Page Ten 



THE I. A. A. RECORD 



March, 1931 



Grain Producers Meet at Peoria 



Alexander Legge, Farm Board Chairman, Is Unexpected Guest at Illinois 



:..::--ri, ^; V Grain Corp, Annual Stockholders' Meeting 



G- C. Johnstone 



ALEXANDER LEGGE, chairman of 

 the Farm Board, who happened to 

 be in Peoria to address the Creve Coeur 

 Club, was an unexpected guest at the 

 annual meeting of the Illinois Grain 

 Corporation held Monday, February 23, 

 at the Jefferson Hotel. 



Mr. Legge made a brief address to 

 the 154 delegates, officers and visitors 



who represented 

 all except three 

 of the stockhold- 

 er members. 



The Farm Board 

 chairman compli- 

 mented the or- 

 ganization on its 

 progress. "You're 

 a live organiza- 

 tion," he said. 

 "Keep up your 

 courage and car- 

 ry on. You can't 

 go down stream all the time. You have 

 to go up some time and that's the dif- 

 ; ference between a dead fish and a live 

 one. There are certain individuals and 

 V organizations who apparently believe 

 '■:\ they have a God-given right to handle 

 ., your grain for you. I don't see it that 

 way. Some of these people are actively 

 working against you, so you have ob- 

 stacles to overcome." 



Commodity Control 



Earl C. Smith, president of the L A. 

 A., in an interesting address devoted 

 to the broader problems of building an 

 effective co-operative marketing organi- 

 zation stressed the importance of vol- 

 ume control of farm commodities if 

 the producer is to realize the full bene- 

 fit of the co-operative system. He 

 pointed out the weaknesses in the op- 



■ eration of co-operatives where a mi- 

 nority of the directors control the poli- 

 cies. 



G. C. Johnstone of Bloomington, 

 president of the corporation, in his an- 

 nual address told of the progress of the 

 organization since it was incorporated 

 , early in 1930. 



"It was expected that much oppo- 

 sition would come from private inter- 

 ests which had been receiving the 

 profits from marketing the farmers' 



. grain," he said. "But no one antici- 

 pated that the most insidious and un- 

 fair propaganda would come from those 

 who were supposed to be leaders in the 

 . ' farmers' elevator movement. However, 



.* today many more farmers arc doing 



their own thinking, and are not being 

 influenced by the propaganda of selfish 

 subsidized interests. 



"You already have a membership of 

 33 fully qualified co-operative farmers' 

 elevators. The fact that our sales 

 agency, the Mid-West Grain Corpora- 

 tion, already has handled a million and 

 a quarter bushels of grain is a complete 

 answer to the enemies of co-operation 

 who are seeking to prevent farmers 

 from developing their own marketing 

 agencies in the terminals. 



"The strength of our organization is 

 based on the fact that farmers them- 

 selves are the real owners of this co- 

 operative machinery set up to market 

 and merchandise their grain. Farmers 

 themselves own stock in the local ele- 

 vators, and the local elevators in turn 

 own stock of the regionals which in 

 turn own and control the Farmers Na- 

 tional Grain Corporation. Through 

 these same local units grain producers 

 will participate in the savings and 

 profits from the state and national 

 grain marketing agencies. 



Producer at the Terminals 



"Through the local, state and na- 

 tional co-operatives the producer has a 

 voice at the termiijal markets where 

 prices are made and with increased vol- 

 ume will come bargaining power to 

 stabilize prices, and obtain all that the 

 market affords for his grain. , -:;." 



"While it is true that the develop- 

 ment of the Illinois Grain Corporation 

 was only made possible by the support 

 given it by the Boards of Directors and 

 stockholders of member elevators, who 

 had a vision of the possibilities in col- 

 lective action, I am satisfied that this 

 unity of effort could never have been 

 brought about without the services and 

 finances made available by a strong gen- 

 eral farm organization such as the Illi- 

 nois Agricultural Association. 



I. A. A. Aid Helpful 



"It has contributed liberally of its 

 finances, counsel, man po\^er, and last 

 but by no means least, its prestige. The 

 high esteem in which the Illinois Agri- 

 cultural Association is held in business, 

 agricultural, and financial circles, and 

 the success which other projects it has 

 promoted have attained, have all been 

 valuable assets to the Illinois Grain Cor- 

 poration. I am also convinced that in 

 order that co-operative efforts among 

 farmers in the future maintain the sta- 

 bility they should, a strong general farm 



organization should be maintained, to 

 work in harmony with them. 



"A very small amount of the sub- 

 scribed capital investment has been used 

 in organization work, the Grain Market- 

 ing Department of the Illinois Agricul- 

 tural Association having spent practi- 

 cally its entire allotment of funds for 

 1930 upon this project, and expects to 

 do so throughout 1931. 



Opportunity for Elevators 



"Each day I am more convinced of 

 the enlarged opportunity each member 

 elevator has in securing reliable infor- ,, 

 mation which should be helpful in the" 

 conduct of its business affairs. In the 

 past the only source of information . 

 was through privately-owned commis- 

 sion firms which were interested in your 

 affairs only to the extent of the profit 

 which they were able to secure from 

 each bushel of grain they purchased. 

 It made no difference whether the price 

 was high or low. .; * v^; ^-r ; ; : . 



"During the coming year by work- j 

 ing together we should be able to profit 

 by our past experiences. While con- 

 structive criticism is always welcomed 

 by the board of directors it is each 

 member's duty to be loyal to his own 

 selling agency and not allow untruthful 

 propaganda to circulate unchallenged. 

 The coming year should show an in-; 

 creased membership and it is to the 

 interest of every stockholder that this 

 should be. It is only by the control of 

 a large volume of grain that we can 

 gain the end sought. 



"The machinery is set up and func- 

 tioning, we as grain producers will 

 approach the objective of our plan just 

 to the extent that interest and support 

 is given to our own marketing agency, 

 the Illinois Grain Corporation." 



Other Speakers 



Fred E. Ringham told of the success 

 of many farmers' elevators and how 

 careful audits were helping them to 

 operate on a sound financial basis. 

 Harrison Fahrnkopf, I. A. A. grain 

 marketing director who has directed 

 organization work among elevators, 

 spoke briefly, modestly gave way to 

 other speakers. 



Charles P. Cummings, general man- 

 ager of the Mid-West Grain Corpora- 

 tion, introduced the branch managers 

 at St. Louis, Peoria, Jacksonville, Deca- 

 tur, and Pontiac, discussed technical 

 problems in selling grain. 



The Farmers National Grain Corpo- 

 ration was represented by N. T. Nelson 



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