The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-04-01
HISTORY OF ITS SUCCESS.
HOPES TO DUPLICATE THE
STORY.
FACTS OFFERED AS ARGUMENTS.
AS the Time Draws Near for the
Convention Those Interested
Grow More Enthusiastic.

the butter men of the city these days.
In the organizing of the Northwestern
Dairy Board of Trade, in st. Paul, it is
the intention to follow in the footsteps
of the Elgin board as nearly as is pos
sible, for it is conceded that this board
has been the most successful one that
has ever been organized The Elgin
beard held its first meeting in a little
16X10 room and steadily climbed the lad
der of prosperity until today it is
housed in one of the finest buildings in.
the city of Elgin and practically rules
the butter market Of the entire United
States. The Elgin board has encoun-
tered all kinds and sorts of obstacles in
its career, but it has successfully sur
mounted them, one after another, and
today creamery man who sells on the
Elgin board knows that he is getting
the market price for his butter
The Elgin board, when first estab-
liShed, was organized for the purpose
of providing an outlet for the products
of the cheese factories, and no butter
was sold for more than seven years
was a necessity and not with any idea
any way. Cheese buyers had been in
the habit of bearing the prices of that
commodity, with the result that the
creamery men made little or no profit
on their cheese, and the board was or
gained with the idea of placing their
products in open competition.
After the board had been in operation
for about seven years it occurred to
some of the members that 1t might be
we'll to quote butter on the market also.
The experiment was tried, but with
only partial success at first, and it was
seven years more before the Elgin
board became an exclusive butter mar
ket. One of the chief drawbacks. for
long time, was INSCRIPTIONS manipu-
iation by some of the commission men
who were members. At that time there
was comparatively little butter sold on
the beard, but a. vast amount of it
was changing hands on the board quo
tations.
The plan followed by the commission
men was unique in the extreme. They
would go out among the creamery men
and make them proposition to take
their entire output at the prices quoted
on the Elgin board. Then when the
day came for the butter to be marketed
they would be on hand themselves
with few tubs of butter which they
would offer for sale. If the real mar
ket price for that day was % cents
they would offer their butter for sale
at q cents, thus having tendency to
bear the market, and they would sac
e.
sale for the purpose of buying several
hundred tubs at from one to two cents
less than what 1t would really be
worth.
These manipulatiOns were carried on
for a long time by a sharp clique Of
commission men, before the rest of the
members of the board found out what
sEas going on. They were we'll aware
that something was wrong but could
not locate the trouble During that
period of time the board was kept
going by these commission men, for il
served their purpose too we'll to allow
it to die, as it certainly would have
as result of their own mauipulat ions
When the trouble was finally located
these cOmmi SSiOn men were frozen out
as fast as possible and the men who
had organized the board with no
other than honest Intentions toward
the creamery men, TOOK hold of the
work in earnest and in less than a
year it had assumed it's present smooth
running gear and creamery men knew
that they could always sell their butter
for what it was worth. 1t is true that
there is today a great deal more butter
sold off the board at board quotations
than is posted for sale in the rooms of
the board, but the reason for this is
q m rhnI1 &c 4
fact that the Elgin quotations rule q
great portion of the world along the
butter line.
In the establishing of the Northwest
ern Dairy Board of Trade it is thought
that this trouble will all be avoided
as the sellers will be genuine sellers
and VIII make no attempt for this rea-
son, to buy at market quotations.
When the Elgin board was first es-
tablished there were less than a dozen
men III the organization and the mem
bership fee was $40. When it was found
that the board was going to answer
the purpose for which it was intended.
the fee was raised to S25 and now ii
costs round 500 to hear the puts and
calls on the floor of the board but, as
the membership fee has gone up, the
dues have come down, ranging from
quite large sum down to 81 per year
at the present time.
Interested parties are growing more
enthusiastic as the time draws near
for the holding of the convention of the
dairymen. The argument has been ad-
Vanced by few that the attempt to
organize board at Rochester was not
success and they cannot see how
will be any different in ST. Paul. This
argument is answered by others with
indisputable facts. Not more than
twenty creameries have satisfactory
access to the board at Rochester. This
is accounted for by the fact that the
creamery men cannot get to Rochester
and back to their homes on the same
day. With the establishment of a
board in St Paul, more than 1000
creameries will be able to hold mem
berships and more than 300 owners
will be able to come to the city and
have several hours in which to trans
act their business and return home the
same day.
The total amount of sales on the
Elgin board for the year 1896 was So
000,000 while it is estimated that more
than $3.50, 00G, 900 worth of butter was
sold outside of the board on board
quotations. This extremely large out
side sale is accounted for by the fact
that many Of the board operators have
direct customers who buy on the Elgin
quotations. The Elgin board meets
but once week and their session
rarely lasts more than two or three
hours. The members post their own
quotations and the secretary of the
board is local newspaper man, who
would have to be present at the meet
ing in any event, the actual running
expenses of the board amount to little
or nothing.