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- 
]Derience 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 : Blooniington, 
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. 
i 
