COOPERATIVES, 1920-32 295 



corporated, the Grain Marketing Company, and finally the government- 

 sponsored Farmers' National Grain Corporation, spokesmen for the farm- 

 ers gave evidence of their belief that large-scale marketing methods were 

 applicable to grain. Meanwhile, terminal marketing associations on a 

 smaller scale were being organized. Some four or five were in existence 

 before 1920; but by 1935 the number had grown to twenty-six, twenty- 

 three of which belonged to the Farmers' National Grain Corporation. 20 

 Apparently, the consolidations in industry and business had encouraged 

 agriculturists to seek similar economies in their marketing operations. 



The United States Grain Growers, sponsored by the American Farm 

 Bureau Federation Committee of Seventeen and organized in 1921, as 

 of that date was the most ambitious project ever devised for the market- 

 ing of grain. It had hoped to bring about higher prices by creating "a 

 highly centralized organization with facilities for holding grain off the 

 market." 21 



The enthusiasm of the sponsors of the U.S.G.G. was not shared by all; 

 in fact, its creation was met with mixed feelings, mostly of skepticism 

 and downright pessimism. 22 The critics pointed to the various forces with 

 which the company would have to contend; it could do little or nothing 

 about world competition, the independent farmer, the legal and financial 

 problems that would inevitably arise, and the general ineffectiveness of 

 "voluntary action." The president of the Minnesota Farmers' Grain 

 Dealers Association, for instance, advised that if the U.S.G.G. was to 

 succeed, it would have to have the services of the most experienced mer- 

 chants and financiers in the world, who were not to be found in the ranks 

 of the farmers. With forthrightness he asked, "[Why] agree to sell your 

 grain for a period of five years through an untried agency, the ability of 

 which is to be demonstrated?" Was it possible that a board of twenty- 

 one producers who were omniscient enough to determine grain prices 



20. Ward E. Fetrow, Cooperative Marketing of Agricultural Products, Farm 

 Credit Administration, Cooperative Division, Bulletin 3 (Washington, 1936), pp. 

 50-51; Elsworth, Statistics of Farmers' Cooperative Organizations, pp. 57-59. 



21. B. H. Hibbard, "The Extent of Cooperative Marketing Among Farmers To- 

 day and the Results Secured by Cooperative Associations," Annals of the American 

 Academy of Political and Social Science, CXVII (January, 1925), p. 204. 



22. "A Farmers' Union to Balk the Grain Gambler," Literary Digest, LXIX 

 (April 30, 1921), p. 13. 



