I. A. A. Record— August, 1933 



15 



I. C. Forbids Use 



of Grain Blower 



to Douglas Co-op 



COLLUSION between private ele- 

 vators in Douglas county and 

 the Illinois Central Railroad to 

 prevent farmers from marketing grain 

 through their own co-operative was 

 charged recently by the Douglas Coun- 

 ty Farmers Grain Association in a 

 statement reported by the Decatur 

 Review. 



Considerable feeling has been stirred 

 up between grain producers over the 

 railroad's refusal to supply grain cars 

 which farmers desire to load with a 

 portable blower rather than scoop it in 

 by hand. Although the railroad super- 

 intendent contended that the farmers 

 should lease space along their right- 

 of-way for the blower, farmers regard 

 this contention as a smoke screen and 

 a move to compel the producers to 

 market their grain through the private 

 elevators in that county. 



The co-operative association in the 

 meantime is reported to have lodged 

 a complaint with the Illinois Com- 

 merce Commission pointing to the law 

 which provides that common carriers 

 are required to furnish cars when re- 

 quested by shippers. The Illinois Cen- 

 tral, it is understood, proposes to 

 make a test case out of the contro- 

 versy and if necessary carry it on up 

 through the courts. 



May Use Trucks 



The Douglas county grain producers 

 are now threatening to move their 

 grain by truck direct to the terminal 

 markets if the railroad persists in its 

 refusal to spot cars where convenient 

 for loading. 



A. Z. Martin, prominent farmer and 

 a director of the Douglas county co- 

 operative, said in an interview re- 

 ported in the Decatur Review: "Under 

 the railroad's ruling that all loadings 

 made at team tracks must be done with 

 scoop shovels or through established 

 elevators, the farmer is given no 

 choice to market his produce except 

 through such old-line companies as 

 may have a monopoly in the territory. 

 He must sell through this agency and 

 at such margins as the buyer chooses 

 to impose or else haul to more distant 

 points. , ., . , .. . .... - , . . . 



"Farm leaders have long recognized 

 the effects of this particular evil, and 

 have encouraged the farmer to or- 

 ganize into co-operative groups where- 

 by the profits ordinarily distributed 

 among the dealers may go back to 

 the producer. 



"Quite naturally," said Mr. Martin, 

 "the old-line grain companies which 

 have built expensive grain elevators — 

 monuments that the farmer is obliged 

 to pay for or contribute to their up- 

 keep — dislike the idea of farmers sell- 

 ing through their own co-operative 

 agency. Such dealers thereby lose a 

 chance at the fat profits they have 

 earned off the farmer in years past, 

 and it is no surprise that they have 

 enlisted the aid of the railroad com- 

 panies to keep the farm co-operatives 

 out of the field as far as possible. 



"This action in forbidding the use 

 of a mechanical device to facilitate the 

 loading of grain is but one example 

 of this attitude." 



Replaces Six M«n •'" 



A grain blower, it is estimated, does 

 the work of about six men in loading 

 a freight car. To comply with the rail- 

 road's terms Douglas county farmers 

 are using scoop shovels temporarily 

 to load grain. 



The Decatur paper states that eight 

 carloads, or approximately 12,000 

 bushels, were loaded in one week at 

 the Hayes station north of Tuscola. 

 The corn was hauled from the John 

 Black farm, managed by Mr. Martin, 

 on six trucks and loaded into the car 

 in two days. 



The co-operative association owns a 

 blower and i^ could have been moved to 

 the team track there loading the cars 

 quickly and inexpensively, but the 

 railroad prevented its use by its re- 

 fusal to furnish cars. 



"Even by hiring trucks and six men 

 to load the cars," said Mr. Martin, "I 

 saved more money by selling through 

 the co-operative association than I 

 ever did in the 20 years I have been 

 selling corn from the Black farm. 



"Naturally I dislike the idea of us- 

 ing scoop shovels, but it is a well 

 known fact that the farmers have been 



charged too much for elevator service 

 for a long time. 



"Ordinarily, Douglas county ships 

 out about 2,000,000 bushels of grain 

 in a year's time. More than a half 

 million bushels have been sold through 

 the co-operative association thus far 

 in 1933. Even when hauled directly to 

 the co-operative elevator in Tuscola 

 and for long distances, the farmers' 

 returns have been higher." 



The statement of higher returns, 

 says the Decatur paper, is substan- 

 tiated by Albert Long, owner and 

 manager of a dozen farms in the 

 county who relates how one of his 

 tenants received a premium of three 

 cents a bushel for two carloads of 

 corn marketed through the association 

 when the tests were advanced one 

 notch at the terminal markets by the 

 inspectors there. Another farmer who 

 hauled his wheat crop to Tuscola in 

 trucks, after his crop was reported to 

 test 54 at one of the outlying ele- 

 vators, found the test to show 60 and 

 with a corresponding gain in selling 

 price. 



"There are other instances pf a like 

 kind," Mr. Martin insists, "and they 

 explain why the state-wide grain as- 

 sociation (Illinois Grain Corp.) is tak- 

 ing a lion's share of the farmer's busi- 

 ness." 



The Douglas County Farmers Grain 

 Association was organized last March, 

 the records show, and membership is 

 open to all farmers in the community 

 without fee upon the condition that 

 their grain will be marketed through 

 the association, provided that the price 

 offered by the association equals or 

 is higher than the price offered 

 through another agency. 



Prefer Railroads 



"It is our plan to continue in the 

 county, giving the farmer the advan- 

 tage of every possible test and pre- 

 mium," Mr. Martin says. "And so far 

 as possible, we will continue to ship 

 our grain over the already established 

 carrier systems, even if obliged to 

 use old-fashioned methods in loading 

 the cars." 



However, the ill-concealed contempt 

 for the railroad's stand in preventing 

 loadings by the more modern methods, 

 may bring about the use of trucks in 

 transporting grain into the terminals. 

 Overtures have been made by man- 

 agers of established truck fleets, and 

 bids have been received to haul grain 

 directly from the farm to river points 

 for five cents a bushel. s .; r • - 



Illinois farm prices advanced 25 per 

 cent during the month ending May 15, 

 and averaged the highest since Decem- 

 ber, 1931. 



