Page Twenty'two 



THE I. A. A. RECORD 



March, 1932 



Farm Board wants to help you, to put 

 you in your own business — that of mar- 

 keting products. Because others have 

 taken over your duties they may look 

 upon it as an inherent right. We in- 

 sist that it is the producer's right to 

 market and distribute his own prod- 

 ucts." ■"■^/ ::■"■ V; V '^ ■;-■.■■' '^/>-':ri'V-/'V 



How waste in distribution of meat 

 products is hurting the farmer's live- 

 stock income was illustrated by Mr. 

 Denman. 



A Retailer Cuts Costs 



"A man named Straus who has 220 

 meat stores in the east told me some 

 time ago," he said, "that following the 

 depression many of his stores began los- 

 ing money. Some of them declined to 

 a gross income of only $300 a week. 

 The less he sold the more he had to 

 raise the price on meats to take care of 

 the overhead. And the more he raised 

 the price the less he sold. This condi- 

 tion kept growing worse. Straus be- 

 gan to study his business and finally 

 closed all his stores for a period of two 

 weeks. 



"He decided that he was paying out 

 too much for overhead at each store. 

 So he established a central cutting plant 

 employing three shifts of meat cutters 

 working eight hours each. He sur- 

 veyed each community and made an 

 effort to supply each store with the 

 particular kind of meats and cuts most 

 in demand. All stores were serviced 

 from the central cutting plant. 



"As a result he was able to get along 

 with much less labor in the outlying 

 stores. Because of the saving he was 

 enabled to cut the price in half on most 

 meats. Meat sales shot up until the 

 stores were averaging $3,000 a week 

 gross sales. The unprofitable stores 

 began making money and the consumer 

 got his meat at lower prices. 



Too Much Overhead 



"An Indiana meat dealer wrote me a 

 short time ago," continued Denman, 

 "following a talk I made on the radio. 

 'I'll tell you what's wrong with the 

 livestock industry,' he wrote. 'I counted 

 16 different packer salesmen who called 

 on me in one day. In addition six dif- 

 ferent trucks stopped the same day to 

 deliver meats. If I gave all my business 

 to one packer I doubt if the profits 

 would have paid for the calls of even 

 two salesmen and the trucks. The dis- 

 tributors have been piling on costs and 

 these costs are passed on to the farmer 

 in lower prices for livestock.' " 



Charles E. Ewing, president of the 

 National Livestock Marketing Associa- 

 tion, stated that every dollar the live- 

 stock co-operatives have borrowed from 

 the Farm Board will be repaid. Com- 

 petition offered old-line commission 



companies by co-operative agencies is 

 only an incident, not an objective of 

 organized producers, said Ewing. The 

 farmer is seeking control of his own 

 business to cut out the wastes of distri- 

 bution, to gain market information, ad- 

 just production to demand, and co- 

 ordinate the producing end of his busi- 

 ness with that of marketing and sell- 

 ing. 



"We still have a long way to go in 

 co-operative livestock marketing," said 

 Ewing. "Only about 10 per cent of 

 the livestock of the country is being 

 handled by members of our organiza- 

 tion. The majority of our producers 

 have not yet caught the vision." 



Officers Report 



Ray E. Miller, secretary-manager, re- 

 viewed the progress made during the 

 past year in organizing and financing 

 the association, and pointed out the rea- 

 sons for the new movement. 



R. W. Grieser, sales manager with 

 headquarters at Decatur, stated that the 

 association began selling for six dis- 

 trict co-operatives holding membership 

 in the state organization on October 7. 

 He described the daily market and 

 weather report service through which 

 information about livestock movements 

 and prices is obtained from the princi- 

 pal markets, and how this information 

 is used to direct the movement from 

 Illinois to the markets offering the best 

 prices. 



He stated that livestock is being 

 moved in many cases direct to the 

 packers as well as to order buyers and 

 co-operative producer agencies. "We 

 grade all our livestock and try to ship 

 what the buyer demands," said Grieser. 

 "The packers have been satisfied with 

 our supplies. We are putting up the 

 livestock as ordered. We are able to 

 save in freight rates, and we can get 

 more for stock by selecting our mar- 

 kets." ^. '..^ ',,,;- r . / 



A motion was adopted to the effect 

 that every effort be made to reduce 

 commission charges, yardage fees, and 

 costs at the terminal stock yards. 



President Samuel Sorrells of Ray- 

 mond, who presided, was re-elected as 

 were all other officers and directors. 

 Geo. F. Tullock of Rockford, treasurer, 

 and Mr. Sorrells represent the I. A. A. 

 on the Board of the Marketing Associa- 

 tion. 



D. Kirkpatrick 



Soybean Meeting 



The annual meeting of Soybean Mar- 

 keting Ass'n. will be held at the Or- 

 lando Hotel, Decatur, Thursday, March 

 10. Dr. W. L, Burlison, University of 

 Illinois, and President W. D. McMillen 

 of Allied Mills, will speak in addition 

 to organization officials. 



Kirkpatrick Cites Uses, 



Abuses of Corporations 



Auditing Association Annual Meet- 

 ing at Rockford Well Attended ' 



DONALD KIRKPATRICK, coun- 

 sel for the Illinois Agricultural 

 Association, speaking at the annual 

 meeting of the Illinois Agricultural 

 Auditing Association at Rockford Jan- 

 uary 27, described the good and bad 

 points of corporations in agriculture as 

 they operate at present, also the pos- 

 sibility of their service to agriculture. 

 The meeting was well attended. 



A corporation usually represents a 

 business concern, he said. A corpora- 

 tion is an identity 

 which can sue and be 

 sued. It protects the 

 individuals who are 

 interested in it and 

 there is no liability 

 resting on the indi- 

 vidual stockholders 

 over and above that 

 prescribed. 



How Set Up 



Most corporations 

 are set up with non- 

 assessable stock. An outstanding exam- 

 ple of a corporation with assessable 

 stock is a bank. Corporations can serve 

 agriculture best when the board of di- 

 rectors and officers administer the busi- 

 ness of the corporation from the stand- 

 point of the company laying aside all 

 personal feeling or personal business 

 connections, he said. ,; ;,, ; ?.. „ ,::: 



Too many of our co-operatives and 

 companies with farmer boards of direc- 

 tors are regularly controlled by a mi- 

 nority on the Board, he pointed out. 

 This comes about in an administrative 

 way, through a desire on the part of the 

 president and members of the Board to 

 have all matters passed on decided by a 

 unanimous vote. In their operations 

 the thing which commonly happens is 

 that if the president feels the vote is not 

 going to be unanimous he does not allow 

 a decision to be made. Thus the mi- 

 nority gets exactly what it wants. 



Officers and directors of the auditing 

 association for 1932 are A. J. Gillfillan, 

 Watseka, Iroquois county, president and 

 director; Albert Heckle, Quincy, Adams 

 county, vice-president and director; 

 George E. Metzger, Chicago, secretary; 

 R. A. Cowles, Bloomington, treasurer; 

 Jesse L. Beery, Cerro Gordo, Piatt coun- 

 ty; Henry H. Parke, Genoa, DeKalb 

 county, and R. H. Vorhees, Jerseyville, 

 Jersey county, directors. , : ' ! 



A full report of Illinois Grain Cor- 

 poration's Annual Meeting on Feb. 22 

 will appear in the April Illinois Bureau 

 Farmer. 



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