Submission to the Commission on the Costs of Transporting Grain by Rail / K. J. Cooksley. -- Memorandum to the Inquiry into the Costs of Transporting Grain by Rail / Manitoba Pool Elevators, Saskatchewan Wheat Pool. -- Pool's participation in the Snavely Commission on the Costs of Moving Grain by Rail / A. D. McLeod, K. J. Cooksley
Rebuttal presentation of Alberta Wheat Pool, Manitoba Pool Elevators [and] Saskatchewan Wheat Pool to the Commission on the Costs of Transporting Grain by Rail
The forerunner of Manitoba Pool Elevators (MPE), the Manitoba Wheat Pool was created in 1924 as a mechanism to allow for the co-operative marketing of wheat by Manitoba producers by the United Farmers of Manitoba. The Manitoba Wheat Pool was initially intended to be a provisional organization until the establishment of an interprovincial Pool, but when Alberta and Saskatchewan established their own permanent Pools the United Farmers decided to do the same. The Manitoba Pool was different from the SK and AB Pools in that the municipality was the primary unit of organization; members belonged to their municipal Pool associations first, rather than having direct membership with the central Manitoba Wheat Pool. Manitoba Pool Elevators was established in 1925 as a subsidiary of the Pool in response to local members complaints about the unfair business practices of privately owned elevators. The private elevators also slowed up the shipment of grain to the Central Selling Agency employed by the Wheat Pool, acting as a barrier between the local Pools and the Manitoba Wheat Pool. Once established MPE quickly began to build new elevators and aquire privately owned elevators.
MPE's approach to marketing grain promised to stabilize the market price of grain and ensure a fair market price to producers. Initially the Manitoba Wheat Pool was very successful. However, in 1930, the Manitoba Wheat Pool found itself burdened with an unsold surplus from the preceding year that had been bought from the farmers at a price that was significantly higher than any possible return during the Depression. As a result, in 1931 the Manitoba Wheat Pool's Central Selling Agency defaulted on its bank loans. Despite attempts to save the organization, it was forced to declare bankruptcy in November 1932. The financial difficulties of the Wheat Pool had little to no effect on the Pool Elevators, and so this former subsidiary organization became the main Manitoba Pool organization. This change meant MPE had to reorganize, which they were able to do with funds from the provincial government. The company was successful enough in subsequent years that it was able to finish repaying the Manitoba government a full year early in 1949.
MPE did not limit itself to grain handling; they wished to enrich the lives of rural families through education and to provide economic stability through diversification.
MPE established a lending reference library for members and a traveling library for rural families in 1926. With the passing of the Public Libraries Act in 1948, the province took over responsibility for providing rural families with books. MPE decided that since their traveling library would no longer be needed when rural libraries were established, the best course of action was to donate their library to the Provincial government. They also established and supported programs that educated young people about agriculture and ag business.
Subsidiary companies that dealt with course grains, livestock, packing and fertilizer were established by MPE to streamline and stabilize business for its members.
1961 marked the high water mark for the number of local associations within Manitoba Pool Elevators with 225 local associations. After this date the associations began to amalgamate and consolidate. Improvements in rural roads and rail systems and increases in the size of farms and mechanization of farm labour meant that fewer elevators were needed to service all members and regions. These changes led to an organizational restructuring of Manitoba Pool Elevators in 1968. Membership became direct, and the main unit of organization became the central office. The central office administrated the Pool through districts, which were further subdivided into sub-districts. The locals which were formally the main organizational unit came under the immediate direction of the sub-district they were located in. Local association could opt out of this system if they wished, but by 1975 all but 29 associations had become part of the new structure.
In 1998 Manitoba Pool Elevators merged with the Alberta Wheat Pool to form Agricore Co-operative, Ltd. In 2001 this organization merged with the United Grain Growers to become Agricore United, and in 2007 AU was taken over by the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool; the new company is currently known as Viterra.
Custodial History
The bulk of this fonds was accessioned in 1975, when the forerunner to the McKee Archives at Brandon University, the Rural Resource Center, was founded. The original mandate of the Rural Resource Center was to house the records of the Manitoba Pool Elevators. Previous to this, most of the fonds was stored at MPE's head office in Winnipeg. Many accruals to this collection have since taken place, with some of the larger ones being received in 1997, 2001, and 2002.
