Pa}(e Fourteen 



THE I. A. A. RECORD 



June, 1931 



**Give Us a Chance, We'll 

 — Do the Rest" — Cumtnings 



Mid- West Grain Corp. Handles 



Over 3,000,000 Bushels Grain 



in Six Months 



C. P. Cunimlngrs 



THE Mid-West Grain Corporation 

 operating on the Chicago, St. Louis, 

 and Peoria grain markets passed the 

 3,000,000 bushel mark recently only 

 six months after it 

 began operating on 

 its present basis, 

 Manager Chas. P. 

 Cummings reported 

 to' 200 McLean 

 county grain pro- 

 ducers and elevator 

 stockholders at a 

 meeting in Bloom- 

 ington the night of 

 June 3, 



"Any old-line grain 

 man would say it's 

 remarkable what we have accomplished 

 in so short a time," said Mr. Cummings. 

 "We handled 1,761 carloads of grain in 

 six months. I can't conceive of this 

 success as based on sentiment alone. We 

 are not asking for the support of the 

 farmers' elevators on that basis. 



"All we're asking of the growers is 

 to give us a chance. We don't want 

 anybody to feel that they are being 

 forced in. To be successful this busi- 

 ness must be built on a basis of mutual 

 satisfaction. Twenty-seven years' ex- 

 perience in the grain business leads me 

 to beUeve that the producer can be 

 benefited through co-operation. Every 

 penny made on this business belongs to 

 the grower. We're here to make money 

 for you. A volume of grain is neces- 

 sary to do this. 



"If we have 150 elevators working 

 together I know we can make a show- 

 ing in savings you and I can be proud 

 of. There are two things that grain 

 producers can do by working together: 



1. They can regulate the movement 

 of grain to market. 



2. They can eliminate the wide day 

 to day fluctuations. 



"The miller is interestd, so is the 

 farmer in a more stable price. There is 

 no excuse, for example, for the 13 -cent 

 drop in the price of wheat in one day. 

 This is what happened at Minneapolis 

 today. 



"It is heart-breaking to realize that 

 corn started out early last fall during 

 shucking time at 60 to 65 cents a bushel 

 and now corn is bringing around 48 

 cents a bushel to the grower. 



"If our co-operative set-up has merit 

 it will grow in spite of all the mud 

 slinging by those opposed to us. If not, 

 we won't succeed regardless of what 

 we can do. I'm not worried about the 



unfriendly propaganda being spread over 

 the state. That advertising does us more 

 good than harm. If we're right they 

 can't hurt us. And if we're wrong all 

 the kind things anyone can say won't 

 make us succeed. 



"I know this much, one week 70 per 

 cent of our grain business came from 

 non-members and the reason we got it 

 was because we could pay the price, 

 and for no other reason. If we can't 

 deliver as much or more for your grain 

 as the other fellow we can't expect your 

 business." ■ ,' 



Growers Getting Inside t 

 ^ Information on Markets 



Put Grain Sales Profits 



in Pockets of Farmer 



Farmers National Grain Man Tells 



Aims of Co-operation in 



Terminal Markets 



^^TpHE Farmers National Grain Cor- 



-L poration hopes some day to con- 

 trol enough volume to stabilize the price 

 of grain in line with its value," D. P. 

 Moore of the Farpiers National, Chi- 

 cago, asserted in his address at Bloom- 

 ington on June 3. 



"Our object is to assist in bringing 

 about equality between grain prices and 

 the prices of things farmers have to 

 buy," he said. "Farmers have the sup- 

 port in their co-operative efforts of most 

 of the big interests of the country ex- 

 cept the middlemen. 



"The middleman's only interest is a 

 selfish one. They make a lot of noise 

 but they are in the minority. Industry 

 as a whole wants to see the Marketing 

 Act succeed to bring a greater measure 

 of prosperity to the farmer because busi- 

 ness men know that a prosperous agri- 

 culture is necessary for industrial pros- 

 perity." 



Mr. Moore paid his respects to the 

 attacks on co-operative grain market- 

 ing. Referring to statements made by 

 F. S. Betz, editor of the Farmers' Guide, 

 at the recent old-line grain dealers' con- 

 vention in Peoria, Moore said: "Betz' 

 speech was the biggest boost for the 

 Marketing Act I've ever seen. His 

 education apparently stopped with the 

 farmer's elevator. Everyone knows that 

 the farmer's elevator has done a fine 

 thing locally for the farmer. That's 

 beside the point. 



"Now farmers are carrying their co- 

 operation a step farther into the termi- 

 nal markets. Certainly if there is any 

 justification for co-operation locally 

 there is more justification for it in the 

 terminal markets where the prices are 

 made and where manipulation in behalf 

 of the grain handlers' interests is fre- 

 quent. 



"Betz raked up the previous attempts 

 of farmers to get together to help 

 {Contimted on Page 15, Col. 1) 



H. Fnhrnkopf 



Fahrnkopf Emphasizes One Differ- 

 ence Bet-ween C-operative and 

 > ' ; Middleman System ' ' •, 



t("\7'C)UR co-operative sales agency 

 JL tries to pay the producer as much 

 as possible for grain. Under the old-line 

 system the commission house tries to 

 buy from the farm- 

 er's elevator as cheap- 

 ly as possible. This 

 is one difference be- 

 tween the two meth- 

 ods of marketing," 

 Harrison Fahrnkopf, 

 director of grain 

 marketing for the 

 Illinois Agriculttiral 

 Association, told 200 

 McLean county grain 

 producers at Bloom- 

 ington on June 3. 



"This whole movement represented 

 by the Farmers National and the Mid- 

 West Grain Corporation would be worth 

 while if only for the knowledge farm- 

 ers are getting about how their grain is 

 handled in the markets," said Fahrn- 

 kopf. "The co-operative's chief interest 

 will be to get the farmer a maximum 

 price, to improve the system so it will 

 work as well for the producer as it has 

 for the middleman." 



The new agreement running between 

 the Illinois Grain Corporation and the 

 farmers' elevators provides: 



1. For selling the producer grain 

 through his own co-operative agency on 

 the terminal markets when it can pay 

 as much as any other buyer. 



2. That the local elevators operate 

 as Capper- Volstead associations with re- 

 turns on that part of the stock repre- 

 senting capitalization of the grain end 

 of the business, Hmited to 8 per cent, 

 the balance to be held in reserve or 

 turned back to the producer in the form 

 of patronage refunds. 



Fifty-seven farmers' co-operative ele- 

 vators had affiliated with the Illinois 

 Grain Corporation and its sales agency, 

 Mid-West Grain, by June 6. This rec- 

 ord has been achieved in a little more 

 than a year. By June 1, the Mid-West 

 had handled upwards of 3,000,000 

 bushels of grain in the six months of 

 operation on its present basis. - - :- 



"The best answer to the frequent 

 attacks inspired by those selfishly op- 

 posed to farmer co-operation is the rec- 

 ord of our progress," G. C. Johnstone, 

 president of the Illinois Grain Corpora- 

 tion, and a prominent grain and live- 

 stock producer in McLean county, de- 

 clared in a recent statement. 



"The ever-growing volume of grain 

 being handled by the Mid-West is being 



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