that CapUin Bernard (Butch) Wan- 

 street, the east-side winners' leader, 

 personally signed 28 new members. 

 One of Gapt. Jerry Embser's west-side 

 boys also hit a high mark with 13- 



Wayne county kicked off Jan. 8 with 

 75 in attendance, also on a contest 

 drive with the county divided into dis- 

 tricts'. •, 



Another splendid drive, in spite of 



adverse weather and road conditions, 

 was in Logan county, launched on Jan. 

 8 with 54 workers. Thirty-seven were 

 back at the report meeting — turning 

 in 100 new member contracts. Five 

 townships were incomplete and one 

 not reported, says organization director 

 Ray H. Schilling. 



COD Terry Elder wires from Craw- 

 ford county that their drive which 

 culminated in a report meeting Jan. 

 12 resulted in 96 new members, one of 

 the best, if not the best drive ever held 

 in that county. 



On a township-by-township effort, 

 COD Lloyd Ummel reports from Taze- 

 well that 32 members were signed in 

 the first four townships covered, an 

 average of 8 to the township. 



In Cumberland county, 50 contacts 



in a recent drive resulted in a signup 

 of 26 — a representative relation of 

 results to calls. 



Rock Island county's drive has yield- 

 ed the good number of 72 new mem- 

 bers. 



Over sixty contracts have been re- 

 ported to date in Marion county's drive. 



County Organization Director C. A. 



Markman, Bureau county, has enthusi- 

 astically reported the signing of 165 

 new members in the recent membership 

 drive. This is a new high for this 

 year and Markman says that they are 

 driving on to their long range goal of 

 2168 members by Sept. 30. 



Jasper County Farm Bureau held a 



report meeting with 130 present fol- 

 lowing a membership contest campaign 

 wherein the senior team were winners 

 over those born in the 20th century 

 and, therefore, ate with a full array of 

 silverware, tablecloths and napkins to 

 match. Total of 86 new members was 

 refKjrted in this county. 



W. S. Brock, left, president of the Produc- 

 tion Credit Corporation of St. Louis, ac- 

 cepts a check from M. S. Morgan, presi- 

 dent of the Kewanee Production Credit 

 Association, in full payment for all the 

 capital stock owned by the St. Louis 



corporation in the Kewanee PCA. At 

 extreme left is J. M. Robinson, treasurer 

 of PCC of St. Louis, and at extreme right 

 C. E. Humphrey, secretary-treasurer o{ 

 Kewanee PCA. Kewanee PCA is ilow 

 wholly owned by members. 



ANOTHER FIRST FOR ILLINOIS 



Pulaski-Alexander will hold their 

 kick-off meetings on February 20th, ac- 

 cording to COD Wiesenborn. 



ANOTHER first has been chalked up 

 by Illinois farmers! This time it's 

 in the field of credit. The Kewanee 

 Production Credit Association has become 

 the first production credit association in 

 the United States to be wholly owned by 

 its farmer-members. 



Just at the close of 1944, Meryl Mor- 

 gan, president, and C. E. Humphrey, 

 secretary-treasurer of the Kewanee asso- 

 ciation, presented the association's check 

 for $60,000 to W. S. Brock, president of 

 the Production Credit Corporation of St. 

 Louis, in full payment for all the capital 

 stock owned by the St. Louis corporation. 

 The Production Credit Corporation of 

 St. Louis originally subscribed for "A" 

 (non-voting) stock to assist in the or- 

 ganization of this coop>erative credit asso- 

 ciation. 



How did the Kewanee cooperative 

 achieve its record? President Morgan 

 says, "It was simply a question of pre- 

 senting a sound ^ cooperative business 

 proposition to the members who have 

 personally experienced the advantage of 

 production credit . . . 



"Recently our board of directors de- 

 cided that this was a most opportune 

 time for farmers to purchase all the stock 

 in their association. The idea was pre- 

 sented by association employees to farm- 

 er-members as they were contacted in the 

 field. About 97 per cent of all members 

 contacted subscribed for additional stock, 

 and the amount needed was easily se- 

 cured." 



A number of substantial members 

 who gladly subscribed for the additional 

 stock stated that they might not person- 

 ally need the credit ser\'ices of their as- 



sociation extensively in the future, but 

 that their sons intended to succeed them 

 in farming and they wanted to make cer- 

 tain that their own cooperative production 

 credit association would be there to 

 ser\-e their sons in time of future need." 



The Kewanee association was organ- 

 ized in November, 1933, with 13 farm- 

 ers as charter members, each subscribing 

 for $5 in "B" (voting) stock. As each 

 farmer-member obtained a loan, he ac- 

 quired an amount of the "B" (voting) 

 stock in the association equivalent to not 

 less than 5 per cent of the amount of his 

 loan. However, during the early years 

 of operation, most of the capital of the 

 association was supplied by the Produc- 

 tion Credit Corporation of St. Louis 

 which by December, 1934, had purchased 

 $100,000 of the "A" (non-voting) 

 stock. 



As of the close of business on Nov. 

 30, 1944, the Kewanee association had 

 590 farmer-members with $688,111 in 

 outstanding loans. From organization to 

 the above date, the association made 

 loans totalling $9,598,011. Total losses 

 sustained in the 1 1 years of operation 

 amounted to $1,015, or 0.01 per cent of 

 the amount of loans made. 



As of Dec. 30, the association had a 

 total capital of $132,875, all of which 

 was owned by farmer-members. In ad- 

 dition, the association had reser\es and 

 surplus of $60,835. This association 

 serves farmers in Henrj', Knox. Stark, 

 and Bureau counties. It has demon- 

 strated how a group of capable farmers 

 can successively operate their own 

 credit cooperative. 



FEBRUARY. 1945 