Scope and Content
Fonds contains records dealing with every aspect of the Manitoba Pool Elevators organization, from the events leading to its formation in the 1920's, to its amalgamation as part of Agricore beginning in the late 1990's.
Fonds includes records of the local co-operative elevator associations established in the period 1925 - 1968 under the Co-operative Associations Act including: organizational papers; minutes of executive boards; minutes of shareholders annual meetings; financial statements; correspondence; membership lists; and miscellaneous documents.
Also to be found are: documents related to the Royal Commission re the Manitoba Pool Elevators Limited ca. 1931; miscellaneous reports and submissions documents (1925 -1952); central office papers consisting of annual reports, circulars to local co-operative elevator associations and documents related to various other activities of the Manitoba Pool Elevators organization. Fonds also contains documents pertaining to the Manitoba Co-operative Poultry Marketing Association Limited and its successor, the Manitoba Dairy and Poultry Co-operative Limited, and related agencies.
Other items in the fonds (dating from the 1890's to 2001) include: books acquired for the Manitoba Pool Elevator Library, including a complete run of both the Scoop Shovel (MPE's first newspaper)and the Manitoba Cooperator; photographs; slides; audiotapes; and reel-to-reel videos.
Finally, the fonds contains a small number of miscellaneous items such as banners, and company issued briefcases.
This fonds is organized into four series, (A) Local Association records, (B) Central Office Records, (C) Subsidiary Companies and Co-operatives, (D) Commissions, Committees and Inquiries
Notes
Description by Mike White (2002), revised and enlarged by Jillian Sutherland (2009-2010).
History/Bio taken from F.W. Hamilton, "Service at Cost: A History of the Manitoba Pool Elevators 1925-1975" (Saskatoon: Modern Press) and from records within the fonds.
Preparation of this description made possible in part by a generous grant from the Brandon University Student's Union Work Study Program 2009.
Researchers are responsible for observing Canadian copyright restrictions.
Finding Aid
File level inventory available for some boxes. The Pool Elevator library and publications are available online through the Brandon University Library catalogue.
A commission to inquire into the formation and operation of the Manitoba Pool up until 1931. Charges were brought against the Pool by J.R. Murray, then Assistant General Manager of UGG. The four charges were, briefly: (1) producers had been mislead into forming elevator associations, (2) members are bound by contract to the association, (3) financial statements sent out to associations are inaccurate, (4) Pool members are not getting as good a deal as they would on the free market.
The first two charges were deemed provable by the commission, while the last two were not. It was noted by the commissioner that no pool members had come forward with complaints.
See also fonds level description of RG 4 for history/bio of MPE
Scope and Content
.This sub-series contains volumes 1 - 25 of the Royal Commission on Manitoba Pool Elevators.
The importance of knowledge and education to the Manitoba Wheat Pool is made clear in the The Scoop Shovel, the official organ of the Manitoba Wheat Pool and other co-operatives in Manitoba. Established in the 1920s, The Scoop Shovel owed its existence to a decision by the directors of the Pool to set aside small percentage of income per bushel for educational purposes. R.A. Hoey began to hold meetings to discuss the idea that the Pool was about more than just marketing grain, and in 1926 a Department of Education and Publicity was organized within the Pool. It was directed by J.T. Hull and advised by R.A. Hoey; they expanded and supervised The Scoop Shovel.
They also began to accumulate the educational volumes that would become the Pool library. Hull announced in November of 1926 that the library would be open by the end of the month and reported that: "We have a good representation of works on sociology... On co-operation we have about every book that we can find published in the English language. We have also a good selection of books on economics, history, science, general literature, and rural life. In a word, we have tried to make the library one of usefulness to people whose life is on the land."
He also encouraged Pool members--who were the only ones allowed to use the library at this time--to utilize the library to educate themselves, saying “Use it, for knowledge is power”.
Once the library was open to all Pool members, Hull wrote a regular column for The Scoop Shovel called “In the Library”, in which he would review books and recommend reading in response to frequent questions from members. When the library gained new books, which was almost continually, he would list them and sometimes discuss them.
The library service was a mailing one; the main collection was kept at the Manitoba Wheat Pool central office in Winnipeg and members could request a catalogue of all the library holdings. If they wanted to borrow a book or books on a specific topic, they could write to Hull and the books would be mailed out to the member and returned by mail, all postage costs covered by the Pool Library.
