Page Sixteen 



THE I. A. A. RECORD 



March, 1933 



Ralfs, Walcott, Iowa; F. A. Mart- 

 zahn, Davenport, Iowa; and Robert 

 McKnight, LeClair, Iowa. The new 

 alignment gives Illinois five direc- 

 tors and Iowa four. 



Battle For Equality 



The fight of the milk producers 

 at the Quad Cities is the old battle 

 of the farmer against organized 

 and strongly entrenched middlemen 

 who insist on maintaining dicta- 

 torial powers and naming the price 

 both to the producer and consumer. 

 It is a fight for equal privilege 

 against special privilege. When the 

 dealers could not control the Quali- 

 ty Milk Association they sought to 

 destroy it. They attacked Farm Bu- 

 reau and I. A. A. support and joint 

 stock control because they recog- 

 nized in this setup a factor of ad- 

 - ditional strength for the producers. 



To prejudice the public against 

 the Quality Milk Association, the 

 dealers through their puppet or- 

 ganization came out in the Quad 

 Cities' newspapers with large ad- 

 ' yertisements in which they referred 

 to the Illinois Agricultural Associa- 

 tion as the "Chicago group" and 

 "outside control." The appearance 

 of the so-called Illinois-Iowa Milk 

 Producers' Association on the scene 

 was designed to confuse and give 

 the distributors "face" with the 

 public. The Quality Milk Associa- 

 tion countered by telling its story 

 in radio speeches over the Daven- 

 port and Rock Island stations and 

 through publicity in the newspa- 

 pers. The determining factor in the 

 fight was the price of milk. 

 Distributors Disturbed 



With a six cent retail market the 

 producers will receive approximate- 

 ly 90 cents per 100 pounds for milk 

 which is something better than the 

 butterfat price and approximately 

 as much as producers netted when 

 they were selling previously to the 

 organized dealers. The public will 

 consume more milk at this price 

 than at 8 or 9 cents. At this writing 

 certain of the organized distributors 

 are reported to be frantic over the 

 loss of business they have suffered 

 and are expected to lower their 

 price to six cents per quart to meet 

 the competition. 



O. G. Sturtevant and his son Ken- 

 neth have gone all the way with 

 the producers in helping them fight 

 for a fluid market. Without them 

 the Quality Milk Association either 

 would have been forced into the 

 distributing business directly, or 

 else become resigned to a surplus 

 market. The modern and well 

 equipped plant of the Sturtevants 

 together with their past experience 

 in the milk business, and ample 

 capital, prompted the producers to 

 seek their co-operation which has 

 been freely given from the begin- 

 ning. 



The Quad Cities' market like 

 other markets where producers are 



Base Millc Declines At 

 Bloomington During 1932 



McLean County Milk Producers 



Meet In Annual Session 



Feb. 28 



Kenneth Sturtevant ready to take off 

 tor New York to speed delivery of 

 more bottle*. 



unorganized, has been a favorable 

 one for the distributors for many 

 years. With an air-tight organiza- 

 tion reenforced by a bottle ex- 

 change by which the big dealers 

 whipped the little ones into line, 

 the distributors had absolute con- 

 trol, bought their milk at a low 

 price from the producers, and 

 charged the consumer at a rate to 

 give them a wide and profitable 

 spread. 



20% Consumers' DoHar 



For many years local milk pro- 

 ducers secured only around 20 per 

 cent of the consumers' milk dollar. 

 As late as the summer of 1932 pro- 

 ducers were netting only around $1 

 per 100 pounds for milk which was 

 being sold to the consumers in bot- 

 tles at $4.60 per 100 pounds. More 

 than that, the dealers for a long 

 time controlled the hauling of milk 

 from the farmers to the plants 

 charging the producers up to 35 

 cents per cwt. for the service. The 

 Quality Milk Association broke up 

 this racket last year when it put 

 in its own truck drivers and low- 

 ered the hauling price to 20 cents. 

 Last June, according to Herman 

 Ralfs of Walcott, Iowa, it required 

 half of all the milk he produced to 

 pay the cost of hauling. 



Frank Watson, manager of the 

 Quality Milk Association and its 

 surplus plant in Davenport, points 

 out that when the dealers lowered 

 the price to the farmer on cream 

 last November, the farmer was giv- 

 en a cut of $4.70 per 100 pounds of 

 20 per cent cream, whereas the 

 price to the consumer was cut only 

 $1.84 per cwt. In other words, the 

 dealers used the situation to in- 

 crease their profits from handling 

 cream $2.86 per cwt. more than they 

 previously had taken. 



The organized producers, more 

 than 400 strong who attended the 

 annual meeting at the Fort Arm- 

 strong Hotel, Rock Island, Feb. 24, 

 were unanimous in favor of con- 

 tinuing their fight for a fluid mar- 

 ket through the Sturtevant Com- 

 pany. 



Larry Williams, manager of Coun- 

 try Life, talked to the group con- 

 gratulating them on their fine 

 spirit, emphasizing the importance 



DURING the year 1932, 442 mem- 

 bers of the McLean County 

 Milk Producers' Association pro- 

 duced 20,723,966 pounds of milk, a 

 slight increase over 1931, Manager 

 Forrest Fairchild reported at the 

 annual meeting, Bloomington, Feb- 

 ruary 28. 



Of this quantity nearly 32 per 

 cent was used for fluid milk and 

 cream compared with 37 per cent 

 the year before. A little more than 

 10 per cent of 

 milk was sold to 

 other than con- 

 tracting dealers, 

 22 •^ per cent was 

 used for manu- 

 facturing p u r - 

 poses, 1% per 

 cent was used in 

 a special class, 

 and nearly 34 per 

 cent was turned 

 into butter. 



Total value of 

 milk sold was foreest faiechild 

 nearly $290,000, 



a decrease of 28 per cent from 1931. 

 Base milk was 31.87 per cent of the 

 total, and surplus 68.13 per cent. 



"This year the quality of milk 

 delivered has been considerably 

 better than that delivered in pre- 

 vious years," said Fairchild. The 

 Association purchased supplies for 

 members, profits from which were 

 paid back in the form of patronage 

 refunds. 



The Farmers' Creamery Company 

 set up late in the year began mak- 

 ing butter early in February, 

 churning sweet cream from surplus 

 milk of members, and also cream 

 received from produce associations 

 in McLean and adjacent counties. 

 The creamery is equipped to take 

 care of an annual capacity of 1,- 

 200,000 pounds of butter. 



Donald Kirkpatrick and J. B. 

 Countiss of the Illinois Agricultural 

 Association spoke on legal and 

 technical problems in co-operative 

 marketing. 



Dr. H. A. Ruehe of the University 

 of Illinois spoke on the subject, 

 "Operating a Creamery and Putting 

 Out a Quality Product." Officers and 

 directors were re-elected. 



of following leadership and stick- 

 ing to the finish. He cited case after 

 case of victory resulting from co- 

 operation, and failure from division. 

 Attorney Wier of Davenport paid 

 his respects to the farmers of the 

 "rump" association who have al- 

 lowed themselves to be used as tools 

 of the organized dealers to the 

 detriment of their neighbors. , ^ 



