28 BULLETIN 860, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



served. It requires a man with tact, with ability to appraise human 

 nature, and with the rare faculty of being able to decide impersonally 

 against individual members in matters of controversy without giving 

 offense. 



A manager must possess a high sense of duty regarding his own 

 responsibility toward the company in addition to a keen understand- 

 ing of the equitable relations to be maintained between the individual 

 members. It is not difficult to please so long as one may compromise 

 every difficulty that arises, but such a course means general satisfac- 

 tion for a time, then financial disaster, for difficulties will present 

 themselves which can not always be settled in favor of the individual 

 member and against the company. A manager having previous ex- 

 perience in a farmers' elevator where the business of both buying and 

 selling is conducted and the general accounts are kept under the 

 direct supervision of the manager should be employed if possible. 

 Many high-class men are to be found among the local agents of the 

 so-called line elevators, but the experience of these men, which in the 

 main consists of buying wholly in accordance with instructions from 

 a central office, does not usually fit them to take the responsibility 

 and initiative required of the manager of a cooperative grain ele- 

 vator. He not only must buy and sell upon his own judgment but 

 must have some knowledge of corporation accounting and be quali- 

 fied to stand on his own feet in every emergency. A high type of 

 business man with little or no experience in grain is to be preferred 

 to an inexpensive type of man with much experience in the simple 

 routine of weighing and dumping grain and of issuing checks in 

 settlement. Before employing any one as manager the directors 

 should check carefully his past record and should not rely too much 

 upon letters of recommendation which may be in his possession. The 

 farmers' elevator companies in the States of Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, 

 Nebraska, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Indiana, Ohio, 

 Oklahoma, Colorado, Michigan, and Missouri now have State organi- 

 zations, 1 the secretaries of which are in a position to render valuable 

 assistance in locating managers for new companies and in furnishing 

 reliable information concerning the personal records of men who 

 claim to have had experience. The State agricultural colleges of a 

 number of these States likewise are in a position to give assistance. 



STOCK CERTIFICATES. 



It is not necessary that stock certificates be ready to issue to the 

 members at the time of the payment of their subscriptions, but an 



1 Generally designated as " Farmers' Grain Dealers Association" of a particular State. 

 The secretaries are at present located in the different States as follows : Bloomington, 

 111. ; Fort Dodge, Iowa ; Hutchinson, Kans. ; Omaha, Nebr. ; Benson, Minn. ; Thompson, 

 N. Dak. ; Sioux Falls, S. Dak. ; Wolcott, Ind. ; Defiance, Ohio ; Lambert, Okla. ; Denver, 

 Colo. ; Pontiac, Mich., and Montgomery City, Mo. 



