424 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



I would not leave the story of La Crosse without paying a tribute 

 to the careful and conservative management under Mr. D. H. Baker. 

 Mr. Baker was a stockholder in the plant, and had had several years' 

 experience as a packing house worker, and while handicapped for lack 

 of finances, he did some valiant work in collecting notes which were 

 due and in cutting down expenses and in tryng to put the plant on a 

 paying basis. 



With the advent of the Baker management, a number of irregulari- 

 ties were checked up in connection with the Boyd-De Moss regime. One 

 of these occurred in connection wth the spoiling of the meat, when 

 Mr. Boyd managed to get three carloads of the rotten stuff out of La 

 Crosse and down to Chicago. De Moss went down to see v/hat could 

 be done about selling it. He wired back that he must have "$1,000 quick." 

 Telephone conversation developed the fact, according to Mr. Baker, that 

 De Moss wanted this $1,000 to "grease the track." The cars eventually 

 sold, I am told, to Morris & Company, and brought $2,600. If there is a 

 Morris man here, he might investigate as to why it was necessary to 

 "grease the track." 



Manager Baker found himself up against a hard job. It was neces- 

 sary to purchase live stock on a rising market, and he had no stocks 

 on hand from the 1915 low prices. So he worried along until the first 

 week in December, when he closed the doors of the plant and notified 

 the directors. 



In all, 2,140 persons purchased stock in this concern. Salesmen 

 went far afield to find their victims. Persons in Iowa, Minnesota and 

 distant parts of Wisconsin subscribed. This scattering of stock owner- 

 ship brought about a very difficult problem when it became necessary 

 to take some final action for disposing of the plant. The board of direc- 

 tors canvassed the situation and determined to call a special meeting and 

 put the problem of re-incorporation and the building of an entire new 

 plant up to the shareholders; but they were never able to secure a quorum, 

 as 51 per cent of the shareholders are required to be present or to vote by 

 mail on a proposition under the Wisconsin co-operative law, which is a 

 "one-man one-vote" law. Nor were the board able to secure a quorum 

 necessary for legal transaction of business at the annual meeting held 

 this month. And there the matter rests. But the National Agricultural 

 Organization Society, in order to help this situation, has been instru- 

 mental in the introduction into the Wisconsin legislature of an amend- 

 ment to the co-operative law so that less than the majority now required 

 may constitute a quorum where stockholders number a thousand or more 

 in co-operative associations. In the meantime, the annual meeting has 

 been carried over to March 7th, when, if this law is passed by that time, 

 the stockholders will either vote to wind up the affairs of the company, or 

 they will undertake the building of an entirely new plant. The present 

 plant is so dilapidated and out of condition and unsanitary and unsafe, 

 that it is doubtful if the federal government will permit it to be opened 

 again. 



