Successful Cooperation 



CONFERENCE 



Alert farm business men like Manager 

 Eifert, left, and John D. Young, president, 

 make cooperatives successful. 



An Air Conditioned Office and Plenty of Ice Water and 



Service Malie tlie Rushville Grain and Livestock 



Company a Popular Meeting 



Place For Farmers 



iU. 



^^\ 



80 DEGREES COOL 



Patrons come to the elevator office to gel 

 warm in winter, cool in summer. 



\^^^ILL Eifert's job of managing 

 ^-/J the Rushville Grain and Live- 



_J J stock Company in Sc h u y 1 e r 

 county keeps him on the run. That's 

 because Bill and the directors figure 

 the company is there to serve its mem- 

 bers and not to pile up money. Mem- 

 bers depend on the company to market 

 their grain, livestock and clover seed. 

 They bring in their corn, oats and 

 wheat for grinding and mixing with 

 Blue Seal protein supplement. When 

 they need pig meal poultry mashes, mill 

 feeds, salt, Bethanized fence, twine and 

 similar farm supplies, they bee-line for 

 the Rushville Grain and Livestock com- 

 pany. 



When patrons come to the elevator 

 feed mill, warehouse, seed cleaner or 

 livestock pens in warm weather, there 

 are two spots they'll visit before they 

 leave. One is the ice-water keg in the 

 elevator driveway. The other is the 

 air-conditioned office. Bill says these 

 conveniences are services members ex- 

 pect. 



The air conditioning plant, like many 

 other labor savers about the premises, 

 is an example of making the most of 

 materials at hand. Cold water is 

 pumped continuously through a radia- 

 tor m the furnace room. An electric 

 fan draws air through the cold radia- 

 tor and blows it into the room through 

 the furnace pipes. The same fan circu- 

 lates hot air m the winter. Water is 



sprinkled on the roof as insulation 

 against the sun's rays. 



The company boasts two sets of 

 scales. One set, 40 feet in length and 

 used largely to weigh livestock trucks, 

 is located in the drive in front of the 

 modern, fireproof office. The other set, 

 a labor and time-saver in wheat harvest, 

 is part of the dump in the elevator. 

 Patrons pull their loads of grain right 

 on to the dump. There the loads are 

 weighed, graded, dumped and the emp- 

 ty vehicles weighed in regular mass 

 production style. 



Manager Eifert hires enough help to 

 keep every branch of the cooperative 

 stepping right along. Even in the peak 

 of combining or threshing, few patrons 

 are required to wait to unload. They 

 know they can pop into town with a 

 load of grain and have their truck or 

 wagon back under the combine spout 

 in just a few minutes. 



Grain flows to Rushville from as far 

 as 15 miles. It comes in farmers' 

 trucks, or when necessary, Bill sends 

 a company truck to get it. It comes in 

 rubber-tired wagons pulled behind fam- 

 ily cars; it comes in trailers drawn by 

 rubber-tired tractors. All the grain is 

 handled on terminal markets by Illinois 

 Grain Corporation. 



When combines came to Schuyler 



county. Bill asked farmers not to run 

 them until the grain was thoroughly 

 ripe and thoroughly dry. Wheat grow- 

 ers' machines are idle nearly every day 

 until almost noon. But they cooperate 

 in that just as they cooperate with 

 everything else the company does. Bill 

 and his crew do their part by keeping 

 the elevator open late in the evening 

 during harvest. 



Seeing the company now it is difficult 

 to believe that it was ever in financial 

 troubles. It was organized in 1919 fol- 

 lowing a promotional program started 

 by I. P. 'Pard " Bartlow, Bill Wells, 

 John L. Huston and others. These men 

 went from farm to farm in buggies to 

 talk with farmers about the need for 

 a farmers' cooperative grain and live- 

 stock marketing service. 



By 1919, they had aroused enough 

 interest to get a number of supp)orters 

 to risk $100 each by signing promissory 

 notes. Later the notes were converted 

 into stock. The young co-op borrowed 

 $14,000.00 to begin operations. 



The years rolled by and the debt re- 

 mained. But in 1928, William Eifert, 

 a farmer and secretary of the company, 

 was called in to try his hand at run- 

 ning company affairs. By 1932 the 

 debt had been liquidated. 



When asked how it was done, Eifert 



(Continued on page 10) 



ROSHVOLE'S MARKETPUVCE 



Ray Elliott, left, weighs a sample of new wheal. He's been with ihe co-op since it started. 

 Service is the company's keynote. The $20ft00 plant does a $300^000 a*nual bujiatst. 



SEPTEMBER, 1939 



