December, 1930 



THE I. A. A. RECORD 



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Page Fifteen 



0evator Co-Operation 

 - ■ Could Aid Corn Prices 



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<> 



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Donald Kirkpatrick Speaks 

 "Marketing" at Logan Co. 

 Annual Meeting. 



on 



THE possibilities for stabilizing corn 

 prices at a profitable level through 

 the co-operation of farmers' elevators 

 . in Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska were 

 outlined by Donald Kirkpatrick, legal 

 counsel for the Illinois Agricultural 

 Association at the Logan County Farm 

 Bureau annual meeting on Nov. 25. 



The surplus problem handicapping 

 wheat producers does not apply to 

 coarse grains, ac- 

 cording to Kirk- 

 patrick. It would 

 not even require the 

 full co-operation of 

 all the elevators in 

 -the 80 corn belt 

 counties to obtain a 

 successful degree of 

 control over corn 

 prices, he said. Farm- 

 ers' elevators have 

 Mr. Kirkpatrick raised the price of 

 corn locally from 2 

 to 4 cents a bushel, but they have not 

 yet co-operated fully to establish a cen- 

 tral selling agency necessary to exert 

 an influence in the terminal markets. 

 Not until the Farmers' National Grain 

 Corporation was formed was an oppor- 

 tunity offered to influence prices in the 

 terminals. 



Corn Belt Co-Operation 



Kirkpatrick asserted that even 250 

 elevators in Illinois, 250 more in Iowa, 

 and 100 in the corn belt counties of 

 Nebraska could, if they would, organize 

 their sales power in the terminals and 

 influence the price situation. He urged 

 corn growers to obtain that control 

 through co-operation, whether or not 

 wheat producers are able to cope with 

 their greater surplus problem. 



The speaker saw little hope for 

 American farmers in the wheat situa- 

 tion so long as the market is on an 

 export basis. He stated that the gov- 

 ernment might hold American prices 

 higher than world prices temporarily, 

 but it could not do so permanently un- 

 less production was lowered to fit do- 

 mestic demands. Some control over corn 

 production, likewise, would be needed, 

 intimated the speaker, if the price is to 

 be stabilized at a profitable level. 



Live Stock Marketing 



The speaker touched on the progress 

 being made on live stock and produce 

 marketing. The formation of county 

 live stock marketing associations, he 

 said, is growing because farmers see the 



need for gaining control of their prod- 

 uct locally to compete with the modern 

 trend in direct shipments of stock from 

 country points to packers. He saw no 

 objection to direct marketing, provid- 

 ing the farmer's bargaining power in 

 the sale of his live stock is safeguarded. 



The old oflScers of the Farm Bureau 

 were re-elected. 



The Logan County Farm Supply 

 Company and the Logan Produce As- 

 sociation declared patronage dividends, 

 the oil company in addition placing 

 $12,000 in its surplus fund. 



President Floyd Wendell, John Crane 

 and Louis N. Baker were the delegates 

 chosen to represent Logan county at the 

 annual meeting of the Illinois Agricul- 

 tural Association. 



Grain. 

 Marketing' 



THE Grain Stabilization Corp. made 

 history during recent weeks when 

 it held the price of wheat on the Chi- 

 cago market at 73 cents while wheat 

 of the same grade at Winnipeg sold for 

 18 cents less per bushel. ' Newspapers 

 reporting this unusual situation said 

 under date of November 19: 



"The federal government, yesterday, 

 rode through one of the worst debacles 

 in the history of declining grain prices 

 on world markets, holding the whip 

 hand in maintaining wheat prices on 

 the Chicago Board of Trade. 



"Winnipeg and Liverpool wheat 

 prices went into tailspin and other grain 

 values crashed in foreign markets, while 

 Chicago traders watched the ticker tape 

 in wonder as December wheat held its 

 stabilized level of 73 cents. This re- 

 sult was credited to persistent but not 

 heavy buying by the Federal Farm 

 Board's stabilization corporation. 



"In contrast, wheat in Winnipeg 

 dropped 8 cents a bushel, 18 cents less 

 than the* same grade in Chicago. A»d 

 Liverpool's prices were the lowest in 36 

 years." 



One newspaper which had been hos- 

 tile to the Farmers' National Grain 

 Corporation said: "Veteran traders who 

 for over a year have been bitter toward 

 an intruding Cedcral body, suddenly 

 changed front yesterday to declare they 

 believed the federal support of Chi- 

 cago's markets had averted a panic." 



Success of the Farm Board plan "will 

 be a tremendous factor in lifting the 

 United States and the world out of its 

 present economic slough of depression," 

 B. W. Marx of Clement Curtis & Co., 

 well-known Chicago brokers, \v.is 



quoted as saying. Commenting on pur- 

 chases of wheat by the Grain Stabiliza- 

 tion Corporation, Mr. Marx said: "It 

 is astounding that the Farm Board ac- 

 tion should be so bitterly criticized 

 when it ought to be apparent to ever>' 

 thinking person that a terrific emer- 

 gency exists. The Farm Board should 

 be greeted as a saving force by ever)' 

 business man in the country and in the 

 entire world, or at least that part of 

 the world that is in sympathy with 

 our present methods of doing business 

 and forms of government outside of 

 Soviet Russia The Farm Board is 



waging war, perhaps far more serious 

 than the one 12 years back, when we 

 in our country subscribed about eight 

 billions of dollars to 'make the world 

 safe for democracy.' " 



The Chicago Daily News said in 

 part: 



"The (Farm) Board has had to 

 grope its way along uncharted courses. 

 It has had to solve baffling problems, 

 deal with extraordinary situations and 

 apply business principles in novel and 

 untried ways. It has been attacked by 

 farmers for sins of omission, actual or 

 alleged, and by grain men and cham- 

 bers of commerce for sins of commis- 

 sion. But clearly in all its measures, 

 wise and unwise, // has sought to pro- 

 mote the welfare of the basic national 

 industry, agriculture. 



"The board has just re-entered the 

 wheat market, after resisting, for 

 months, demands of spokesmen for the 

 farmers that it do so. For it feels 

 that at this time its direct aid in sup- 

 porting the price of wheat is impera- 

 tive and not unsafe. Circumstances, 

 in short, alter cases. What was in- 

 advisable in August may be expedient 

 in November. 



"It has bought wheat in order to 

 prevent what it considers further whol- 

 ly unwarranted declines in price and 

 the spread of alarmist views which the 

 future, it feels, will refute." 



Evidence that our wheat surplus is 

 being reduced at a rapid rate, is grow- 

 ing. Under date of December 2 the 

 Mid-West Grain Corporation said in its 

 market letter: "We have exported more 

 wheat to date than the same period last 

 year. And last but not least, the final 

 figures on feeding consumption of 

 wheat will undoubtedly show a tremen- 

 dous amount which cannot but help 

 have its effect. 



"Corn and oats occupy a strong po- 

 sition assisted by stabilized wheat prices. 

 Receipts of corn at terminals are very 

 light. There is a considerable amount 

 of corn that usually goes to terminals 

 being shipped between country points 

 direct. This will go into consumption 

 on the farm since live stock pays good 

 dividends on corn fed at these prices." 



