422 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



enthusiasm with regard to this particular deal. I have no doubt that 

 the cards were stacked and the whole proposition railroaded thru at the 

 1913 meeting. But warning-voices were in their midst. One or two 

 men like my friends, Charles A. Lyman, of Rhinelander, (Wisconsin, and 

 Dr. Charles McCarthy, of the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Library, 

 denounced the deal on the floor of the convention. Yet the delegates 

 unanimously endorsed the proposition and left the road open for the 

 floating of a farmer company to carry out the deal. 



Andy Boyd now went to Chicago and secured the services of one 

 F. A. S. Price, a professional promoter, whose stationery called him 

 "A Financial and Fiscal Agent." Boyd made a contract with Price to 

 give him 15 iper cent commission for selling stock in the new company. 

 It was agreed that this stock should be sold as follows: $100 per share 

 for the first $100,000 sold, $105 per share for the next $50,000 sold, $110 

 per share for the next $50,000 sold, and $115 per share for the last 

 $50,000 sold. 



This meant that while the company was incorporated for $250,000, 

 the stock, when sold, would bring in $265,000. Now, in this contract, 

 Boyd agreed not to interfere in any way with Promoter Price's methods 

 of selling stock to farmers. So when the board of directors of the 

 farmers' company came to take over the contract which Boyd had made 

 with Price, they later discovered that they had no power to go to Price 

 and say: "One of your men is making misrepresentations in the sale 

 of this stock, and we demand that you change your tactics." 



Boyd now proceeded to have the new company incorporated under 

 the laws of Wisconsin. The constitution and by-laws were fairly good 

 ones, and the company was named The Farmers' Co-operative Packing 

 Company of La Crosse. 



When the time came for the election of officers, the persons whom 

 Boyd and Chryst and Price wanted were put on the board of directors, 

 and Boyd and Chryst and Price were also on the board of directors, 

 with Boyd installed as vice-president, and Chryst as president of the 

 concern. Think of putting stock promoters on the board of directors of 

 a farmers' organization! Two other persons, who were undoubtedly 

 dupes, worked in very closely with this group. They did not know 

 always what they were doing; but they helped to constitute the ma- 

 chine which from now on worked smoothly in bringing about the un- 

 loading of the Langdon-Boyd property. 



With the moral backing of the Equity society,, everything was 

 ready for the sale of stock. Additional impetus was given by the fact 

 that officers and directors of the National Bank of La Crosse headed 

 the subscription list. When the farmers heard of this, they purchased 

 the stock without further question, and they accepted the wild stories 

 which in many cases were told them by the stock salesmen. But after 

 the stock sale was well on, most of the bank directors and officers 

 turned their stock over to the salesmen and succeeded in unloading. 

 In the meantime, as fast as the money came in. Promoter Price got his 

 share, and the National Bank of La Crosse took up its notes and the 



