patronage dividends to non-shareholding farmers. [5] Instead it used its profits to pay for expanding its facilities. It was therefore not a true cooperative. The SCEC alienated the poorer farmers. One of them noted, "Inasmuch as most of the pioneer settlers are too poor to hold shares, it is doubtful if it [SCEC] has helped them much, except as a powerful and keen competitor with other firms." The poorer farmers saw the SCEC and UGG as no different from the other grain companies apart from the fact that their owners were prosperous farmers. [10]
Early in 1924 wheat pool organizers, inspired by their success in Alberta, began campaigns to sign up farmers in Saskatchewan and Alberta. The two farm organizations in Saskatchewan lent the pool funds, and the provincial government provided a CAN$45,000 advance. The SCEC was violently opposed to organization of a wheat pool in the province, which it saw as a threat to its existence, but could not stop rapid growth in membership. By 6 June 1924 the pool in Saskatchewan had signed up 46,500 contracts covering more than half the acreage in the province. The pool incorporated as the Saskatchewan Co-Operative Wheat Producers. The three provincial pools formed the Canadian Co-Operative Wheat Producers to market the grain. [11]
The SCEC raised difficulties about letting the pool use its elevators, so the pool's leaders made arrangements with private companies, and then started to build its own. In 1925 the pool offered to buy the SCEC's elevators. At the December annual meeting of the SCEC the farmer delegates overrode the board, and forced the SCEC to consider the offer. A special meeting of members in April 1926 voted to sell by 366 to 77. The 451 country elevators and three terminals were valued by arbitrators at CAN$11 million. The SCEC owners received $155.84 per share, a good profit on their CAN$7.50 investment. [2]
A grain elevator is an agrarian facility complex designed to stockpile or store grain. In grain trade, the term "grain elevator" also describes a tower containing a bucket elevator or a pneumatic conveyor, which scoops up grain from a lower level and deposits it in a silo or other storage facility.
Agricore United was a farmer-directed agribusiness in Canada. It supplied crop nutrition and crop protection products, and offered grain handling and marketing services. It was created on November 1, 2001 by the merger of Agricore and United Grain Growers. It was headquartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Its shares were publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) under the symbol "AU" until June 15, 2007, when it was taken over by the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool. Agri-business giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) had a 28% stake in the company at the time of the takeover.
The Alberta Wheat Pool was the first of Canada's wheat farmer co-operatives in 1923.
The Saskatchewan Wheat Pool was a grain handling, agri-food processing and marketing company based in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Pool created a network of marketing alliances in North America and internationally which made it the largest agricultural grain handling operation in the province of Saskatchewan. Before becoming Viterra, SWP had operated 276 retail outlets and more than 100 grain handling and marketing centres. The Saskatchewan Wheat Pool operated under the name of AgPro in the prairie provinces of Manitoba and Alberta. Begun as a co-operative in the 1920s, the company became a publicly traded corporation in the 1990s. After the 2007 takeover of its competitor, Winnipeg-based Agricore United, the Pool name was retired. The merged company operated under the name Viterra until 2013, when it was acquired by Glencore International.
The United Grain Growers, or UGG, was a Canadian grain farmers' cooperative for grain storage and distribution that operated between 1917 and 2001.
John Archibald Maharg was a Saskatchewan politician.
The Progressive Party of Saskatchewan was a provincial section of the Progressive Party of Canada and was active from the 1920s to the mid-1930s. The Progressives were an agrarian, social democratic political movement. It was originally dedicated to political and economic reform; it also challenged economic policies that favoured the financial and industrial interests in Central Canada over agrarian interests. Like its federal counterpart it favoured free trade over protectionism.
A wheat pool is a co-operative that markets grain on behalf of its farmer-members.
The Warner elevator row is a group of four historic wood-cribbed grain elevators standing in a row from south to north alongside the Canadian Pacific Railway line from Great Falls, Montana to Lethbridge, Alberta at the east entrance of the village of Warner, Alberta, Canada. At one time, the row had at least seven elevators.
Manitoba Pool Elevators was a grain trade company founded in 1924. It became a subsidiary of the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool until November 1932, when the Pool declared bankruptcy. In 1998 Alberta Wheat Pool and Manitoba Pool Elevators merged to form Agricore Cooperative Limited. In 2001, United Grain Growers combined its business operations with Agricore Cooperative Ltd. and carried on business as Agricore United, a publicly traded company, no longer a farmer-owned cooperative. In 2007, Agricore United was taken over by the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, another publicly traded company. The merged corporation was renamed Viterra.
