Milk Control Law Up 



Chicago, Jan. 30:- Representatives of 

 23 milk marketing cooperatives having 

 a combined membership of more than 

 34,000 milk producers attending the 

 annual meeting of the Illinois Milk 

 Producers Association heard today that 

 total volume of milk handled by these 

 co-ops last year aggregated 1,597,415,- 

 134 lbs. and was valued at $32,068,- 

 579.13. 



Wilfred Shaw, secretary of the Associa- 

 tion, announced that a bill to place a com- 

 pensating tax on filled milk will be spon- 

 sored by the organization in the 1939 ses- 

 sion of the Illinois legislature. 



"Milk production by these cooperatives 

 was 3.14 per cent below that of the same 

 period a year ago," Shaw said. "The value 

 of the milk declined 14.5 per cent. While 

 milk production was lower, the sales of 

 bottled milk and manufactured products 

 were also lower," Shaw continued. "The 

 result was that greatly increased quantities 

 of manufactured dairy products were avail- 

 able. These inventories lowered prices of 

 butter and cheese and created a real sur- 

 plus milk problem on some of the markets 

 last year." 



Speaking about milk control laws in the 

 main address of the session, A. H. Lauter- 

 bach, manager. Pure Milk Association, Chi- 

 cago, said that dealers should be bonded 

 as are handlers of other farm products and 

 that their books should be audited periodic- 

 ally by either a federal or state agency. 

 The law should furnish an umpire if one 

 is needed to see that dealers pay for milk 

 as they use it. 



"Let us not forget that we cannot raise 

 the price of milk products without other 

 prices rising, too," Lauterbach continued. 

 "All prices must go up together. The 



Organization Conference 



(Continued from page 25) 



paper editors, he said will usually respond 

 to efforts to present the farmer's point of 

 view on economic questions. 



Farm Adviser Hughes of Cook spoke for 

 brevity of statement, for bigger type and 

 fewer words in telling the story. More 

 humor in cartoons, he said, would improve 

 and make them more effective. Farm Ad- 

 viser Whisenand of Peoria urged the im- 

 portance of local news to make the Farm 

 Bureau paper more readable. He criticised 

 the use of long state releases in county 

 Farm Bureau papers by easy-going farm 

 advisers to fill space which should be filled 

 with news and names of people and ac- 

 tivities in their own counties. 



Secretary V. B. Hamilton of the Iowa 

 Farm Bureau made one of the best talks 

 of the convention on soil conservation and 

 farm tenancy. Will Illinois and Iowa, he 

 said, 80 to 100 years hence be as eroded 

 and depleted of soil fertility as the south, 

 or will corn belt farmers refuse to mine the 

 fertility from their soil, fight for fair prices 

 for their products and insist on maintaining 

 a permanent soil conservation and fair price 

 program. 



Field secretary George E. Metzger re- 

 ported that 1704 Farm Bureau members had 

 been signed in January, that eight counties 

 had obtained their quotas. 



At IMPA Convention 



AAA is workable and is a means to that 

 end." 



Principles of state milk control as out- 

 lined in the milk marketing conference 

 Tuesday afternoon include, state board of 

 five members appointed by governor with 

 advice and consent of Senate to include two 

 producers, two distributors and the state 

 director of agriculture. Board to have power 

 to license and bond distributors, investigate 

 costs and charges for producing, hauling 

 and distributing milk and to have authority 

 to fix minimum prices for the different class- 

 es of fluid milk paid to producers when 

 two-thirds of such producers, or producers 

 representing two-thirds of the volume in a 

 given market area petition the board for 

 such action. 



The board may fix minimum prices or 

 revise prices from time to time only after 

 a public hearing where all interests have 

 an opportunity to be heard. 



The board likewise would have power to 

 require dealers to keep certain records, 

 could subpoena records and witnesses and 

 during "emergency periods" which on any 

 market shall not exceed 60 days in any 

 calendar year, could fix wholesale and retail 

 prices of milk and cream when market con- 

 ditions in the opinion of the board justify 

 such action. Under the bill as drawn it 

 would be unlawful for any producer to sell 

 his milk to an unlicensed dealer for less 

 than the minimum price fixed. 



The following directors of the Illinois 

 Milk Producers are: Wm. L. Mays, Bloom- 

 ington; Pulaski Denny, Canton; J. E. Mc- 

 Cabe, Champaign; G. H. Ekhoff. Chicago; 

 D. A. Rouse, Danville; Ray H. Miller, De- 

 catur; Wm. O. Malley, DeKalb; Roy C. 

