Uayy 1931 



THE I. A. A. RECORD 



Page Thirteen 



An Open Road for Elevator Managers 



V.".;;/;.>:„;-;^, By Lacey F. Rickey :T.^.';,''v'>'.^ -',,-/ 



Grain Marketing Specialist, University of Illinois 



-^T' 



Ii. F. Rickey 



DID you ever stop to think why it 

 is that few man voluntarily and 

 consciously take up country elevator 

 management as a life 

 work? 



A large majority 

 of country elevators 

 are in small towns. 

 Often the elevator 

 manager handles 

 more business than 

 anyone else in the 

 town. He is a man 

 of weight and influ- 

 ence in his com- 

 munity. When the 

 necessary living ex- 

 penses incident to living in a small 

 town are taken into consideration, he 

 receives what totals a very respectable 

 salary. On the whole, his work is 

 pleasant. He has the advantage of liv- 

 ing close to his work. He is given a 

 large degree of responsibility in guid- 

 ing the affairs of a good-sized business. 

 He works hard, to be sure; and at cer- 

 tain times must put in long hours. 

 However, all things balance up to an 

 agreeable total, and when once in the 

 work, if the man is at all adapted to the 

 position, he ordinarily stays with it for 

 a long time. 



T Blind Alley Job 



Where then is the fly in the oint- 

 ment? As co-operative grain market- 

 ing has been organized, country ele- 

 vator management has been a blind- 

 alley job. A good average man could, 

 if he were diligent, keep the elevator 

 business going in fair shape and be 

 practically assured of his job for a long 

 time. Under the management of a man 

 with more than average business ability, 

 the elevator would prosper, and in- 

 creases in prestige and salary would be 

 forthcoming. 



Ladder Now Provided 



^But the physical limitations to vol- 

 ume of grain which might in any way 

 be induced to come to any one country 

 elevator precluded the possibility of any 

 very large salaries being paid. His con- 

 tacts were not such as to bring his 

 abilities to the attention of larger em- 

 ployers who could make full use of his 

 talents and hence pay larger salaries. 

 He had a good job as small-town jobs 

 go, but there was no ladder by which 

 he could climb into a better position 

 in the business world. In order to get 

 into a field of larger opportunities it 

 was necessary to back out of the blind- 



alley which led no'W^here and start all 

 over; and that is a painful process. 



This has all been written in the past 

 tense. Why? Because a ladder is now 

 being provided by which the efficient 

 manager of a local co-operative ele- 

 vator can climb to enlarged fields in 

 his own line of work. The ranks of the 

 real grain men needed to operate the 

 regional and national grain co-opera- 

 tives should and will be recruited from 

 the managers of local co-operative ele- 

 vators who have demonstrated their 

 sympathy with and understanding of 

 the fundamental principles of co-opera- 

 tion, together with a knowledge of 

 grain and business ability of a high 

 order. ,.■,, ^.■.._^. 



The young man with ambition may 

 now take the management of a local co- 

 operative elevator with the assurance 

 that when he has proven his ability he 

 will have the same chance as the young 

 fellow who enters other lines of indus- 

 try, to advance into positions where his 

 abilities may be fully used, where he 

 may take just pride in his enlarged ac- 

 complishments, and where the honor 

 and reward going to men who do things 

 will be his. 



The Bogey Men 



Bogey-men have been set before the 

 managers by those having their own in- 

 terests to serve. The development of 

 regional co-operatives would do away 

 with the necessity of business and grain 

 handling ability at the local stations and 

 reduce the managers to grain weighers, 

 with salaries to correspond. A little re- 

 flection will show the falsity of this 

 claim. The same local management 

 ability will be required. The services 

 rendered to him will enable him to do 

 a better job of handling his local sta- 

 tion. The only difference will be that 

 when he does send his grain to the ter- 

 minal market, as he has always done, 

 he will turn it over to someone who is 

 vitally interested in the success of his 

 local elevator rather than merely in the 

 commission to be obtained from han- 

 dling the shipment. 



Ready for Next Step 

 And in addition to this, he is part and 

 parcel of the terminal organization him- 

 self. As expansion and promotions oc- 

 cur, tiis success in handling his part of 

 the business will suggest to those in 

 charge of operations in the larger field 

 that here is the man who has demon- 

 strated that he is ready to take the next 



step up the ladder o( successful achieve- 

 ment. 



Only a few years ago many people 

 watching the development of Japan and 

 China saw therein a "yellow peril." 

 Far-sighted business men, seeing instead 

 a "golden opportunity," shaped their 

 policies to meet it and prospered accord- 

 ingly. The large volume of golden grain 

 concentrated under the operations of a 

 nation-wide co-operative marketing or- 

 ganization may mean to the local man- 

 ager either a yellow peril or a golden 

 opportunity, accordingly as he avails 

 himself of the possibilities thus pre- 

 sented. A blind-alley job is being 

 changed to one which gives the local 

 manager "some place to go." 

 This Story Is True 



And, as Chairman Legge says, "This 

 story has the further advantage of be- 

 ing true." I speak from experi"ence. I 

 was a country elevator manager for 

 some time before I realized that I had a 

 good job which led me nowhere in par- 

 ticular. It was a momentous decision 

 when I gave up that job to back out of 

 the blind-alley and start over. I have 

 never been sorry that I made the deci- 

 sion. I have been able to be of more 

 service to myself, to my family, and to 

 society in general. But I lost some val- 

 uable years. I wish that there had been 

 present then the opportunity to climb 

 out rather than the necessity to back 

 out. 



Start Membership Work 



Farm Bureau membership sign-ups 

 will be conducted in Logan, McLean, 

 Hancock, McDonough, McHenry, De- 

 Kalb and Warren counties within the 

 next few months. The organization 

 staff of the I. A. A. is assisting the 

 local committees in all these counties 

 in getting ready. All indications point 

 to successful membership drives, reports 

 Geo. E. Metzger, director of organiza- 

 tion, for farmers realize the need for 

 organization now more strongly than 

 ever. 



McLean county is out to make a new 

 record for the largest membership sign- 

 up in one day. Tazewell county now 

 holds the record with 1,288 members 

 added to the Farm Bureau roll in a 

 24-hour period. t — 



On March 15 tke index of farm prices stood 

 at 91 per cent of ^the pre-war level. On the 

 same day a year* ago the index was 126 per 



cent. ..,'■"' :,>■■■■■■ '^ •• ■ ' ' ■■ ■.■•■.,-; .,'•":. 



