Page Eight 



THE I. A. A. RECORD 



January^ 1931 



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204 Attend State- Wide 



Grain Meeting, Peoria 



Report Progress Made by Farmers 

 Elevators in Co-Operating to 

 • Build Gro"wer-Owned Mar- 

 keting Agency 



AROUSING meeting of 204 farm- 

 ers* elevator oflScers, directors, 

 managers, and grain producers gathered 

 at Peoria, December 29 for the first 

 state-wide meeting of the member ele- 

 vators of the Illinois Grain Corpora- 

 tion. 



It was the first opportunity any ele- 

 vator officials had had to meet the per- 

 sonnel of the Mid-West Grain Corp. 

 and the Farmers 

 National Grain 

 Corp., who are ac- 

 tively engaged in 

 selling grain on the 

 terminal markets at 

 Chicago, St. Louis, 

 and Peoria. D. P. 

 Moore of the Farm- 

 ers National grain 

 sales department, 

 Chicago, and W. J. 

 Chas. CumminKs Niergarth, manager 

 of the Farmers Na- 

 tional St. Louis office, represented that 

 organization. General Manager Charles 

 P. Cummings of Chicago, George Mar- 

 tin of St. Louis, and John Benson of 

 Peoria represented the Mid-West Grain 

 Corporation. ' v ■/''■■■>• v:'.^':.' ":■ 



Lyle Johnstone Opens Meeting 



~ G. C. Johnstone, president of the Illi- 

 nois Grain Corp., opened the mornirig 

 session. Harrison Fahrnkopf , secretary of 

 the Illinois Grain Corp., cited the prog- 

 ress that had been made in building the 

 Illinois regional during the summer and 

 fall. He said that 3 1 elevators had been 

 fully certified and qualified for mem- 

 bership, and that 8 to 10 more had 

 applied for membership, but had not 

 yet qualified under the Capper- Volstead 

 Act. 



After a brief discussion of grain han- 

 dling problems, Mr. Cummings pre- 

 sented D. P. Moore of the Farmers Na- 

 tional, a man long experienced in the 

 grain business. {^ ' ; ' , V^r-' ' 



Farmers National Man Speaks 



"The Farmers National controls 

 20,000,000 bushels of storage space and 

 now has headquarters and facilities es- 

 tablished on the principal grain markets 

 of the country," said Mr. Moore. "We 

 plan to get into every grain market 

 eventually, prepared to offer bids to 

 consumers. ''■■: ;, .;■• '-■■■., ■■'•;-■; -:■.■-.■-' '.,,, 



"There are many conscientious and 

 sincere old-line commission men in the 

 grain business," said Mr. Moore, "who 

 have sought to give the producer a fair 



NOTICE 



ELECTION OF DELEGATES 



ILLINOIS AGRICULTURAL 



ASSOCIATION 



NOTICE is hereby given that in connec- 

 tion with the annual meetings of all 

 County Farm Bureaus to be held during the 

 month of January, 1931, at the hour and 

 place to be determined by the Board of Di- 

 rectors of each respective County Farm Bu- 

 reau, the members in good standing of such 

 County Farm Bureaus and who are also 

 qualified voting members of Illinois Agri- 

 cultural Association shall elect a delegate or 

 delegates to represent such members of Illi- 

 nois Agricultural Association and vote on 

 all matters before the next annual meeting 

 or any special meeting of Association, in- 

 cluding the election of officers and directors 

 as provided for in the by-laws of the Asso- 

 ciation. 



The following counties hold annual meet- 

 ings during the month of January: Carroll, 

 Cook, Douglas, Franklin, Whiteside, Greene, 

 Fulton, Knox, Lake, McHenry, Woodford, 

 Macon, Mercer, Peoria, Sangamon, Tazewell. 

 Signed: G. E. Metzcer^ Secretary. 



