April, 1932 



THE I. A. A. RECORD 



Page Thirteen 



"Jim" Stone Replies to 

 Co-Op. Salary Criticism 



Steward Reveals High Salaries and 

 Profits Old Line Grain Commis- 

 sion Men Make OfF 

 Farmers* Grain 



LIMITATION by law of salaries paid 

 by co-operative marketing associa- 



- tions would cause serious injury to the 

 co-operative movement, declared James 

 C. Stone, chairman of the Federal Farm 

 Board, in a recent letter to Representa- 



: tive Louis Ludlow, who had asked his 

 opinion regarding a bill the congress- 

 man had introduced. 



"For co-operative marketing to suc- 

 ceed, the thing most needed is compe- 

 tent and honest management, a manage- 

 ment equal to or better than that of 



■ the association's competitors in the pri- 

 vate trade," he said. "The only way 

 a co-operative can get such manage- 

 ment is by paying salaries comparable 

 to those offered by private business in- 

 stitutions engaged in the same line and 

 handling a comparable volume of the 

 product. ;.;:, y /..>..;•::;;. •. ■■:' :.^.j.:\:,:.'f..i:".: r,\, 

 "In business, whether co-operative or 

 private, brains and ability are sold to 

 the highest bidder, and in most in- 

 stances, I believe you will agree with 

 me, they command pay in proportion 

 to the service rendered. Those who ob- 



_ ject to farmers marketing their prod- 

 ucts in their own interest because it 

 will interfere with huge private profits 



. they have made in the past would like 



•' nothing better than for congress to 

 place large-scale co-operatives in a po- 

 sition where they cannot compete for 

 the caliber of men needed to run their 

 business. 



Not Public Servants ^' 

 "I cannot agree that co-operative ex- 

 ecutives should be regarded as 'public 

 servants,' for the function of co-opera- 

 tives is to merchandise the product of 

 their members and not to perform a 

 public service. It is, therefore, hardly 

 fair to compare the salaries of co-opera- 

 tive employees with those of govern- 

 ment office holders or try to put the 

 two on the same basis. 



"Honor and glory are generally re- 

 garded as part of the compensation in 

 government service. It is impossible to 

 appeal to patriotism when an outstand- 

 ing individual in his line or profession 

 is asked to accept oflSce at only a small 

 part of what he can earn in private 

 life, but generally speaking, when the 

 directors of a co-operative, especially a 

 large-scale organization, try to hire a 

 man competent to handle the business 

 of their members, it is hard cash, not 

 sentiment, that talks." 



Mr. Stone quoted from a letter ad- 



dressed to him from Charles B. Stew- 

 ard, secretary of the Nebraska Farm 

 Bureau Federation, president of the 

 Farmers Westcentral Grain Company 

 of Omaha, and a director of the Farm- 

 ers National Grain Corporation, who 

 said: ■'■'■■; '^-y^-yi 



Astonished at Salaries 



"I will state frankly that as I be- 

 came conversant with the grain move- 

 ment I was somewhat astonished at the 

 salaries paid by competing private grain 

 firms. As a business co-operative it was 

 necessary that we secure the very high- 

 est type of expert grain men to direct 

 the marketing and distribution of the 

 grain of our co-operative members. As 

 farmer producers I think you will agree 

 that we are not conversant with the 

 technical details connected with the 

 successful marketing program. Natural- 

 ly we must go to the regular grain 

 trade where men have had a life time 

 of experience in this business. . . . We 

 had to compete with the privately- 

 owned grain companies who because 

 of the profits of their business had es- 

 tablished a high level of salaries to their 

 key men. ' v".-.-. •.,;'■ ^ /''",;:l::.y ,''\. 'f: ']'' - 



; ;■ Gets $32,000 a Year 



"One old-line firm at Omaha pays 

 its president and general manager a sal- 

 ary of $32,000 a year, besides being a 

 holder of a substantial amount of the 

 company's stock, which has also been 

 a good dividend paying proposition to 

 him. 



"Another gentleman who is manag- 

 ing one of our competing privately- 

 owned grain companies on the Omaha 

 market receives a salary of $25,000 per 

 year. I have discussed the matter of 

 salaries with these men and both of 

 them have expressed to me their opin- 

 ion that the salaries we pay our ex- 

 pert grain men are not unreasonable 

 considering the volume of grain and 

 type of service they render." 



In closing his letter to Representative 

 Ludlow, Mr. Stone said: "I wish to 

 emphasize with all the force at my com- 

 mand that the proposed discriminatory 

 salary restriction would be a most seri- 

 ous blow to the co-operative marketing 

 program which the Farm Board is help- 

 ing farmers to develop under the pro- 

 visions of the Agricultural Marketing 

 Act, a program that for the first time 

 offers agriculture an equal opportunity 

 to gain economic equaUty with other 

 industries." , . ;;^'^ 



Macoupin Co. Dairymen 

 For Quality Improvement 



Some dairymen believe that the best 

 way to increase their sales is by cutting 

 prices, but the dairymen at CarHnville 

 in Macoupin county believe that the 

 best way to increase their sales and 

 maintain their market is to build up 

 consumer demand by producing better 



milk. ■■■■;■■,.■..;■; '^'-v- [■■.■ ■'/:■< 



For this purpose a group of dairy 

 farmers handling about 90 per cent of 

 the city's milk recently organized the 

 Carlinville Retail Milk Producers' Asso- 

 ciation. 



J. B. Countiss, director of dairy mar- 

 keting for the Illinois Agricultural As- 

 sociation, attended the final organiza- 

 tion meeting of the dairymen and as- 

 sisted them in 'drawing up their pro- 

 gram. 



"Like most other markets of this size, 

 they are not required to meet high 

 standards because of any local ordi- 

 nances," he said, "but these men are 

 interested in their future milk market, 

 and they know that 'quality milk' is 

 essential to maintaining and building 

 good-will. 



"Dairymen who belong to such an 

 organization and who faithfully live up 

 to its requirements and give service, 

 will not have to worry so much about 

 the price cutter. They will render the 

 community a great service that cannot 

 be measured by the yardstick of dollars 

 and cents." 



In order to become a member of the 

 Carlinville Retail Milk Producers* Asso- 

 ciation, the dairyman must meet the 

 following requirements: 1. Must have a 

 healthy herd free from tuberculosis; 2. 

 Must have a doctor's certificate certify- 

 ing the health of all those coming in 

 contact with the milk; 3. Must have a 

 sanitary barn thoroughly cleaned daily; 

 4. Must sterilize all utensils with steam 

 or boiling water; 5. Milk must be 

 strained through sterilized cotton 

 strainer pads; 6. Milk must be cooled 

 immediately to 50 degrees F. or less; 



7. Milk must have low bacteria count; 



8. Milk must have minimum butterfat 

 content of 3.5 per cent. 



Illinois ranked first among the states 

 shipping to the St. Louis Producers last 

 year with a total of 6,527 cars of live- 

 stock. Missouri was second with 6,206 

 cars, and Iowa was third with 416 cars. 

 In all 13 states contributed shipments 

 to the St. Louis Producers. 



John D. Horton, vice-president of 

 the Gwin Company in Chicago, has 

 been appointed western sales supervisor 

 for the National Fruit and Vegetable 

 Exchange, according to A. B. Leeper, 

 president and general manager. He will 

 be located in the general offices at 608 

 South Dearborn street. For ten years 

 Mr. Horton was district sales manager 

 for the California Fruit Growers Ex- 

 change. More recently he has been con- 

 nected with other co-operatives. ' '; : 



