Aniei ican Agriculturist, June 30,1923 
637 
League Reports Big Year’s Work 
DclG^B-tcs Optimistic as They Trd.nsB.ct Business nt Lur^e Annudl Meeting 
T he annual meeting of the Dairymen’s 
League Cooperative Association, held 
in Utica, N. Y., on June 21, main¬ 
tained the record which the League 
has had for years of holding the largest and 
most enthusiastic meeting of farmers in 
eastern United States. More than 1,800 men 
were present, nearly a thousand of whom 
were delegates coming from every com¬ 
munity in New York and five adjoining 
States where the League is organized. 
The meeting w^s called to order at 10 
A. M. standard time, by President George W. 
Slocum, of Milton, Pa. After the 
usual preliminaries, the reports .— 
of the president, secretary and 
treasurer were read. 
In the president’s report, he 
called attention to the immense 
amount of business which the as¬ 
sociation had transacted during 
the year. These figures are given 
in another place on this page. He 
explained to the delegates how the 
work of the association is as¬ 
signed to ten principal depart¬ 
ments, over which is a trained 
man responsible for the success of 
his particular specialty. These de¬ 
partments are production, sales 
and advertising, secretary’s de-_ 
partment, banuing, accounting, ' —— 
engineering, traffic, legal, pur¬ 
chasing and general office management. 
In speaking of the chief aims upon which 
the association was concentrating its effort, 
Mr. Slocum said: “We have selected these 
two lines of production in which your asso¬ 
ciation has a distinct competitive advantage. 
Fluid milk first and evaporated milk second. 
This does not mean that future changes in 
marketing conditions may not lead us into 
other endeavors. For this coming year, how¬ 
ever, our whole effort is being thrown into 
selling these two leading products. A year 
ago we had only 400 cans of direct fluid 
trade, while to-day we have over 8,000, and of 
this only 2,000 were obtained by purchase.” 
The president then proceeded to outline in 
some detail the work of each of the different 
departments. He called attention 
to the new trade mark “Dairy- l —- 
lea,” which the association has 
established and to the large ad¬ 
vertising campaign which was 
being conducted. He said that 
the association recognized its re¬ 
sponsibility as a service organi¬ 
zation to the general public, es¬ 
pecially to the consuming public. 
“Our purpose” he said, “is not 
to fix the price of commodities 
which we have to sell, but so to 
work out the problems of dis¬ 
tribution an(^ marketing that the 
farmer v/ill get a fair price for 
his milk and the consumer will 
get all the benefit of universal 
quality and seryice which orderly 
marketing can provide.” 
The president’s reference to 
the New York problem is signifi¬ 
cant as an indication of what the 
association may have in mind as 
to its future activities in New 
York City. As to the future, he 
said, “this problem remains to 
be solved and we believe the 
League must become a larger fac¬ 
tor in the direct-to-consumer bus¬ 
iness before it will have a suffi¬ 
ciently great influence on the met¬ 
ropolitan market to increase the 
farmer’s net return. Your officers 
and directors believe this is the 
big problem which ^faces the 
League and should be solved during the next 
twelve months.” 
In conclusion, President Slocum said, “In 
the history of mankind, are certain mile¬ 
stones that denote the time and the place 
where humanity as a whole took forward 
steps towards better living conditions, some¬ 
times toward better understanding of spirit¬ 
ual matters and sometimes toward better 
economic conditions that vitally affect us. 
Such a forward step towards better eco¬ 
nomic conditions is now being taken through¬ 
out the land in the cooperative movement.” 
League' Officers For 1923-1924 
T he new Board of Directors of the Dairymen’s League CooperatNe 
Association met on Friday, June 22, for organization and election 
of the Executive Committee and officers for the coming year. 
The officers are the same as last year, namely: President, George W. 
Slocum, Milton, Pa.; Vice President, John D. Miller, Susquehanna, Pa.; 
Secretary, Albert Manning, Otisville, N. Y.; Treasurer, B. M. Kilpat¬ 
rick, Utica, N. Y. 
The members of the Executive Committee are: George W. Slocum, 
ex officio; Paul Smith, Newark Valley, N. Y.; W. U. Rixford, Wells- 
ville, N. Y.; F. H. Sexauer, Auburn, N. Y.; J. A. Coulter, Woodville, 
N. Y., Mr. Coulter is the only new member of the Board, who takes 
the place of John S. Petteys of Greenwich, N. Y. 
Secretary Albert Manning of Otisville, 
N. Y., gave in his report the membership 
status of the organization. These figures 
are given elsewhere on this page. Mr. 
Manning also outlined the methods by which 
the cooperative association keeps in contact 
and works with its farmer membership. 
B. M. Kilpatrick, the treasurer, reported 
that on March 31, 1923, at the end of the 
fiscal year, the association owned land, build¬ 
ings and equipment to the value of $5,950,- 
767.99; mortgages standing against this 
amount were $1,023,347.07; current assets 
of the association were on March 31, 1923, 
$12,000,000, with liabilities of $6,500,000. 
