COOPERATIVE PURCHASING AND MARKETING ORGANIZATIONS. 53 
Length of loans. — Most of the loans made to elevators by banks and 
individuals are for short periods of from one to four months, or during 
the heavy marketing season. Forty-one elevators report securing 
loans payable on demand. Where funds are advanced by commis- 
sion firms the business is handled on open account and after the year's 
business is closed final settlement is made. Thirty-five elevators 
secured loans for improvements on 12 months' time. 
Some 14 elevators have an arrangement with the company's bank 
whereby sums not in excess of a certain amount are advanced to the 
elevators to take care of the business, interest being charged only on 
funds as advanced. By using this plan, interest is not paid on a 
large balance. 
Advances to members on warehouse receipts. — Of 326 elevators report- 
ing, 62 make advances to members on warehouse receipts. These 
advances range from small amounts to as high as 75 per cent of the 
market value of the grain. Two hundred and sixty-four report no 
advances. 
As a rule, it is considered inadvisable to make advances to mem- 
bers on stored grain, as a practice of making these advances brings 
the elevator into a phase of the banking business which can better 
be done by the local banks. When borrowing frcm a bank, the 
patron of an elevator is required to pay interest on the borrowed 
funds although he may object to paying the elevator for a similar 
loan. He considers that since the elevator is in possession of his 
grain, it is not entitled to interest on money advanced, which he may 
assume as part payment on his property. As a matter of fact the 
advance is not a part payment, but purely a loan, since the title to 
the grain remains his, and he has been given a warehouse receipt. 
With all its advantages accruing to the profit of the holder, it is clear 
that loss of interest to the elevator on the money advanced becomes 
a charge against all the members of the association to the direct ben- 
efit of the individual borrowing member, a principle which can not 
be considered cooperative in any sense. Aside from this, the com- 
plications in accounting brought about by this practice are unfortu- 
nate. When patrons require loans from the elevator, such loans 
should be made an open account, or a personal note should be given. 
In both cases interest should be charged in accordance with the pre- 
vailing rate. 
Sentiment and practice with regard to the storing of grain vary in 
the different States in accordance with the variety of the prevailing 
crops and the sentiment of the terminal market in which the sales 
are made. In the southwestern "and eastern sections of the grain 
belt many elevator companies forbid storing, and the practice is dis- 
couraged generally. In the northwestern grain States storing and 
