March, 1933 



THE I. A. A. RECORD 



Page Fifteen 



Milk Producers Winning Fight at 



Quad Cities 



Build Up Fluid Outlet Through Sturtevant Ice Cream Co. When Organized 



Dealers Cancel Contract 



A 8 WE go to press organized milk 

 producers at the Quad Cities' 

 market represented by Quality Milk 

 Association are winning their fight 

 to establish a retail fluid milk out- 

 let following cancellation by the 

 organized distributors of their 

 agreement to buy milk from the 

 Association February 1. 

 The Sturtevant Ice Cream Com- 

 pany of Rock Is- 

 land, owned and 

 operated by O. G. 

 Sturtevant and 

 his son Kenneth, 

 with the finest 

 dairy plant in the 

 Quad Cities, has 

 been distributing 

 milk of Associa- 

 tion me m b e r s 

 since February 7 

 when the produc- 

 ers, fighting des- 

 0. G. STURTEVANT pcratcly for their 

 market, put the 

 price down to three cents per quart 

 in an effort to build up a fluid 

 -outlet. Within 10 days the Sturte- 

 vant Company had grown from 

 two truck routes to 15, and by Feb- 

 ruary 25 had put on 23 trucks serv- 

 icing 4,000 retail stops. The or- 

 ganized dealers voted to hold their 

 price at 8 cents and lost business 

 consistently since February 7. 



The tremendous demand created 

 immediately could not be taken 

 care of by the Sturtevant Company 

 because of shortage of bottles and 

 equipment. As a result, the price 

 was raised to six cents per quart 

 on February 22, and contrary to 

 expectations the volume of output 

 was not only 

 main tained 

 but actually 

 grew the lat- 

 ter part of 

 that week. 



Better Milk 



"In talking 

 to several 

 people," said 

 Ben H. Boll- 

 man, field 

 r e p r esenta- 

 tive for the 

 Associat i o n, 

 "they report 

 that Sturte- 

 vant is deliv- 

 ering milk of 



such fine flavor and quality that 

 they will never go back to the other 

 dealers." 



The organized dealers, prior to 

 February 1, had set up a "rump" 

 organization composed largely of 

 outlying sour cream producers, non- 

 members, and a few "deserters" 

 from the Quality Milk Association. 

 This organization, called the Illi- 

 nois-Iowa Milk Producers' Associa- 

 tion, is largely controlled by the 

 organized distributors who assisted 

 in selecting the manager, and 

 picked the first board of directors. 



Promote Dissension 



The strategy of the dealers has 

 been to promote dissension among 

 milk producers, and break up the 

 Quality Milk Association or get the 

 organization hopelessly in debt. To 

 this end, the dealers first demanded 

 that the Association sever all con- 

 nections with the Farm Bureau and 

 Illinois Agricultural Association, 

 that it get the Sturtevant Company 

 out of the milk business, that it buy 

 the dealers' old butter churns and 

 other obsolete equipment, and fi- 

 nally employ a manager meeting 

 with their approval. The Association 

 refused to go along on those terms 

 contending that the dealers had no 

 right to dictate the kind of organi- 

 zation farmers shall have. 



In the meantime the distributors, 

 the ringleaders of which control 

 the smaller dealers through a bottle 

 exchange, held their price at eight 

 cents and thereby suffered a tre- 

 mendous loss of business to the As- 

 sociation and its co-operating dis- 

 tributor, Sturtevant. At this writ- 



ing the organized dealers are meet- 

 ing daily and are expected to drop 

 the price to six cents in a desperate 

 effort to regain their lost business. 



House to House Canvass 



Members of the Quality Milk As- 

 sociation are continuing their fight; 

 for a fluid market by house to house 

 and store to store solicitation. 

 Shortage of bottles and equipment- 

 has been the only obstacle to tak- 

 ing over a much larger volume ot 

 the distributing business from the 

 non-cooperating dealers. Kenneth. 

 Sturtevant of the Sturtevant Com- 

 pany started by airplane for New 

 York February 23 to speed up the- 

 delivery of more sealright flber bot- 

 tles from the factory there, but 

 found it unnecessary to continue- 

 the journey. 



The drastic action taken by the- 

 Quality Milk Association in lower- 

 ing the price to three cents was the- 

 only course left, for when the dis- 

 tributors summarily cut off the- 

 regular producers who for years- 

 have produced for the Quad Cities' 

 market the only outlet left was a. 

 butter market. They chose to sacri- 

 fice temporarily to build up a retail 

 fiuid milk outlet and market for 

 the future. The course of the battle 

 indicates their sound judgment. 



More than 600 members of the 

 Association in several mass meet- 

 ings and in the annual meeting on 

 February 24 voted unanimously to^ 

 stick to their program until they- 

 have established sufficient fluid 

 milk volume to insure a fair price 

 and a year 'round market. 



At the annual meeting in Rock 

 Island February 24 attended by ap 



p roximately 

 400 members, 

 the following- 

 directors were- 

 chosen: F. H. 

 Schafer, Port. 

 Byron; H. E. 

 Wells, Port 

 Byron; H. M. 

 Sheesley, Coal 

 Valley; H. O. 

 Klawon, Coal 

 Valley; Earl 

 Phillips, Rey- 

 nolds; Hugo- 

 Schaff, El- 

 dridge, Iowa; 

 Herman 



Modern Plant of Sturtevant Ice Cream Co. at Rock iHland 



(Cont'd p. 16> 