Mr. Kilpatrick said that the thirteenth check 
will give the members about $633,000. 
Farmers in Big Business 
R eports of the o£&cers at the annual meeting of the Dairymen s 
League Cooperative Association at Utica, N. Y., on June 21, show 
the following startling figures as to the vast amount of business which 
the Association did during the fiscal year ending March 31, 1023: 
1 . 
2 . 
Total value of gross sales of fluid milk sold 
the dealers. $59,702,495.81 
Total value of milk handled by the associa- 
tion’s own plants.. 
Total value of all milk sold by association. . . 82,130,902.17 
4. 
5. 
This sum is more than $20,000,000 greater than the total 
amount of business which the association did during the 
preceding year. 
The total pooled milk handled by the asso¬ 
ciation either in its own plants or sold to 
dealers amounts to.. • 3,359,273,358 lbs. 
Of this amount, the association handled in 
its own plants. 793,040,638 lbs. 
The association has doubled the amount of milk handled in 
its own plants. 
The average net returns to producers was at the rate of $1.83 
per hundred pounds of 3 per cent milk at the 201-210 mile 
freight zone. This includes $0.1376 per hundred pounds 
in Certificates of Indebtedness. 
The total expenses of the association, including depreciation 
and advertising, amounts to an average of $0.0695 per 
hundred pounds. 
The Secretary’s report showed that on March 31, 1923, theie 
were 64,251 signers of the cooperative contract in 950 
local associations. Of this number, slightly less than 
45,000 were actually in the pool. 
A business of this size conducted by farmers would have been be¬ 
yond the wildest dreams of any farmer even ten years ago, but it is 
an indication that farmers are learning, as other business learned 
long before them, that both organization and concentration in large 
units are necessary for modern business success. The Editors. 
6 . 
Two speakers kept the audience in a high 
state of enthusiasm during the afternoon- 
session. Mr. John D. Miller, vice president 
of the association and president of the Na¬ 
tional Milk Producers’ Federation, told the 
details of the activities of the nationally or¬ 
ganized dairymen. 
Speaking of the tariff on dairy products, 
Mr. Miller said: “Without going into the 
merits or de-merits of protective tariff, all 
will agree that as long as it is the established 
principle of the American people to have a 
high protective tariff, farmers should receive 
a protection which bears a fair 
relation to the protection of other 
industries. It violates every prin¬ 
ciple of justice for a farmer to 
buy his necessities in a highly 
protected market and sell his 
products ill an un-protected mar¬ 
ket.” 
Referring to the statements of 
some milk dealers that “It is 
unethical for the Dairymen’s 
League to market , the milk of its 
members in the city,” Mr. Miller 
demanded to know when, where, 
and by whom was the right of 
farm,ers to market their prod¬ 
ucts surrendered. 
The last speaker was John M. 
-Kelley, of Wisconsin, vice presi¬ 
dent of the National Holstein- 
Friesian Association, and general counsel of 
Ringling Brothers Circus. 
Mr. Kelley called attention to the fact, that 
farming does not pay and he placed the re¬ 
sponsibility for this upon the farmer himself. 
He said: “Not one farmer in a hundred 
realizes or understands the economic condi¬ 
tions of the country or of the world, and the 
fact that they are affecting intensely his 
welfare and his business. Farming has not 
paid because the farmer has failed to take 
into account the economic adjustment that 
make up profit and loss in every industry.” 
Mr. Kelley showed how the oleomargarine 
industry is supplanting the dairy cow. “In 
1913, there were only a few thousand pounds 
of oleomargarine manufactured; in thirteen 
months, the manufacture had in- 
creased to ten million pounds.” 
The power and value of adver¬ 
tising in the dairy industry were 
stressed particularly by Mr. 
Kelley. He said that dairymen 
had entirely neglected the tre¬ 
mendous possibilities for the sale 
of their products ' on a health 
basis, while every other business 
was selling its products on terms 
which belonged to dairy products. 
In a brief report upon the ac¬ 
tivities of the G. L. F. Exchange, 
H. E. Babcock, general manager, 
asked the voluntary business of 
the dairymen. “Volume volun¬ 
tarily contributed saves,” he de¬ 
clared. The convention later 
adopted a resolution recommend¬ 
ing that dairymen buy their fqed 
of the G. L'. F. 
Near the close of the meeting 
a resolutions committee of 
twenty-four, consisting of a rep¬ 
resentative from each of the 
twenty-four league districts made 
their report, all of which was 
adopted by the convention. This 
report follows: 
Report of the Resolutions 
Committee 
Every resolution presented to the 
committee was acted upon by the emn- 
mittee. The committee felt that 
{Conthmed on page 547) 