During the crisis of the early 1930s, the library was saved because the Manitoba Co-operative Conference believed it was vital to the success of the Pools and the co-operative movement. The Conference took over administration of the Pool library in 1931, leasing the books and equipment from the Wheat Pool. The library was formally incorporated under a charter after it changed hands, the other charters members being the Co-operative Marketing Board and the United Farmers of Manitoba.
In 1935 the service was made available free of charge to all rural Manitobans with the financial support of the Co-op Marketing Board. By 1939, Manitoba Pool Elevators had begun to prosper again, and took back responsibility for the administration and housing of the library. The traveling library was also established around this time, and hundreds of boxes were distributed to all MPE points. The boxes were rotated and refreshed twice a year.
In 1942 Hull estimated that there were approximately 4,700 books in the Pool Library with an annual circulation of 4,000 to 5,000 books. Operating the library cost around two thousand dollars per year, although the cost was split between the members of the Manitoba Co-operative Conference, at least it was in theory. The Pool library ran as a free service to all rural Manitobans, regardless of whether they were members of the Pool, and the federal government census in 1941 indicates that over half of Manitoba’s population (56%) still lived in rural areas. In 1948, the majority of the Pool Library’s services were rendered unnecessary by an act called the “Public Libraries Act” that had been passed by the Manitoba legislature on April 22, 1948, and would go into effect July 1, 1948. The act provided for the establishing of a provincial “Public Library Advisory Board” that would be appointed by the government. Once the board had been established, the act allowed for the establishment of municipal and regional libraries that would be the administrative responsibility of the municipality or region they served and would be supported by a land tax levied on the population that would have access to the library. All employees of the central provincial library would be considered civil servants.
When the Provincial Library was being established in 1949, the Minister in charge of education--Ivan Shultz--actively sought both the advice of those who operated the Pool Library and the physical resources of the Library. In a letter to W.J. Parker, the President of Manitoba Pool Elevators, Shultz wrote that: "We find that in looking at the province as a whole that the box library service of the Manitoba Pool Elevators is the best developed and the best distributed within the province... We would feel that to a considerable extent you had pioneered in this field and we would be using your accomplishments as a springboard for a wider coverage of the province and an enlargement of the service."
He also requested that Miss E.L. Shields—the Pool Librarian--be released from Pool employment so that the Provincial Library could hire her for a year to aid in setting up the new library system.
An agreement was reached between MPE and the Provincial Library, and the bulk of the Pool Library was transferred to the province. The Pool retained the volumes it wished to keep as reference for its employees, and donated the rest of the open shelf library to the province. The traveling library service was sold at a discount to the province, with the caveat that service not be interrupted during the transfer and that the quality of service to rural Manitoba not diminish once the Library had been entirely transferred to the government. In a letter to Ivan Shultz after the agreement to sell the traveling library had been reached, W.J. Parker wrote that: "...Manitoba Pool Elevators has maintained an open shelf library for a period of some twenty years. These books have been made available to anyone in Manitoba, outside the City of Winnipeg, and the postage both ways was paid by the Pool. We feel it has served a very useful purpose, but that it is not primarily our function and if the government proposes to offer a more complete and universal service we are prepared to retire from the field and avoid what might be considered unnecessary duplication."
Scope and Content
Series contains items once held as part of the Manitoba Pool Library. It has been divided into the following four sub-series: (1) MPE E 1 Manitoba Pool Library publications; (2) MPE E 2 The Scoop Shovel; (3) MPE E 3 The Manitoba Cooperator; and (4) MPE E 4 Pamphlet collection.
The Franklin Cooperative Elevator Association Ltd was located in Franklin, Manitoba. The association was formed and incorporated on May 19, 1927 under certificate # 68 of the Cooperative Association Act. The first provisional meeting was held on June 27, 1927 with R.A Storey as Chairman and O. Douglas as Secretary. There was a meeting held after the incorporation meeting and the first board of directors was elected on June 28, 1927 with R. A Storey as Chairman and E.A White as Secretary. The cooperative was run by an elected board of directors.
The Franklin Cooperative Elevator Association was a part of the Manitoba Pool Elevators Ltd which was a subsidiary elevator company of the Manitoba Wheat Pool. Manitoba Pool Elevators was incorporated on April 9,1925 with 1,000 000 capitol stocks being sold for $1.00 per share. Manitoba Pool elevators ran on the principal of local ownership through the cooperatives.