Jan. 1, 1931. 



price for his grain. But there are some 

 things the old-line commission men can- 

 not do and the Farmers National is 

 organized and prepared to improve con- 

 ditions from the standpoint of the pro- 

 ducer, that the individual commission 

 man cannot improve. Honest commis- 

 sion men recognize that thete are con- 

 ditions existing in the present system of 

 handling grain that need correcting if 

 the farmer is to get the most out of his 

 grain, yet he recognizes that it is up 

 to the farmer himself, through organi- 

 zation and co-operation, if these con- 

 ditions are to be corrected for the bene- 

 fit of the producer of grain." ■^■'T:^- 

 Sell 12 Months a Year 



Mr. Moore called attention to the fact 

 that frequently the first movement of 

 the crop following harvest sells at a dis- 

 count, that much of the first grain 

 coming to market fails to bring what 

 it's worth. Grain is sold and used 12 

 months of the year, he said, and often 

 there is too great a spread between the 

 cash and future price. The larger ter- 

 minal elevators make money because 

 they are equipped to handle the grain 

 and merchandise it orderly. This is 

 exactly what the farmer must do for 

 himself through co-operation to get all 

 that the market affords for his produce. 



The opportunity of the grain pro- 

 ducer lies in concentrating enough grain 

 in the hands of his own agency, said 

 the speaker, to place him in a position 

 to ask for a price instead of accepting 

 a price bid by the buyer. The millers 

 and processors of the country are in 

 sympathy for the most part with co- 

 operative grain marketing because they 

 want to see a stabilized price through- 

 out the year. The flour mill doesn't 

 make money on low-priced wheat. It is 

 chiefly interested in securing a satis- 

 factory return for processing the grain. 



Earl Smith 



In fact a more stable price would elimi- 

 nate the speculation in the business for 

 the processor and in turn benefit both 

 the producer and the consumer. 

 £arl Smith in Afternoon 

 In ta? afternoon Earl C. Smith, presi- 

 dent of the Illinois Agricultural Asso- 

 ciation, gave an in- 

 teresting discub;ion 

 reviewing the long 

 continued pressure 

 brought on the 

 I. A. A. to become 

 active in fostering 

 a definite and effec- 

 tive grain marketing 

 program in Illinois. 

 He told of the study 

 and consideration .; 

 given the problem 

 over a period of 

 years, and of the opportunity finally 

 afforded through the Agricultural Mar- 

 keting Act to present a definite recom- 

 mendation which finally resulted in the 

 Illinois Grain Corp. 



Mr. Smith, charged that enemies of ;;- 

 co-operative marketing in Illinois ap- 1 

 parently were deliberately misrepresent- •": 

 ing the plan and set-up of the Illinois 

 Grain Corp. to head off progress toward 

 the concentration of volume in farmer- -^ 

 owned and farmer-controlled agencies. > , 



"There is nothing in the plan or pro- ■ 

 gram of the Illinois regional which v.: 

 takes control of a local elevator away 

 from its directors and stockholders," he — 

 said. "The plan merely provides for the 

 concentration of volume in the hands 

 of the farmer's own sales agency. And 

 if that feature is removed from co- 

 operative marketing you have nothing 

 left to justify its existence." 



Round Table Discussion 



Technical problems involved in the 

 buying and selling of grain were dis- 

 cussed by Mr. Moore, Mr. Cummings, 

 and others later in the afternoon. Mr. 

 Moore stated that the visible supply of 

 wheat was only 138,000,000 bushels, ^■. 

 which is the lowest in the past 10 

 years. 



The meeting was thrown open to dis- 

 cussion and many elevator managers ' 

 took an active part in the program. 

 Thirty-two elevators were represented 

 by 28 elevator managers, 



J. C. Sailor, a director in the Cissna ' 

 Park elevator, stated that the Mid-West 

 Grain Corporation had obtained for him 

 a price of 35/^ cents per bushel over the 

 best bid the local elevator had at that 

 time on a carload of wheat. "I realize," 

 said Mr. Sailor, "that our main objec- 

 tive is not to get for the farmer only 

 a few cents more a bushel, but never- 

 theless I want to testify to this experi- 

 ence which indicates that our own 

 organization can bid as much, or more 

 than other handlers of grain." '■r■■■^'^i:'.:f.^('■^:.''■}^ 

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