 Long, Freeport; Edwin Gumm, Galesburg; 

 Walter Mugge, Harrisburg; Howard Steven- 

 son, Jacksonville; O. H. Ryan, LaSalle- 

 Peru; A. E. Heyer, Moline; Ryland Capron, 

 Peoria; Joseph Stieglitz, Peoria; James J. 

 McCabe, Pontiac; Albert Heckle, Quincy; 

 Hugh Mainland, Rockford; J. F. Green- 

 wood, Springfield; Bliss Loy, St. Louis; 

 Glenn Tombaugh. Streator; Dean H. Rad- 

 ford, Kewanee; Frank Roberts, Springfield, 

 representing Sangamon Farmers Milk Coop- 

 erative which became a member of IMPA 

 during the meeting. 



Farm Supply Conference 

 Tops Attendance Records 



The "1938 efficiency analysis," and ad- 

 dresses by J. N. Sparling, vice-president of 

 the Bishop Wyatt Company, St. Louis, George 

 E. Metzger of the lAA, J. H. Lister of the 

 Farm Credit Administration, and officials and 

 members of the staff featured the annual Farm 

 Supply Company conference held January 30 

 during the lAA convention. More than 1,000 

 persons attended, the largest of any session 

 during the day. 



Mr. Metzger talked about principle and 

 rules to promote maximum efficiency in serv- 

 ing Farm Bureau members. "It appears that 

 in some of the multiple county companies a 

 reduction in the size of territory would prove 

 efficient," he said. "On the other hand, a 

 merger of small companies in the less fertile 

 areas would undoubtedly lead to greater ef- 

 ficiency. Farmers are not interested in the 

 duplication of service. Neither are they in- 

 terested in price competition by competing 

 service companies. To that end a rule has 



HONEYMOONERS 

 Mr. and Mrs. Charles Lauritzen, getting 

 some advice from their iarm adviser, John 

 L. Stonnont, at the lAA conTention. Mr. 

 Lauritzen, ionnerly was president of the 

 Livingston County Farm Bureau. Mrs. 

 Lauritzen. a native of South Dakota, came 

 to Illinois November 2 when she married 

 Charles. Says he: "We expect to honey- 

 moon all our lives." 



been established to eliminate so far as possible 

 one county crossing border lines and taking 

 business in the territory of another company. 



"Another rule we should always observe is 

 to confine patronage dividends to paid-up 

 Farm Bureau members. This rule should be 

 followed in distributmg profits from handling 

 electrical equipment as well as petroleum prod- 

 ucts. 



"The farm adviser, service company man- 

 ager, general insurance agent and county or- 

 ganization director should constitute a four- 

 horse team, Metzger said. The degree to 

 which they pull together will determine largely 

 the success of the entire program in the coun- 

 ty. We must overcome jealousy, exercise fore- 

 bearance and practice real cooperation." 



Manager Lloyd Marchant said: "Ten years 

 ago a petroleum magazine published an article 

 about our company which said in bold face 

 t>'pe: Their greatest weakness is their lack 

 of selling experience.' Twelve years of sell- 

 ing experience have helped us over this hurdle. 

 Now we are faced with a new challenge, 

 namely. They have made a splendid record 

 up to date but thev cannot survive the test 

 of time.' Are you willing to accept the chal- 

 lenge and allow opposition to our plan to 

 destroy our organization and make good this 

 statement.'" 



Marchant pointed out that in 1938, 64 

 county service companies distributed dividends, 

 totaling $1,573,156.18. Approximately 22 

 per cent of which represented dividends re- 

 ceived from the state company. Dividends 

 paid by the service companies to Farm Bureau 

 members the past two years approximate the 

 three million dollar mark. 



John H. Lister who compiled Bulletin No. 

 27 of the Farm Credit Administration, cover- 

 ing the history and setup and operations of 

 Illinois Farm Supply Company, was introduced 

 and spoke briefly. 



President Fred Herndon who presided was 

 greeting friends on every hand after being 

 restored to health following a serious two 

 months' illness. Herndon spoke briefly about 

 responsibilities of directors. Quartet music 

 and a short play "Andy Learns" provided the 

 entertainment. 



A filled milk manufacturing company of 

 Litchfield was found guilty of violating a 

 federal law prohibiting interstate shipment 

 of filled milk and fined $1000 by Justice 

 Briggle in the U. S. District Court, Spring- 

 field, Feb. 3 and 4. This is the first test 

 of the law in Illinois. 



FEBRUARY, 1939 



27 



