FIFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VI. 553 



ket was twenty-two and one-half cents. The price at Fostoria, as we 

 learned at this meeting, was twenty-two cents for thirty-three pounds, which 

 equals twenty-one and one-third cents for thirty- two pounds. This showed 

 the Ruthven market to be three and one-sixth cents higher than Fostoria 

 market on the same date, the freight to Chicago being the same at both 

 stations, viz: seventeen cents per hundred pounds. Now multiply 600,000 

 by three and one-sixth cents and we have $19,000. The capital invested in 

 the Ruthven company is $3,800. This saving represents 500 per cent on the 

 capital invested, and every cent has gone into the pockets of the farming 

 community and is now being paid out by them for groceries, clothing, etc., 

 stimulating the business of the town and benefiting every business interest 

 in that locality. But this is not all, the Ruthven market has influenced the 

 market in all the near by towns and farmers for many miles in every direc- 

 tion are receiving more for their grain . These savings have not gone into 

 the treasury of the Ruthven company, but, as previously stated, into the 

 pockets of the farmer who raised the grain. Outsiders have fared even bet- 

 ter than those who invested their money to start the business. They have 

 stood back and let their more enterprising neighbors do double service, and 

 when the price is won and they receive a pocketful of extra dollars they 

 never go, manlike, to the manager and say, "I appreciate what your com- 

 pany has done for me" and give a dollar or two to help pay the running 

 expenses. No; they are independent nien and do not belong to the organiza- 

 tion. Why, some men would not organize to fight back Satan himself. I 

 want to tell you the path of the farmers' elevator company is not strewn with 

 roses. Their greatest enemy is not the organized grain trust, but the inde- 

 pendent farmer. 



This shows what a little enterprise has saved the farmers in the vicinity 

 of Ruthven on one crop. But I must leave you to compute, if you can, how 

 much they have lost in all the years that have past. The time is already 

 here when every enterprising, up-to-date dairy community owns and 

 operates a co-operative creamery . The time has also come when every 

 enterprising, up-to-date grain raising community does, or very soon will, 

 own and operate a co-operative elevator. What would you think of a dairy 

 community that would go on year after year paying the expense bills of four 

 or five creameries all built close together, standing along in a row? How do 

 you suppose such a course would affect their milk checks? Would it not be 

 more wise if one creamery prove too small to increase its capacity? Now 

 apply this reasoning to the grain producing farmer who has been paying the 

 expense bills for operating whole rows of elevators in every little town all 

 over this country. How do you suppose it has affected his grain checks? 

 Can you wonder that farmers declare that grain raising does not pay? If 

 you would like to test this matter for yourself, load up two wagons with 

 grain, send one to the Ruthven market and one to the Fostoria market and 

 note the results. 



Some over-cautious, but well meaning farmers hesitate to ioin these 

 societies, believing that being officered by inexperienced men, as they often 

 are, that some will meet with failure. I wish to say that this fear is well 

 grounded. Last week's paper reported a partial failure of one of these 

 societies at Kenset, Iowa; our daily papers are careful to report all such 

 failures and they should prove valuable lessons to us. However, no papers 



