The Rural Voice, 1994-12, Page 28As the Christmas season approaches, wed
like to extend our warmest best wishes for a
healthy and joyous holiday to all of you.
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24 THE RURAL VOICE
a modest loan of $10,000 or $20,000
for improvements, but approving a
$100,000 loan."
And if farmers weren't
experienced enough in
managing suddenly swollen
budgets, neither were
bankers experienced in dealing with
the farm sector. Faced with high
interest and falling equity, many
bank managers hastened to pull the
plug on farming operations.
Sometimes where an experienced
local manager didn't panic, he was
overruled by someone up the line in
the bank chain of command. "Many
bankers faced very difficult decisions
when their head office advised
foreclosure on clients who had a
lifetime of excellent records. It was
more than obvious that some branch
managers had refused to accept their
head office's directions."
In some cases the action was silly
and unnecessary. He recalls the days
of the Farm Gate Defence and the
stand off at the Walkerton farm of
Eugene Forbes where the bank tried
to seize his race horses to pay for
loans for his beef cattle operation.
After a tense time when it appeared
violence might break out between 20
OPP officers and 100 farmers, Dr.
Gurbin managed to negotiate a period
for Forbes to reschedule his loan
payment. The following year Forbes'
horses earned almost $1 million.
While the standoff between police
and farmers at the Forbes farm may
have been more dramatic, Powers
paints a picture of constant struggle
for farmers to win rights to get decent
prices against big business packers
and processors, and often against
government that backed big business.
He traces the story of the farmer's
struggle right back to the Grange
movement in the 1890s and the
Patrons of Industry which began at
the same time and at one point
elected 18 members to the Ontario
legislature. Despite this electoral
success, it was hard for farmers to get
real government action to help them
realize decent profits. They came to
realize, Powers says, that they had to
do it for themselves.
One of the lessons Powers hopes
today's younger farmers might gain
from the book is an appreciation of
the pioneers who fought to get fair
prices for today's farmers. Even in