The Franklin Cooperative Elevator Association was involved in issues on a local and provincial scale. An example of local concerns was that in October 1948, it is on record that it was a bad crop year with a delayed harvest because of inclement weather. The elevators become plugged up and as a result grain had to be shipped to oppositional elevators. In 1952 the Franklin Cooperative Elevator Association built a forty five thousand bushel annex building and later that year issues arose over cost overages in its construction. The cooperative was also concerned about provincial matters such as on Sept 18, 1952 a strike was arranged by the workers of Manitoba Pool. It was averted when a settlement was reached in Winnipeg.
Custodial History
Records in accession 10-2013, were delivered to the Archives of Manitoba on March 20, 1970 by Bob Douglas, son of Oliver Douglas. Those records were deaccessioned by the Archives of Manitoba in January 2012 and transferred to the McKee Archives later that year. All other records were donated to the McKee Archives by Manitoba Pool Elevators.
Scope and Content
Fonds consists of ledger books containing minutes of monthly meetings as well as annual general meetings for the Franklin Co-operative Elevator Association. The first meeting had thirty members in attendance. From incorporation the cooperative had a list of objectives they wanted to accomplish including building or acquiring, and payment of a grain elevator and building documentation. They also needed to be licensed under the Canadian Grain Act. The ledger books also contains a list of bylaws. Records also included membership rosters and contract numbers for shipping grain. Auditor's year-end financial records are also included in the fonds. Attendance records from 1958 to 1963 have been recorded.
Franklin Co-operative Elevator Association Limited Organizational papers: 1929 - 1961 Certificate of indebtedness, 31 July 1929 Memo re: association, By-laws 8-11, no date Application for share of stock, 31 July 1931 Minutes of Directors meeting, 31 July 1931 Minutes of Shareholders meeting, 31 July 1931 By-law nos. 12 and 13, 31 July 1931 Agreement between Franklin CEA, MPE, Manitoba Wheat Pool and The King, 1 August 1931 By-law no. 14, 12 November 1931 Certificate for one share of stock, 1 December 1931 Letter re: stock acceptance, 14 January 1932 Agreement between Franklin CEA and MPE, 1 February 1933 Special Board of Directors meeting re: By-law no. 15, 16 February 1933 Letter re: By-law no. 14, 18 February 1938 Agreement between MPE and Fraklin CEA, 30 November 1948 Agreement between MPE and Franklin CEA, 1 August 1951 Memo re: above agreement, 13 June 1952 By-law no. 23, 2 November 1951 MPE By-laws 1961-148, 1961-149, 1961-150, 1961-151, 12 October 1961 Directors' Resolution, 18 October 1961 Minutes of Executive Board meetings, 1 August 1969 - 10 December 1982 Minutes of Shareholders Annual meetings, 1929 - 1967 (13 reports) Financial records and statistics Statement of surplus, 1937 - 1955 (15 reports) Final statements, 1934 - 1952 (16 reports) Auditors' reports, 1928 - 1968 (33 reports) Analysis of Operating Results, 1951 - 1963 (9 reports) Review of Operating Results, 1960 - 1966 (5 reports) Detail of grain earnings, 1963 - 1968 (4 reports) Analysis of Operating Results, 1951 - 1952 (5 reports) Statement of grain account and handle, 15 June 1931 Annual financial statement, no date Correspondence, 1927 - 1962 Membership list, 1935 - 1962 Miscellaneous Directors' attendance lists, 1945 - 1959 (8 reports) Directors' attendance lists, 1980 Corporate Name: Rural Municipality of Rosedale; local Pool Committee minutes February 21, 1983 - July 4, 1991.
Notes
Administrative history taken from the records. Description by Jill Sutherland (2010) and Barb Manko (October 2013).
Manitoba Pool Elevators was established in 1925 as a subsidiary of the Pool in response to local member complaints about the unfair business practices of privately owned elevators. The Katrime Elevator appears to have been established in 1940; no records in the Manitoba Pool Elevator fonds mention the Katrime elevator before 1940. In 1969 the Katrime Pool joined the Manitoba Pool.
