Annual Illinois Grain Meeting 



A. E. Burwosh 



^^4 ^HEN the Farmers National 

 ^^Yli/ Grain Corporation decided 

 Q (f two years ago to liauidate 

 because grain could be marketed more 

 advantageously through the regional 

 cooperatives a new Illinois Grain Cor- 

 poration was created to do business 

 on the terminal 

 markets for Illinois 

 farmers. 



In June 1938 the 

 company was 

 launched with the 

 combined support 

 of farmers coopera- 

 tive elevators, the 

 lAA and County 

 Farm Bureaus. At 

 its first annual 

 meeting in Peoria, 

 Oct. 12 several hun- 

 dred delegates were pleased to learn 

 from Manager Frank Haines that in 

 its first fiscal year, the corporation had 

 handled and passed through its leased 

 elevators 13,200,000 bushels of grain 

 from which it made a net profit of 

 $12,444.66. 



Directors Re-elected 

 Arthur E. Burwash of Champaign 

 was re-elected president, E. E. Steven- 

 son, Streator, vice-president, Charles 

 Schmitt, Season, secretary, and R. A. 

 Cowles, Bloomington, treasurer. Direc- 

 tors chosen were Burwash, Stevenson, 

 Chester Hunt, Morris; Chas. Haller, 

 Edwards; Carl O. Johnson, Varna; 

 Geo. L. Potter, Graymont; Sam Yerg- 

 ler, Cissna Park; J. Fred Romine, Tus- 

 cola; Harold P. Joy, Chapin; Frank 

 Garwood, Stonington; Ernest D. Law- 

 rence, Normal. Directors-at-large Eu- 

 gene Curtis, Champaign ; A. O. Eckert, 

 Belleville; Chas. M. Smith, Eureka. 

 Members elected for two year terms 

 include Hunt, Haller, Yergler, Law- 

 rence, Romine, Joy. 



Speaking on the subject of "Farmers 

 Elevators and the Surplus Storage Pro- 

 gram," Earl C. Smith, president of the 

 Illinois Agricultural Association, said 

 that the vital interests of local farmers' 

 grain elevators must be preserved and 

 protected in working out the grain 

 surplus storage program, for the local 

 elevator is the foundation of the entire 

 grain marketing system. 



As evidence of the fact that organ- 

 ized farmers are determined to see that 

 the rightful interest of local elevators 

 are recognized, Mr. Smith cited the 



recent work of the lAA in getting 

 the Commodity Credit Corporation to 

 approve country elevators as Class C 

 warehouses for storing sealed corn. As 

 a result, the federal agency has con- 

 tracted with large numbers of country 

 elevators for the use of their storage 

 facilities in holding 1938 corn deliv- 

 ered under the corn loan program. 



The present grain storage program, 

 Mr. Smith said, is no diflFerent than 

 the sound practice of many pioneer 

 farmers in keeping an extra crib or 

 two of corn on hand to tide them 

 over years of short crops. 



"It was the custom in earlier years 

 on many farms to hold a reserve of 

 corn and wheat on the farm from one 

 season to the other," Mr. Smith said. 

 "Many farmers prided themselves on 

 keeping an extra crib of corn on hand 

 as a protection against drought, flood 

 and adverse weather conditions. Many 

 stored their small grain in the stack 

 and threshed it at their leisure when 

 ready to sell. Every informed person 

 knows that surplus grain can be stored 

 more economically on the farm and 

 in country elevators than in the ter- 

 minal warehouses. Particularly is this 

 true of corn, most of which is con- 

 sumed by livestock." 



Mr. Smith told his audience that to 

 meet the obstacles and opposition to 

 a sound surplus control program will 

 require the cooperation of farmers, 

 country elevators, business men, and 

 others who are directly dependent upon 

 agriculture for a living. "We have 

 been given far-reaching legislation to 

 prevent the continuous piling up of 

 huge surpluses and to some extent re- 

 lieve the depressing effect of accumu- 

 lated surpluses on market prices. Now 

 it is the respKjnsibility of farmers to 

 make the program work. Only to the 

 extent that all of us work together 

 will we succeed in stabilizing farm 

 prices at somewhere near parity levels. ' 

 Elevators Store Grain 



Mr. Smith cited figures showing that 

 203 Illinois elevators had contracted 

 to store approximately 14,000,000 bu. 

 of grain for the Commodity Credit 

 Corporation for which they will be 

 compensated at the rate of l/30c per 

 day per bu. He expressed the view 

 that further adjustment of acreage and 

 production of basic crops would be 

 necessary to get parity prices unless 

 market outlets broadened. The manda- 



FULING THE EVER NORMAL GRANARY 

 Com goea into steel bins at Annowan, 

 Henry county. 



tory corn loan schedule in the adjust- 

 ment act could not be successfully de- 

 fended, Mr. Smith said, unless farmers 

 cooperated to make the corn loans 

 good and adjusted their production 

 more effectively to that end. 



Delivering the annual message to 

 the stockholders for President Arthur 

 E. Burwash who was unable to attend. 

 Director Eugene Curtis reviewed recent 

 grain marketing history, told why the 

 company was operating thus far only 

 on a brokerage and commission basis, 

 and touched on the market changes that 

 have come about in grain marketing 

 in recent years. 



50% Thru Terminitls 



"The record now discloses," he said, 

 "that less than 50 per cent of the 

 volume of grain now passes through 

 terminal markets as in former years." 

 Large truck movements direct to mijls 

 ana river houses, the coming of river 

 transportation, movement of corn from 

 farms in Illinois to drought areas, stor- 

 age on farms and trucking from farms 

 to terminal warehouses were among 

 the reasons assigned for the astonish- 

 ing decline in terminal marketing. 



"There are today some 36 mills, 

 processing plants and river terminals 

 in Illinois capable of handling truck 

 grain direct from farms," Curtis re- 

 p>orted. "They are so distributed over 

 the state as to make possible the move- 

 ment of grain by truck from most 

 grain farms in Illinois directly to their 

 plants." 



"It is appropriate to mention that 

 13 member elevators of the Illinois 

 Grain Corporation are distributors for 

 the Illinois Farm Supply Company, and 

 52 member elevators made purchases 

 from the Supply Company in the year 

 ended August 31, 1939," Manager 

 Haines reported. "Total dollar volume 

 of business through elevator members 

 was $314,515.38 and total patronage 



(Continued on page 20) 



NOVEMBER, 1939 



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