AMERICAN SOCIETY OF EQUITY J 47 



Its leadership was composed of agitators who were ill prepared for busi- 

 ness management. It was more interested in war against the Minneapolis 

 Chamber of Commerce than in the adoption of sound business policies. 

 Resistance against the attacks of the chamber of commerce was easy, but 

 the creation of an alternative marketing system was hard. The livestock 

 agency was operated inefficiently; frequently complaints were registered 

 about the poor handling of grain; sales were entrusted to subordinates 

 while the leaders were busy quarreling with one another or else were at- 

 tending to other matters than business. All this, coupled with the depres- 

 sion which hit the farmers in the early twenties, sent the organization 

 sagging. In 1923, the exchange was finally placed in the hands of receivers, 

 but not without challenge on the part of those who believed that with bet- 

 ter management it could have kept going. 88 



The Equity suffered from the fact that it was a loosely knit, in fact 

 regional, organization; only in the period from 1902 to 1907, when the 

 control of the society was vested in Everitt, was there any trace of a cen- 

 tral authority. At various intervals its strength was concentrated in Ken- 

 tucky and Tennessee, Wisconsin, the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Montana. 

 Its greatest strength was gained in Wisconsin, although the extent of 

 the marketing operations of the Equity Cooperative Exchange cannot be 

 overlooked. The influence of the national body never was strong; for the 

 most part, it only struggled to keep itself alive. It would be a mistake 

 to assume that Equity ever at any time acquired the status of a national 

 movement. Eventually the Farmers' Union absorbed the remnants of the 

 Equity, first in the agricultural Northwest and finally in Wisconsin. 



But in spite of its unfortunate experiences, Equity left its mark. Under 

 its leadership numerous local grain- and livestock-shipping associations 

 were created, and the farmers were taught the need for a more efficient 

 handling of their produce. Some of its leaders became identified with the 

 Nonpartisan League and took an important part in the League's work, 

 and men like Myron W. Thatcher and others who later assumed positions 

 of leadership in the strong cooperatives built by the Farmers' Union in 



88. St. Paul Daily News, October 4, 7, 1922; Courier-News (Fargo, N. Dak.), 

 January 19, 1923; Fargo Forum, February 10, 1923. See also File 150484, Emil 

 Piper et al. v. Equity Cooperative Exchange, Ramsey County Courthouse, St. Paul, 

 Minn. 



