TWENTIETH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART II 161 



exchange. We have organized up to the present time about 400 co-oper- 

 ative live-stock shipping associations for the marketing of live stock. 

 They have recently been federated into a state organization, and recently 

 at the international they became a national organization, and those or- 

 ganizations are going to do much to iron out the troubles of the mar- 

 keting end of our business. The farm bureau has been fostering those 

 things and we have been giving them support, both moral and financial. 

 Last year the organization of co-operative wool growers of the state came 

 into existence, and that is another example of a marketing organization. 

 It serves a two-fold purpose: It is designed and created for the man 

 who grows good wool for the purpose of paying him value for what he 

 has produced, and the fellow who is producing poorer quality the same 

 result with regard to his products. That wool-marketing association, 

 while it is new, marketed this last year nearly 1,000,000 pounds of wool. 

 Now, directly, thaA wasn't a part of the federation program, it didn't 

 reckon in it originally, but they lent their financial and moral support to 

 this organization and developed it. In other words, gentlemen, in order 

 to get anywhere on this marketing problem, you have got to band those 

 men together of like interests — the fruit men, the grain men, the pure- 

 bred stockmen, etc., and develop your program along that line. 



Now, there are some other things in connection with marketing in 

 which we are interested as individual men, and we have been wondering 

 just what the federation proposed to do along those lines. Not along ago 

 the secretary of the Implement Dealers' Association came into my office 

 and wanted to know in what way the implement dealers could render 

 more service to the farmers in this state, and he thought it would be 

 along the line of larger stocks of repairs, perhaps — he thought that would 

 be of greater service to the farmers. I said, "Mr. Secretary, I have a 

 different vision of what service the retail implement dealer could be to 

 the farmers of this state. I don't believe it would be fair to you retail 

 dealers to require you to carry a larger stock of repairs, but there are 

 some things they can do that will be of service. In other words, the 

 worst feature we have today in connection with the repair of our farm 

 implements is not the size of stocks, but the lack of standardization of 

 bolts, threads, keys, etc. All those things can be standardized from the 

 standpoint of farm equipment, and that would help the farmer infinitely." 

 He said to me, "Will you come down and present that at our meeting at 

 Des Moines next week?" I said, "No, I won't, but I will have some 

 officer of our organization come down, provided you implement dealers 

 as an organization get back of our program and stand back of us in our 

 demands for standardization of farm equipment," and he says, "We'll do 

 it," and I said, "Furthermore, we want some of the manufacturers' asso- 

 ciations and officers of those associations there to put it up to them 

 strong enough to get results, and we will stand back of you on that pro- 

 gram," so perhaps within a short time we can bring something about 

 which will do a great deal to standardize the repair system or the parts 

 of common farm machinery so that a man will not be laid up for lack of 

 some bolt or something of that sort when he tries to repair his machine. 

 I said, "Furthermore, the proposition with regard to twine needs correc- 

 tion." He brought up the twine situation, and I said, "I know the twine 

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