S54 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Men have been content, even poor men, to manage the local business, 

 to receive the $800, $1,000 or $1,200 per year and a clear conscience 

 rather than feather their nest and retire rich and despised. All of them 

 seem to consider their positions in the nature of a public trust, and have 

 acted accordingly. The individual society has no secrets. The books 

 are open to its members or to any other person who cares to look into 

 them. Even the meetings of the directors are open to any and all 

 visitors. This stills any suspicious whisper that might be born of secret 

 session or unpublished methods. 



The report of the state secretary, C. G. Meserole of Gowrie, which he 

 will make at the coming convention at Mason City, will show 

 Rockwell and Gowrie societies the leading societies of the state". Of the 

 two, Rockwell is first in the matter of the number of bushels of grain 

 handled, while Gowrie is first in the number of feet of lumber sold 

 during a stated period. In the shipment of live stock, they rank about 

 equal, with a dozen other societies of the state crowding them closely. 

 All the associations are prosperous, and this, too, in spite of the alleged 

 unfair and unrelentless competition from the line business. It is strange, 

 but nevertheless true, that often a farmers' association, as well as a line 

 elevator, exists in the same town, and both often do a thriving business. 

 It was the public declaration of the manager of the line elevator at 

 Rockwell, where he is confronted by the strongest farmers' organization 

 in the world, that the volume of his business last year was far larger 

 than any year in the history of his elevator experience with his company, 

 and that the business paid well. This is not only so of Rockwell, but has 

 been found to be true of other points where the two business firms stand 

 side by side, although when there is a rumor of a fa,rmers' association 

 being effected the line company begins to complain of cold feet and want 

 to let go. They frequently sell to the society. 



Wherever a farmers' elevator has been established it has tended to 

 increase the market price of grain froni a half to one and a half cents 

 per bushel. Many line companies seem able to pay this increase and live. 



EFFECT ON TOWXS. 



The effect upon the towns where these farmer societies have been 

 located is varied. In all cases, so far as can be learned, when the society 

 has restricted their business to simply the handling of grain and coal 

 and perhaps live stock, the effect upon the town has been beneficial. 

 On the other hand where the society has gone to the handling of flour, 

 feed, live stock, clothing, machinery, and other farm and home necessi- 

 ties, the tendency has been to ruin the town and drive its merchants 

 out of business. It has had a tendency to depopulate rather than increase 

 the population and wealth of the place. 



The state association is under the most careful supervision of an able 

 corps of officers who give largely of their time to its interests. The 

 management is divided into seven departments — the directorate, the 

 executive, the claims, the legislative, the transportation, the arbitration, 

 and investigation and the grades. In each of these departments, the 



