Depression era influences | Co-op advocate predicts return of grain pools in a decade or two
At 95 years old, Harold Chapman continues to educate, advocate and adhere to the philosophies and principles that built the co-operative movement in Saskatchewan.
In Sharing My Life, Building the Co-operative Movement, a book he recently co-published with the Centre for the Study of Co-operatives at the University of Sask-atchewan, he gives a first person account of co-operatives from his experience as a co-operative organizer, thinker, policy-maker, educator and activist over seven decades.
Chapman stressed the importance of education in achieving and maintaining co-operatives.
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“Any people’s organization without an adequate educational program is doomed to last a generation and a half,” he said.
Chapman sees a trend of individualism in younger generations who have not been challenged to think about alternative forms of business.
“I think it’s a sad situation where even in the schools that these alternatives aren’t set out,” he said.
“So I say to the co-operatives, you had better be concerned about this. Not just providing merchandising or providing credit or whatever services. You also need to be providing education to members as to what’s involved in owning and controlling your own organization and to be interested in this and to be aware of the alternatives.”
Chapman was heavily influenced by the Great Depression. Years of toil and poor returns on one farm near Saskatoon drove his family to move to Meskanaw. Education took a back seat to putting food on the table.
Some of his earliest memories include watching his father and neighbours getting rail cars spotted and shovelling grain into them.
He recalled the creation of the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool in 1924 and the Canadian Wheat Board in 1935.
“I was old enough then to recognize that the price of grain was low in the fall, when Dad had to pay his bills and taxes, and in the spring, the price would go up. For folks who were able to hold their grain over the winter, they got a much better deal in the spring,” he said.
When the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation became the government in Saskatchewan in 1944, it formed the Department of Co-operation and Co-operative Development.
“For me, the challenge was to develop programs so that these guys with their Grade 8 educations could learn how to be effective directors of a co-operative,” he said.
The Western Co-operative College was soon established in Saskatoon and Chapman served as principal. He later became the member relations director with Federated Co-operatives Limited, where he trained directors and delegates.
The Association of Co-operative Educators, which was formed in 1964 with Chapman as its first president, remains in operation today.
Co-operatives continue to be organized from housing to day care to larger co-operatives like credit unions and marketing co-ops.
“The co-operative idea is if we have a problem, let’s set up our own organization to deal with this,” he said.
“I think there’s always going to be current kinds of situations that will lead to people forming co-operatives because the alternative is for them to either ask the government to do it for them, or else hire a joint stock company to do it for them.”
“When we had the (Saskatchewan Wheat Pool) for example, I think it was a tremendous mistake for the members to decide to move this into being a joint stock company because now they’re back to where they were in 1920,” he said.
“I’ve seen it come full circle.… One of these days, the farmers are going to say, I think this isn’t being done quite the way we’d like to see it done,” Chapman said, predicting the return of a grain co-op within a few decades.
“These guys who are marketing their grain are in business to make money for the shareholders and not to make money for the farmers, for the producers,” he said.
