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TTw IlKnoM AgricohnwJ AasodatioD Record 



Illinois Agricultural Association 



Published twice a month by the lUinola Agricultural 

 Asaonation. 608 South Dearborn Street. Chicago Illinola 

 Bdited by Newa Publicity Department, E. L. BiU, Director! 



Entry as second class matter Oct. 10. 1921. at the post 

 office at Chicago. Illinois, under the act of March 3. 1879. 

 Acceptance for mailing at special rates of postage pro- 

 vided for in Section#1103, Act of October 3. 1917 author- 

 Ixed Oct. 31. 1921. 



Th» individual membership fee of the Illinois Agricul- 

 tural Association is five dollars a year. This fee Includes 

 payment of ten cents for subscription to the Illinois Ag- 

 ricultural Association Record. 



inh. 



12th. 

 J3th. 

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 S2nd. 

 23rd. 

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OFncEBS 

 Pre«Me«t. S. H, Tkoasyavm, <^vlHe7. 

 VIrv-Prealdeat. A. O. E:cker<. BellertllCk 

 Treasnrer, R. A. Cowles, Bli>omlafft*a* 

 Seere tar y,- Geo. A. Foa, gycaiore, 



E.\EC«Tn'E COMMITTEE 

 By Congressional Districts 



Henry McGough, Maple Park 



G. F. Tullock, Rockford 



• C. E. Bamborough, Polo 



W. H. Moody, Port Byron 



'-t H. E. Goembel, Hoopole 



O. G. Reder, Mendota 



F. D. Barton, Cornell 



C. R. Fintey, Hoopeston 



D. J. Holterman, Sadorus 



Earl C. Smith, Detroit 



E. L. Gorbin, Carlinville 



Stanley Castle, Alton 



' Carlton Trimble, Trimble 



Curt Anderson, Xenia 



Vernon Lessley, Sparta 



Directors of DeiMirtiiients • 



I. A. A. Office 



'General Office and Assistant to Secretary, J. D. Harper; 

 Field Organization, J. C. Sailor; Organization Putv 

 llclty, G. E. Metzger; News Publicity, E. L. Bill; 

 Transportation, L, J. Quasey; Statistics, J. C. Watson; 

 Finance, R. A. Cowles; Fruit and Vegetable Marketing, 

 A. B. Leeper; Live Stock Marketing, C. A. Stewart; 

 Dairy Marketing, A. D. Lynch; Phosphate-Limestone, 

 J. R. Bent, Legal, Newton Jenkins. 



62,000 MEMBERS 



Maybe you have heard the story already, that 

 the farm bureau is going to the dogs, lost most 

 iof its membership, won't last much longer. One 

 story that is going the rounds is that the big loss 

 in membership is a demonstration of farmer opin- 

 |ion against the passage of the Capper-Tincher 

 Act, the Board of Trade regulation law, and the 

 Stock Yards Administration Act, Looks like 

 these two laws are drawing a little blood. One 

 thing sure they would never be on the statutes if 

 it hadn't been for organized agriculture. 



Next we are liable to hear that the work in re- 

 ducing farm taxes is the reason. 



Ther« are. 62,000 meqibers of county farm bu- 

 reaus, Illinois Agricultural Association and Ameri- 

 can Farm Bureau Federation in Illinois. It is 

 not a paper membership. Every member is signed 

 up for three years on a post-dated check. The 

 whole family isn't counted. 



This record of membership was made at the 

 bottom of a financial depression, as against a 

 period of prosperity in the first round. Just a 

 lot of men have said they are in sympathy, with 

 the farm bureau but could not take on the addi- 

 tional debt of $45.00 for three years dues. 



In the first round of organization there was a 

 lot «f good-will membership. Often business 

 houses took out several memberships to get the 

 work started, business men joined in many coun- 

 ties and both land owner and tenant joined in a 

 good many cases. The need of economy has cut 

 a lot of this good-will membership. 



On the first round of mamDership campaign, 

 the soliciting for members was done largely by 

 men employed to do that work, with experience in 

 their line.- Farmers themselves did not take a 

 big hand in it. 



Quite different this time. The large share of 

 this membership was signed by farmers, the or- 

 ganization department say^four-fifths of it. It 

 means that the membership was interested enough 

 in the organization to do this work. It is the first 

 time this plan has been tried out. This has re- 

 sulted in much good to the men that sold the 

 membership too. It has made them realize how 

 much or how little their organization is doing. It 

 has made them more interested men, made that 

 many more leaders in the work. 



There is no need to be ashamed or to make ex- 

 cuses for a membership of that number. It may 



be a greater achievement than a membership of 

 100,000 three years ago. The man that must look 

 for excuses is the man that is not a member, the 

 man that wants to ride on a free ticket. There 

 are some that want taxes reduced, want fair rail- 

 road rates, want better prices for products and 

 all the other things that come with organized ag- 

 riculture but don't want to join. 



The testing- time comes in hard times doesn't 

 itt Many times the argument comes in that the 

 62,000 membership is a real one, one that under- 

 stands and believes, one that will help in the pro- 

 gram, one that doesn't need to be bolstered up 

 every week, one that will speak out when a false 

 tale is told on the farm bureau. 



There is no use trying to "kid" ourselves into 

 believing there are no troubles in organization 

 work, for there are. Sure, the farm bureau should 

 have a membership of a hundred thousand or more 

 in- Illinois. It must aim at that membership and 

 work for it. There is no stronger way to do it 

 than for every member of the organization to sell 

 his neighbor. ■ ' 



THAT'S THE SPIRIT, ROCK ISLAND 



There was some sad talk and long faces as mem- 

 bers of the Rock Island Cooperative Dairy Com- 

 pany filed into a meeting a few nights ago. You 

 know a hundred and ten dairj'men started to re- 

 tail milk out there on September 25. Everybody 

 was happy at the end of the first month for the 

 milk check amounted to $2.67 a hundred. But 

 the check for the second month was for only $1.09 

 per hundred pounds. 



