New Ulm review., 1901-08-07
New Tim Review
ByW.R. HODGES and ASA P. BROOKS.
ew Ulm, Wednesday, Aug. Z, 1901
A FARMERS TRUST.

A FARMERS TRUST.
Every man, or class of men, alive to
their own interests is aware of the fact
that all industrial interests are combin-
ing, save only that of the farmer, and
now comes Geo. FL. Phillips, who play
ed successfully on the Chicago board of
trade gambled in corn, if you please
and earned the name of corn king. And
this great friend of the farmer desires to
form gigantic trust embracing the in-
terests of all the farmers in the United
States. He has beautiful theory. He
says speaking only of corn
The central thread about which such
combination must crystalize is, IN my
opinion, a farmers banking institution,
with sufficient capital to finance that
portion of the corn crop which, under
present conditions, is marketed as soon
after harvest as il is in condition to be
moved. My offhand suggestion to the
farmers of Minneapolis was that this in
stitution should be capitalized for $780,
100000. More careful investigation,
however, convinces me that less than
half this capital would be required to
accomplish the purpose with ease and
safety. The reasons which have led to
this conclusion are briefly these: AS on
" twenty-five per cent. of any corn crop
passes outside the limits of the county
in which it is grown, it follows that this
bank would be called upon to finance
only about 4OO,OO0,O0O bushels year,
after making proper allowances for that
class of producers not needing to avail
themselves of loan facilities.
The stock of this bank should be dis
tributed to the producers of corn only
and on the basis of one cent bushel of
the crop of that year--no stock to be
placed in less amount than ten dollars
because of the cost of the clerical labor
involved. This plan would produce q
capitalization, in round numbers, of
$20,000,000, which, as / have already
indicated, would appear sufficient to
take care of 4OO,OOO,0O0 bushels of corn
year, or all that would need to be
financed"
Now Mr.. Phillips may be wise man
and know how to buy and sell at times
but last week lie bought short and went
under. This fact does not alter his theo-
ry however, and it is being seriously con-
sidered by many papers and political
mendicants. Cooperation among farm
ers has proven the most successful fail
ure ever attempted. It has been repeat
edly tried but always with unsuccessful
results. Never has there been COM
plete effort at national cooperation
among farmers. The nearest approach
to such an attempt is found in the his
tory of the Granger organization, which
has been the longest lived and the most
successful of all organizations of farm
ers of miscellaneous interests. In this
there was no attempt at national coop
Grafton, but there was a provision for
very effective local cooperation which
has been eminently successful in thous-
ands of oranges.
There is no question but that the or
ganization of farmers to advance their
own interests, would be the greatest
blessing to them, but 1T cannot be done
under any such scheme as Mr.. Phillips
advances. The farmers elevator at
Sleepy Eye, the Stark Farmers insur-
ance company of this county are success.
full--why, simply because they are care
full not to include to large interests OF
make the organization so large that its
business cannot be known and under
stood by all its members.
Ii 1t could be possible that townships
could organize and build warehouse of
sufficient capacity to hold the grain from
the farms Of that township where farm
ers could store grain and receive money
on it until such a time that the price
would warrant selling, then the farmers
might control the market, know precise
~ what the institution was doing and
feel that they were secure in their own
little trust. But how many farmers
could know anything of the workings of
a $5o,ooo,oOo bank.
The farmers of this country are worthy
OF high degree of trust and confidence.
The very nature of their occupation,
their close association with nature, the
sturdy independence of their lives and
every elementof their environment makes
for honesty and ,1nriohfnoe, 80 sh