That was the system, of course, completely in the early days of the century... They'd fish in the Spring and they'd be on the company's books all year round. Johnston's, all they sold at the shore was tobacco. MacLeans, of 10 course, had the big store in Souris . Another fisherman discussed this system and price fixing as well. He mentioned that Johnston's were the first packers in the area to- pay a bonus and this "made a lot of trouble with the other fellas. Xou know the fishermen were looking for this cent and a half and they claimed they couldn't pay it". But years ago the dealers got together, years ago. 'I'. i >;'■;-:.• X; Lester Johnston got drunked up one night and told it. The dealers, years ago, they met in town, Charlottetown in March and they set a price and they all had the same price. They knew what the price was going to be twnen) they started. When " they started to fish then the price would start leaking out. So and so was going to pay so much and another fella, someone else, would tell ya about Gallant's were going to pay so much. John¬ ston was going to pay so much and all this added up to the same thing... And then there was no un¬ employment (insurance). Honey was scarce and the price of fish wasn't too high and there was an awful lot of people that were in debt to the pack¬ ers from year to year and they more or less held them. They didn't really have them under martial law or anything. They held them more or less from -.p year to year. "Holding" the fishermen from year to year would appear to be a losing proposition for the packers. However, most packers did make a lot of money in tiie season. Maclntyre who "ran a very close business" -* seems to have made a lot of money. He could afford to lose that amount of money in the winter if the fishermen still fish¬ ed for him in the spring. They made more money if the fishermen caught more as well. Most factories had fishermen competing for a 14- "high boat" prize. Fishermen v/ere hard to get in the local East