AMERICAN SOCIETY OF EQUITY 1 19 



Tennessee. By 1907, some headway was reported, also, among the spring 

 wheat producers of the agricultural Northwest and the tobacco fields of 

 Wisconsin. 15 



Meanwhile some sentiment had developed in favor of "direct trade 

 between the producers and consumers" so that "organized farmers and 

 organized laborers" could cooperate more effectively. In the hope of ful- 

 filling this ambition, nine farmers representing Equity appeared on No- 

 vember 14, 1906, before the national convention of the American Federa- 

 tion of Labor in Minneapolis. Plans were discussed "to effect an honest, 

 quick and practical means of exchange of the products of the farm and 

 also the products of organized labor as identified \^j the 'Union Label.' " 

 The ultimate result of this meeting was the short-lived International 

 Equity Exchange. 16 



The leader in this movement was M. Wes Tubbs, national secretary of 

 Equity, who had grown increasingly skeptical of Everitt's crop-holding, 

 price-fixing program and believed that more could be accomplished by 

 orthodox methods of cooperative marketing. Through Tubbs' efforts, three 

 joint-stock cooperatives were organized in Chicago, Detroit, and Scranton, 

 Pennsylvania. In each city the local federation of labor supported the idea 

 on the theory that union members would be able to save money by dealing 

 directly with the producers through an exchange. Tubbs finally got a 

 charter in New Jersey for the International Equity Exchange, which was 

 designed to act as a holding company for local exchanges. Tubbs hoped 

 eventually to develop an extensive system of country shipping exchanges 

 for the use of the farmers, as well as city exchanges for the storage and 

 shipment of farm produce. Perhaps his scheme was no less chimerical than 

 Everitt's, at least in the extent to which he believed it could be made 

 effective. 17 



Naturally this development was viewed by Everitt with the greatest 

 misgivings, for the founder of the order had committed himself to the 



15. Everitt, The Third Power, third edition, pp. 220-23; fourth edition, pp. 226- 

 29; Western Tobacco Journal (Cincinnati), XXXI (November 14, 1904), p. i; 

 XXXII (January 16, 1905), p. 2; (March 13, 1905), p. i; (November 27, 1905), p. 

 2; (October 23, 1905), pp. 1-2. 



1 6. Equity Farm Journal, I (May, 1908), p. 5; International Equity Exchange, The 

 Farmers' New Marketing System (Madison, Wis., 1908), pp. 16-22 [pamphlet]. 



17. Bahmer, in Agricultural History, XIV (January, 1940), pp. 53-54. 



