526 TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 



Association that they can run their own commission business; that they 

 can absolutely succeed beyond any question of doubt, providing — pro- 

 viding the farmers of the middle west will support their own 

 institution and go into it believing that it can and it will succeed, 

 and I want to say that you will save the farmers of Iowa — not this com- 

 mission, that is not the big thing, but you will save them hundreds and 

 thousands of dollars a year. Somebody will say, "That's a pretty strong 

 statement." It is, but we must have your support, gentlemen. That is 

 what we are getting at South St. Paul — support. 



I don't think I wish to go into detail about our organization. I pre- 

 sume that every one of you has read the report of the Committee of 

 Fifteen. Its report provides for a terminal marketing agency composed 

 of the live stock producers marketing there that take out a membership, 

 or if they don't take out a membership in the beginning, they patronize 

 the institution, and the first patronage dividends, if such are declared, 

 the memberships will be taken out. But I hope there are no farmers 

 who will wait and say, "We will get on the band wagon when we see she 

 is moving along smoothly." You know that that is the habit with too 

 many of us, that we say, "Well, let's wait and see how she goes." I 

 heard an Illinois man say in South St. Paul the other day, "Do you think 

 it will be safe to ship a carload at a time to the new co-operative associa- 

 tion at Chicago?" Just think of it! Your terminal marketing agency 

 provides for a stocker and feeder department. It is able to sell direct 

 from the producer of stockers and feeders to the man that feeds. Your 

 membership isn't much. We borrowed $1,000 at South St. Paul to start 

 putting on our membership drive, and we put out twelve men. Now our 

 organization doesn't belong only to the Wisconsin Society of Equity, 

 although we have got a lot of men that are members; doesn't belong to 

 the Farmers' Union; doesn't belong to the Farm Bureau, but belongs to 

 every man that is producing live stock in the northwest, and that is one 

 trouble — in too many sections of this country you will find men that say, 

 "Well, if the Farm Bureau won't play with me, I won't play"; "If the 

 Farmers' Union won't play with me, I won't play"; or "If the Society of 

 Equity won't play with me, I won't play." I want to tell you that that 

 is the most serious mistake that can possibly be made, for your oppo- 

 nent is always looking for that kind of meat — it is sweet and savory to 

 him — it is the greatest thing to destroy co-operative institutions of any- 

 thing that you can think of or realize. We don't have a market like 

 Chicago, but we have farmers to the number of 60,000 that belong to 

 our marketing agency through the local shipping associations in all the 

 states that market at South St. Paul. 



Just a word about the magnitude of business, and then I will go back 

 again. We started on the 8th of August. We handled 71 cars the first 

 week; the first month we handled 442 cars. The old line commission 

 firms said, "Well, gosh, that's pretty good, but they have reached the 

 iKptisrht of their business." The next month we handled 701 cars, and 

 Tii^y anH, "We car not see how it happened, but they are not going any 

 Turfaer," The F'onth of October we handled 1,100 cars, and then they 

 began to guess. Last month we handled 1,293 cars. The first month we 



