Dealers who for ten years had had 

 things pretty much their own way 

 were taken off guard. They were re- 

 luctant to admit that this is a changing 

 world and that a change had come to 

 the Quad-Cities milk market. 



Between August 29 and November 

 1 practically all the milk produced by 

 Quality members went through the 

 surplus plant owned by the Farmers 

 Cooperative Dairy Products Company, 

 a Quality subsidiary. Producers, not 

 members of Quality, continued to sell 

 milk to dealers unhampered by or- 

 ganized dairymen. 



With the farmers' plant operating 

 on full schedule, dealers began reach- 

 ing out of the usual milk shed for 

 milk. Sour cream producers became 

 fluid milk men over night. Milk qual- 

 ity dropped and many dealers were 

 embarrassed when customers com- 

 plained. 



The situation remained unchanged 

 until October when the Moline Asso- 

 ciation of Commerce offered to help 

 negotiations between the two groups. 

 The organized dealers selected Jerry 

 Mason of Des Moines, Iowa, as their 

 arbitrator and the Moline Association 

 of Commerce represented the farmers. 

 But Mr. Mason refused to discuss the 

 matter with the Association. Open 

 mindedly, Quality Milk consented to 

 let him be the sole arbitrator. 



After several meetings with both 

 groups. Arbitrator Mason decided that: 

 (1) Quality Milk should get no 

 support from the lAA (called "the 

 Chicago group" by dealers) nor the 

 Farm Bureaus. (2) Quality Milk 

 should pay the Sturtevant Ice Cream 

 Company $5000 for its bottled milk 

 business that was set up to cooperate 

 with Quality. (3) Quality Milk should 

 buy all of the dealers' old churns and 

 make butter for the dealers at 3 cents 

 under the Chicago market. (4) Qual- 

 ity Milk should take all of the dealers' 

 producers as members and pool all 

 milk. 



Quality Milk agreed with none of 

 the points. But — and this is a credit 

 to both sides of the controversy — 

 there was no violence and no milk was 

 spilled. And at no time was the milk 

 supply shut off from families with 

 babies or from hospitals. 



On November 1, a truce in the form 

 of a 90-day agreement was reached. 



Thirteen dealers agreed to buy all 

 their milk supply between Nov. 1 and 

 Feb. 1, 1933, from Quality Milk at 

 $1.75 per hundredweight. Quality 

 Milk agreed to handle their own sur- 

 plus and to market milk for non-mem- 

 bers without cost. 



Shortly after the agreement went into 

 eflFect, Quality Milk agreed to a cut of 

 50 cents a hundred on base milk and 



KENNETH STURTEVANT & PLANE 

 He was sent to fetch more paper bottles 

 when milk sold ior 3c. 



dealers dropped the retail price to eight 

 cents a quart. 



Leaders of the dealers used the agree- 

 ment to spar for time. They resorted 

 to the old scheme of pitting farmers 

 against themselves to break up the 

 producers' organization. Gathering 

 outstanding objectors to the lAA-Farm 

 Bureau sponsored bargaining coopera- 

 tive, dealers helped organize another 

 group of producers. 



With the termination of the 90-day 

 agreement, all dealers, except the Stur- 

 tevant Ice Cream Company and Mid- 

 vale Farm Dairy, refused to enter an- 

 other similar agreement with Quality 

 Milk. The dealers were ready this 

 time to get milk from their own or- 

 ganization of producers. 



To further embarrass Quality Milk, 

 dealers withheld $20,000 due producers 

 for milk. Quality couldn't pay its 



termination of the 90-day truce, or- 

 ganized farmers wielded their power. 

 This time for permanent results with 

 the entire force of 60,000 Illinois farm- 

 ers behind the blow. 



Under the guidance of President 

 Walter Dietz of Walcott, IcT.a, and 

 Ben Bollman, field representative, and 

 John R. Spencer, Rock Island county 

 farm adviser. Quality Milk pleaded 

 their case before the bar of public 

 opinion. J. B. "Jack" Countiss, lAA 

 director of dairy marketing, gave his 

 full time to helping the producers se- 

 cure justice assisted by other members 

 of the lAA staff. 



In danger of being shut oflF the mar- 

 ket entirely by the organized dealers 

 who controlled the consumer trade. 

 Quality producers decided on drastic 

 action. Quad-Cities newspapers carried 

 large advertisements telling consumers 

 that they could buy milk at three cents 

 a quart from Quality Milk. The cities 

 were stunned and so were the dealers 

 who wouldn't agree to arbitrate with 

 producers on marketing problems. 



The Sturtevant Ice Cream Company, 

 of Rock Island owned and operated 

 by O. G. Sturtevant and his son Ken- 

 neth, with the finest dairy plant in the 

 Quad-Cities, cooperated with the pro- 

 ducers association. They started dis- 

 tributing milk at 3c a quart in sanitary 

 fiber containers. They built up 23 

 routes in ten days and bought trucks to 

 handle the increased load. Farmers 



THEY HANDLED A BIG lOB WELL 

 lack Countiss (left), formerly director of milk marketing with the lAA, who is now 

 sales manager for Illinois Producers Creameries, talks over the good old days when 

 80-cent milk prevailed, with Ben Bollman, leader in the fight for a practical market in 

 the Quad-Cities. 



members for the milk until the dealers 

 kicked in. Disgruntled Quality mem- 

 bers were urged to sue for it. The 

 court held that Quality need not pay 

 until it had received the money from 

 distributors. 



Still unable to see the coming change 

 that had affected most milk markets, 

 Quad-Cities dealers asked for another 

 big stick. Quality Milk had one all 

 polished and ready. Six days after the 



came to town and solicited customers 

 for Sturtevant in the best house to 

 house manner. 



During the ten days, radio stations 

 in the community hummed with charges 

 and countercharges. Daily articles on 

 the situation appeared in the press. 

 Both sides. Quality Milk and the deal- 

 ers' organization of farmers, advertised 

 freely. 



Misguided dealers, seeing the change 



DECEMBER. 1938 



