105 



year we have 50 percent to refund. If you shipped in a load of stuff and 

 paid $18 commission on your car, you would get $9 back. It is figured on 

 the basis of the amount of money paid in. A percentage of the amount of 

 commission that you paid in would be refunded back. 



Q. A shipper shipping in stuff would automatically become a member, 

 wouldn't he? 



Mr. FULKERSON: If his commission would be $15 at the end of the 

 year he would be a member and get $5 back. 



Q. Supposing a man isn't a member of the shippers' association. Does 

 he have to become a member before he can ship to you? 



Mr. FULKERSON: He can ship us a load of stock and at the end of 

 the year, if he doesn't want to be a member, he gets one-half of his refund 

 back. Anybody can ship to us. If he is not a member of the association, or 

 not an individual member, he gets half of his refund back. He also gets the 

 benefit of buying the stockers and feeders without the extra charge. 



Q. Are you getting some shipments from individuals that are not 

 members of the association? 



Mr. FULKERSON: Oh, yes; we are getting a lot of them. 



Q. If there are not any profits would the individual be assessed? 



Mr. FULKERSON: No, you can't assess the members. They would 

 just go out of business automatically. 



Q. Who would make up the deficit, if any, in any year? 



Mr. FULKERSON: If the thing wouldn't pay it would stop. That is 

 one thing about organizing these terminal associations. The national board 

 goes out and gets enough membership and ascertains if there is going to be 

 enough patronage to support them. There isn't going to be any deficit. 

 When a firm starts out and in seven weeks gets at the top of the list there 

 won't be any deficit, because the people are behind it. 



PRESIDENT MANN: We have one more speaker. When we wanted 

 to know more about co-operative marketing we went up to St. Paul where 

 there was an older organization. We went there and asked for Mr. J. S. 

 Montgomery of the Central Co-operative Commission Association to tell us 

 more about co-operation. Mr. Montgomery: 



FARMERS IN THE COMMISSION BUSINESS. 



(J. 8. Montgomery.) 



MB. CHAIRMAN, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: The farmer has had two big 

 problems, big fundamental problems to consider. One, the problem of pro- 

 duction and the other the problem of disposing of his products after he had 

 them produced. 



The problem of production has received a great deal of thought, study 

 and attention. We have heard it talked of, we have seen it written in all of 

 our farm journals and agricultural press from one end of the country to the 

 other. Our experiment stations have spent years and years in studying more 

 efficient methods of production of all farm products, but up until recent years 

 we have given very little, if any, thought to the problem of economical 

 marketing. We have produced these crops and then we have sold them on 

 a market that was owned, operated and controlled by the other fellow, and 

 largely for the other fellow's benefit. 



A former speaker told you some of the reasons why wheat recently has 

 gone up thirty or forty cents a bushel. I will tell you a reason that I think 

 is a lot more important, and' that is the fact that most of the wheat in the 

 country has gotten out of the hands of the producer and into the hands of 

 the speculator. 



We have seen the same thing happen every year, year in and year out. 

 Everyone knew it and expected it was coming as soon as the big volume of 

 the crop got out of the producers' hands. 



The thing we have got to do is to study the business end of our business, 

 to get organized in such a way that the man who produces this farm product 

 gets a little larger percentage of the ultimate returns from it. That is the 