The Manitoba Grain Growers' Association (MGGA) was a farmer's association that was active in Manitoba, Canada in the first two decades of the 20th century. It provided a voice for farmers in their struggle with grain dealers and the railways, and was influential in obtaining favorable legislation. The MGGA supported the Grain Growers' Grain Company, a cooperative of prairie farmers, and its organ the Grain Growers' Guide. At first it remained neutral politically, but in 1920 it restructured as the United Farmers of Manitoba in preparation for becoming a political party.
The Saskatchewan Grain Growers' Association (SGGA) was a farmer's association that was active in Saskatchewan, Canada in the early 20th century. It was a successor to the Territorial Grain Growers' Association, and was formed in 1906 after Saskatchewan became a province. It provided a voice for farmers in their struggle with grain dealers and the railways, and was influential in obtaining favorable legislation. The association initially resisted calls to create a farmer-owned marketing company. Later it did support formation of the Saskatchewan Co-operative Elevator Company. The SGGA helped the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, a cooperative marketing organization, to become established in 1924. In 1926 the SGGA merged with the more radical Farmers' Union of Canada, which had earlier split from the SGGA, to create the United Farmers of Canada,
The Territorial Grain Growers' Association (TGGA) was a farmer's association that was active in Western Canada at the start of the 20th century, in what was then the Northwest Territories and later became Saskatchewan and Alberta. It provided a voice for farmers in their struggle with grain dealers and the railways, and was influential in obtaining favorable legislation. After Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces the TGGA was succeeded by the Alberta Farmers' Association and the Saskatchewan Grain Growers' Association.
The Alberta Farmers' Association (AFA) was a farmer's association that was active in Alberta, Canada from 1905 to 1909. It was formed from the Alberta branch of the Territorial Grain Growers' Association (TGGA) when Alberta became a province in 1905. It provided a voice for farmers in their struggle with grain dealers and the railways. In January 1909 it merged with the Canadian Society of Equity to form the United Farmers of Alberta.
Edward Alexander Partridge was a Canadian teacher, farmer, agrarian radical, businessman and author. He was born in Ontario but moved to Saskatchewan where he taught and then became a farmer. He was active in the Territorial Grain Growers' Association (TGGA), founded in 1902, which addressed various problems with the Western Canada grain market. He founded the cooperative Grain Growers' Grain Company, the predecessor of the United Grain Growers, and the Grain Growers' Guide, a widely distributed weekly paper. His "Partridge Plan" was a broad and visionary proposal for addressing a wide range of farmers' issues, eliminating many abuses caused by the near-monopoly of grain elevator companies, and resulted in important reforms by the provincial governments. Patridge was named a National Historic Person in 2018.
The Grain Growers' Guide was a newspaper published by the Grain Growers' Grain Company (GGGC) in Western Canada for grain farmers between 1908 and 1936. It reflected the views of the grain growers' associations. In its day it had the highest circulation of any farm paper in the region.
George Fisher Chipman was a Canadian journalist who edited the Grain Growers' Guide for many years. The paper was the official organ of the provincial grain growers' associations in the Canadian prairies, and became the mostly widely circulated farmers' paper in the region.
The Grain Growers' Grain Company (GGGC) was a farmers' cooperative founded in the prairie provinces of western Canada in 1906. The GGGC met strong resistance from existing grain dealers. It was forced off the Winnipeg Grain Exchange and almost failed. With help from the Manitoba government it regained its seat on the exchange, and soon had a profitable grain trading business. The company founded the Grain Growers' Guide, which became the most popular farmer's newspaper in the region. In 1912 the GGGC began operating inland and terminal grain elevators, and in 1913 moved into the farm supply business. The GGGC was financially secure and owned or operated almost 200 elevators as well as 122 coals sheds and 145 warehouses by the time it merged with the Alberta Farmers' Co-operative Elevator Company to form the United Grain Growers in 1917.
The Manitoba Grain Act was an act passed by the Federal government of Canada in 1900 to protect the interests of grain farmers against abuses by the grain storage and trading companies and the railways. Although well-intentioned the act was flawed, and a series of amendments were required before the more effective Canada Grain Act of 1912 was passed.
The Alberta Farmers' Co-operative Elevator Company (AFCEC) was a farmer-owned enterprise that provided grain storage and handling services to farmers in Alberta, Canada between 1913 and 1917, when it was merged with the Manitoba-based Grain Growers' Grain Company (GGGC) to form the United Grain Growers (UGG).
