AMERICAN SOCIETY OF EQUITY I3 1 



and general election laws; passage of a corrupt practices act and initiative, 

 referendum, and recall measures; and the sale of the remaining public 

 lands to actual settlers on long-term contracts. 45 



The Wisconsin legislature of 1911 was one of the most remarkable in 

 the history of the state. Included among its long list of progressive accom- 

 plishments were measures providing for an industrial commission, work- 

 men's compensation, state life insurance, an income tax, limitations on the 

 labor of women and children, a state binder-twine plant, a cooperative- 

 marketing law, and a state board of public affairs. Highly gratified with 

 the accomplishments of the session, the Wisconsin Equity News boasted 

 that the legislature had fulfilled its platform pledge to the farmers; and 

 the following year the executive board of the order announced that in the 

 past two years Equity had received more political recognition than ever 

 before. 46 ' 



The Wisconsin Society of Equity was not content with a merely political 

 program ; it was also active in promoting the organization of local coopera- 

 tive associations. It helped create the Sheboygan County Cheese Producers' 

 Federation, later known as the Wisconsin Cheese Producers' Federation, 

 although a Plymouth farmer named Henry Krumery, who only later 

 became a member of Equity, was mainly responsible for its growth. 47 But 

 perhaps the biggest Equity accomplishment was the organization of local 

 cooperative livestock-shipping associations. The first of these was organ- 

 ized at Durand in 1906, but the years of greatest activity along this line 

 came during the period from 1912 to 1916. Individual associations began 

 business with approximately thirty members; but in well-organized areas 

 such as Pierce County, membership lists included as many as three or 

 four hundred farmers. In 1917, the Ellsworth Equity Cooperative Associa- 

 tion reported 520 members and claimed to be the largest in the state. 48 



45. Ibid., September 25, 1910, pp. 9-10. 



46. Milo M. Quaife, Wisconsin, Its History and Its People, 1634-1924 (2 vols., 

 Chicago, 1924), II, 36; Wisconsin Equity News, June 25, 1911, pp. 4-5; ibid., October 

 25, 1912, p. i; National Conference on Marketing and Farm Credits, Marketing and 

 Farm Credits, pp. 39-40; Edwin G. Nourse, Legal Status of Agricultural Coopera- 

 tion (New York, 1927), p. 46. 



47. Equity News, September i, 1915, p. 129; Henry Krumery, A Blow at the 

 Cheese Trust (n.p., n.d.), pp. 7-8 [pamphlet]. 



48. Edwin G. Nourse and Joseph G. Knapp, Co-Operative Marketing of Live- 