The Katrime local was operated by a board of directors elected from the members of the Katrime elevator. Regular meetings took place sporadically throughout the year, often before and after harvest. An annual meeting for the local took place every November, at which members were chosen for the board of directors and members were selected to attend the annual Manitoba Pool convention. Occasionally in October or in the Annual meetings in November the board of directors would ask the head office to compose a letter to the rail companies to thank them for keeping the elevator supplied with cars throughout the harvest season. This would change through the 1970’s and into the 90’s as congestion became a problem for the railcars.
In 1998 Manitoba Pool Elevators merged with the Alberta Wheat Pool to form Agricore Co-operative Ltd. In 2001, this organization merged with the United Grain Growers to become Agricore United, and in 2007, Agricore United was taken over by the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool; the new company was known as Viterra. The fate of the Katrime elevator is unclear. Tthere is no mention in the included records regarding the merger to Agricore or the closing of the elevator.
Custodial History
Records in accession 9-2013, were deposited at the Archives of Manitoba in 1971, with a fourth minute book being deposited in 2011. The records were deaccessioned by the Archives of Manitoba in January 2012 and transferred to the McKee Archives later that year.
Scope and Content
Fonds consist of the minutes of the board of directors of the Katrime elevator. Meetings discussed pool business, including membership into the Katrime elevator co-operation and a list of new members is usually included in the minutes. In addition to membership another main topic of the meetings was the salary of the agent including the agents home and expenses. In 1953, the building of a new elevator, which eventually expanded to include new offices and storage sheds was a topic of discussion. Local annual meetings generally discussed the report of the auditor and any unsold surplus, but no details were recorded. A note on the content of the minutes: there is generally mention of a lengthy discussion of a topic but there is no explanation of what was discussed. Also, at each annual meeting there is a discussion of the annual convention and the resolutions adopted from this convention, however there are no details on what the resolutions were.
Katrime Co-operative Elevator Association Limited Organizational papers: 1961 Directors' Resolution, 18 October 1961 Corporate Name: Rural Municipality of Westbourne.
Notes
Description by Jill Sutherland (2010) and Clint Howie (October 2013).
Bunclody, MB was located near Souris, MB. The bridge in question crossed the Souris River.
Custodial History
Photograph was donated by a "Mrs. Wilson" in 1989.
Scope and Content
Photograph shows railroad tracks (presumably Great Northern Railway tracks near Bunclody) during winter. Also visible are an elevator, outbuildings and part of a train sitting beside the tracks.
Commissions dealing with transportation by rail and by sea were important to Manitoba Pool Elevators, as the cost and effiecincy of transport affected the cost of service to its members.
See also fonds level description of RG 4 for history/bio of MPE
Scope and Content
.This sub-series contains the following:
Box 1:
1. St. Lawrence Seaway 1961-1971
2. Royal Commission on Transportation - excerpt from the evidence of Sir Henry Thornton 1931-1932
3. Royal Commission on Transportation 1949-1950
4. Report of the Royal Commission on Transportation February 9, 1951
5. The Royal Commission on Transportation 1960
6. The Royal Commission on Transportation 1960-1967
7. The Canadian Transport Commission 1985
Box 2:
8. The Grain Handling and Transportation Commission 1975-1976
9a. Submissions to the Grain Handling and Transportation Commission 1975-1977
9b. Submissions to the Grain Handling and Transportation Commission 1975-1977
10. Submissions to the Grain Handling and Transportation Commission 1976
11. Grain Handling and Transportation Commission 1976
12. Submissions to the Grain Handling and Transportation Commission 1976
13. Submissions to the Grain Handling and Transportation Commission 1976
14. Appendix to Final Submission of CN Railways to GH&TC 1976
15. Submission by the Province of Manitoba to the GH&TC 1976
16. Grain Handling and Transportation Commission 1975-1976
17. Grain Handling and Transportation Commission 1974-1976
18a. Grain Handling and Transportation Commission 1976-1977
18b. Grain Handling and Transportation Commission 1976
19. Grain Handling and Transportation Commission Public Hearings 1976
20. Grain Handling and Transportation Commission 1976
21. Grain Handling and Transportation Commission 1976
22. MPE Submission to the Grain Handling and Transportation Commission 1975
The diffusion of Grain-marketing cooperatives in southern Manitoba from 1906 to 1960, with particular emphasis on the periods 1912-17 and 1925-40 / : by Geffrey E. Katz
