60 CIRCULAR 10 0, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



manager, one the floor manager, and the other three were to be 

 clerical men. The warehouse managers were hired by the year, as 

 was the head bookkeeper in some instances. The assistant managers 

 and the clerical men were usually hired for a number of months. 

 As the season closed in one district, some of the employees could 

 sometimes be transferred to another district. There was consider- 

 able objection to the district warehouse managers because, in the 

 minds of some of the members at least, they performed no definite 

 service for the association and received very high salaries. Most 

 of the receiving warehouses were open for only a few months of 

 each year. During the closed season the warehouse manager as 

 well as some of the employees of the leaf department assisted with 

 membership or other field-service work. The warehouse managers 

 were on a yearly salary basis and had very few regular duties for 

 long periods each year; this fact caused later criticism on the part 

 of the farmers. 



The average annual salary paid to 83 warehousemen in the ware- 

 house department in 1922 was over $4,400; in 1923 the annual 

 salary of 114 warehousemen was over $3,000. 



There was some criticism of the salaries paid to many of the 

 employees of the leaf department. The detailed records of salaries 

 paid to the officers of this department could not be traced in the files 

 of the association, but from a statement made by the association 

 to the agricultural investigation committee it would appear that, 

 in 1922, 111 graders were employed at an average annual salary of 

 $3,300, and in 1923, 124 were employed at an annual average salary 

 of $3,250. According to the minutes of the board of directors of 

 June 3, 1924, the district managers of the warehouse department 

 were receiving an average of $694.45 a month at that time, and the 

 graders $255.06 a month. Several of the supervising graders un- 

 doubtedly were paid high salaries, but the association was forced to 

 pay high salaries if it wished to retain the services of capable men. 

 It is probable that there was a tendency toward payment of salaries 

 somewhat more liberal than conditions warranted, but it must be 

 realized that from the beginning the ultimate success of the associ- 

 ation was in doubt, and these graders were not willing to take posi- 

 tions with the association unless the remuneration was sufficiently 

 attractive to compensate for the risk incurred. 



Table 22 gives the number of employees within different salary 

 ranges by years, departments, and totals, as far as the data are 

 available. 



The turnover in the personnel of the warehouse division was pro- 

 nounced; 255 men employed in the warehouse department in 1922 

 were not rehired in 1923. The officials of the warehouse department 

 attribute this to three causes: The elimination of men not entirely 

 loyal to the association ; the closing of some of the warehouses ; and 

 the need of fewer men to handle the same volume of tobacco under 

 the cooperative marketing system than under the auction floor 

 system. 29 



29 Report of Agricultural Investigating Committee, 1925. 



