AMERICAN SOCIETY OF EQUITY 145 



Equally turbulent was the course pursued by the Equity Cooperative 

 Exchange. Much of the crusading fervor of the exchange subsided after 

 its departure from Minneapolis in 1914, and this, coupled with the rising 

 wartime demands for farm products, brought a growth in its business ac- 

 tivities. In 1914, it organized the St. Paul Grain Exchange, a "non-stock 

 membership corporation" that was expected to become a sort of farmer- 

 managed and controlled chamber of commerce. 82 



The St. Paul Grain Exchange required that all grain be sold through 

 its members, who in turn charged a commission of one cent a bushel to 

 sellers and shippers. Buyers, however, could make use of its facilities with- 

 out purchasing through a broker and without having to pay a commis- 

 sion. This, exchange leaders said, made St. Paul an open market. The 

 Equity Cooperative Exchange held two seats on the St. Paul Grain Ex- 

 change. 83 



In 1916, the exchange expanded its activities into livestock marketing, 

 then into wool marketing, and finally into the cooperative purchasing 

 of farm supplies. It entered the livestock-marketing field on the South 

 St. Paul market. Its leaders had become convinced that the successes ex- 

 perienced in organizing local cooperative associations in Wisconsin, Minne- 

 sota, and upper Iowa warranted expansion into the terminal market. 

 This move was noteworthy for two reasons : first, this was the forerunner 

 of a series of similar commodity organizations sponsored by the Farmers' 

 Union, the Farm Bureau, and numerous independent groups in the 

 Middle West; and second, it brought to a head a standing controversy 

 among the several Equity organizations on the policy of terminal market- 

 ing. The question at issue was whether farmers should continue to en- 

 dorse those private terminal firms which had handled the livestock of 

 the local associations in the past, or whether they should give their exclu- 

 sive support to a farmer-owned and controlled agency. The establishment 

 of the terminal agency indicated the predominance of the latter view. 84 



Business began on the South St. Paul market in October, 1916, and two 

 years later a branch was established in Chicago. However, events soon 



82. F.T.C., Decisions, VII, 137. 



83. Non-partisan Leader, August 17, 1916, p. 6; Minnesota Leader, October 9, 

 1920. 



84. Nourse and Knapp, The Co-Operative Marketing of Livestoct(, pp. 12-14, 

 106-7; Organized Farmer, January 24, 1919, p. 10. 