If that little crowd of dairymen was like all 

 other crowds, among them were some who saw the 

 new little brick building, the fine equipment, the 

 new white delivery wagons, go floating off to be 

 added to the list of dead co-ops. 



No one was dead anxious to have the first crack 

 at the meeting. What were the facts about it 

 anyway T Well, the first month, to tell the truth, 

 the company didn't earn $2.67 a hundred. In 

 fact the income just paid for the labor and that 

 is all. The $2.67 was taken out of the capital 

 stock. It sounded bad. 



But you know all the milk was given away on 

 the opening day. Yes, and there wasn't a cus- 

 tomer on the list next morning when the company 

 started business. A lot of the skim milk was re- 

 turned to members, wasn't it? Well, that's true. 



The bookkeeping and accounting system was a 

 good one. The answer to a penny was there in 

 black and white at the end of the month. Couldn't 

 stay in business long at that rate. The thing to 

 do would be to pay what the company earned. 

 That is exactly what was done the second month. 

 You mean to say it earned $1.09 per hundred the 

 second month and did not pay more than the 

 labor the first month? Yes, that is right. Well, 

 that looks like we are going up hill. 



There is a little more explanation to that. You 

 know the company has a bonded indebtedness of 

 $15,000 that must be taken care of by paying one- 

 tenth of it a year. The share for the month was 

 taken out before paying $1.09. And the share 

 of interest on that debt was taken care of. The 

 amount for dividends for the two months was 

 taken out too. In addition to that the insurance fund 

 decided upon at the start, was taken out. That 

 amounted to three per cent. Then the answer is 

 that all of these things were taken care of, all 

 overhead and other expenses were taken care of 

 and the company still paid $1.09 per hundred? 

 Certainly. Not so bad. 



And how are things going now? 



The company started without any customers 

 and you will remember we decided not to buy any 

 routes. Now there are four good routes and 750 

 quarts of milk a day are being retailed. The 

 routes are worth money. The first month the 

 company handled the milk of only thirty members. 

 That is all it could take care of. Now we are 

 handling the milk of all 110 members. The whole- 

 sale business is growing fast. It was necessary to pat 



Dec. S , 1923 



on another truck. Listens pretty good, doesn't it? 



And something else. Our sales in September 

 brought us in about $85 per day ; in October, $146 

 per day ; and this far in November we are getting 

 an average of $231 in sales daily. That's not so 

 bad either, is it? 



And then some one got up, pulled an I. A. A. 

 Record out of his pocket and read the story of the 

 Quincy Cooperative Milk Producers Association, 

 how they had increased consumption of milk 25 

 per cent, how they claim that quality counts, that 

 producers are receiving $2.50 per hundred and 

 that the company is 18 months old. 



The crowd had full faith in their cooperative 

 organization. It was about ten o'clock and time to 

 get home. But wait a minute. There is a motion 

 to be made. I move you that when the Rock 

 Island Cooperative Dairy Company receives 18 

 cents a gallon for milk, that all over that amount 

 be laid aside to pay back what the thirty men 

 lost on last month's milk check. The motion 

 carried and the meeting adjourned. 



There are a dozen good lessons in that little 

 meeting of dairymen. One of them is that the 

 laws of business must be followed when farmers 

 start in business. Another is that the value of an 

 accounting system that will tell the exact standing 

 of the company at the end of every thirty days. 

 A third lesson is the necessity for having full and 

 complete information about every detail of the 

 business and giving that information to members 

 of the association. 



— — 



BUSINESS METHODS 



The existence of cooperative marketing asso- 

 ciations in Illinois has clearly demonstrated the 

 need fqr an accounting system that would give a 

 clear and simple statement of the standing of the 

 association, a statement that would tell at the end 

 of every month which parts of the business are 

 making money and which are losing. More re- 

 cently the district conferences showed that few 

 cooperatives have such an accounting system. 



Probably more cooperative organizations have 

 failed because they disregarded the fundamentals 

 of business and finance than for any other reason. 

 There has been a feeling that cooperative business 

 is peculiar and different from other forms of 

 business. But we are beginning to learn that 

 co-op business is not much different from other 

 business. The rules of the business game are 

 the same in cooperative business as in business 

 run by a corporation or individual. 



Finance problems come up m cooperation as 

 well in the corporation. Accounting is as im- 

 portant to co-op marketing organizations as it is 

 in the grocery business. Organized agriculture 

 is awakening to the realization that the business 

 world has a long and wide experience that is use- 

 ful to cooperative marketing organizations. The 

 lesson of instituting business principles into co- 

 operative marketing organizations has been costly. 

 It has cost the life of many organizations. 



To help solve this problem the Illinois Agri- 

 cultural Association has drafted a man. from the 

 business world, a man with technical training and 

 a volume of practical experience in the business 

 world. In this issue of the Record the employ- 

 ment of a consulting accountant and financial ad- 

 visor is announced. 



ATTEND THE HEARING! 



The Illinois Agricultural Association will hold 

 a hearing before the State Tax Commission on 

 Thursday, Dec. 6, at Springfield. Facts and fig- 

 ures will be presented to prove that there should 

 be further equalization of valuations between farm 

 lands and city property for state tax purposes. 



At similar hearings held in 1921 and 1922, a 

 large ntunber of farm bureau members, repre- 

 senting many counties, appeared to strengthen the 

 I. A. A. stand. It is hoped that one or more men 

 from every county in Illinois will be present at 

 this hearing to back the I. A. A. case for fair 

 taxation. ' • •'■. • 



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