Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1912-03-02
ROCKWELL FARMERS COOPER.
ALIVE ORGANIZATION TWENTY.
FOUR YEARS OLD TODAY.
PARENT SOCIETY TO $50
ORGANIZED IN STATE
After Declaring Many Dividends soei-
ETY. Has Laid Up Surplus Of $4,000
Shares That Went Begging At SO
Twenty three Years Ago Now Worth
$1e1.5o.
Special to rimes-Republican.

Special to Times-Republican.
! Rockwell, March 2.-This town is
with two Fourths Of July. One falls
on the regular date, but the big one
comes each year on March 2, the an
niversary day Of the organization CT
the Rockwell Farmers Cooperative
Society. 1t is today just twenty -four
years old, was the first successful or
ganization Of it's kind in Iowa, and Is
| the parent society to the 800 organized
| in the state of Iowa at the present
| time The town is crowded to it's very
gates. There was a time when the Or
ganization was not welcomed In this
town by the mechants. Those were the
days of severe adversely when friends
were needed. Merchants feared that 1t
meant the ruination of their business,
and even the promoters of the coop
erative idea did not know themselves
where it would end. But after twenty
four years of existence this feeling has
entirely abated. While the. town has
not grown in population the merchants
have a good trade and not complaint
escapes their lips.
Organization Cosmopolitan Affair.
The Rockwell organization Is cos
mopolitan affair. A peep in on the
hundreds gathered in the city hall for
their deliberations will show about eV-
cry nationality common to this coun-
try. And more than that, there IS
| hardly a religious cult which can not
| find a representative among these
men, And one of the things that can
be said of this society: They stick
closer than brother" There has
never been serious dissension. and
| in their meetings it doesn't make any
| difference whether you are Dutch
! man or an Englishman, Christian
Scientist or Roman Catholic, all have
equal rights and all are glad to &C
knowledge this fact.
Lay Up Surplus Of $4,000.
| Another thing which may be said
| this is an exceedingly wealthy organt-
zation. 1t would be safe to say that
| Standard Oil was never more prosper
GUS than the Rockwell Farmers Co
Operative Society. After declaring divi-
dend after dividend they have laid up a
surplus of $4,000 Shares which had
to go begging twenty three years ago
at SO per share are today worth
$1615O And it must be remembered
that the purpose of this organization
was not to save money or to make
money in this way--it was to make
I money FOR the farmers In paying them
all the market afforded for their grain
and in turn selling them lumber, coal,
etc, on the closest margin possible.
Will Uncork Some Fireworks.
President Matthias johnson called the
meeting to order today. To look at the
vast crowd Of men one would think
that it was Men and Religion For
ward Movement convention. And that
would not come far from the fact for
honest dealing with your brother man,
a demand for this, was the cause of the
formation of cooperation. The reports
were all strikingly interesting-they
always are And then the speech
making is where the fireworks are dis
played. When Thomas McManus
speaks he is a veritable Patrick Henry.
He spoke recently at the state conven-
ton of the Farmers Grain Dealers AS
ISOLATION, and it was one of the best
speeches made. He was one of the
charter members Of this society. and
has probably done more in the way
of helping other societies to organize
and manage affairs than any other
man in the state.
Campbell Manager Twenty Years.
Manager Frank Campbell has been
with the company for the past twenty
years. He is man Of great business
capacity and when the line companies
were pressing the cooperative hard at
this point, one of their methods of at
tack was to hire Mr.. Campbell. But he
stood four square and stood like the
rock Of Gibraltar and while he was Of
fered nearly twice the salary he de-
clined and has remained loyal to his
convictions Mr.. Campbell heard the
prophecy made by opponents: 1.-TWO
years from now grass will be growing
on your driveways and the katydids
and the swallows will be building nests
in the cups Of your elevators" but he
is happy to state that the prophetic
vision this time was indeed false.
Years Business Totals S560,00o.
The total volume of business trans
acted during the year 1911 amounted
to 1858, 46O.59. This exceeds last years
business by s135,0S4.05, and was the
occasion of hearty applause when 1t
was announced. And this enormous
amount of business was done at an ex-
penditure Of only $5,540.46. The man
ayers report as given reads:
Bushels. |
Oats sold 36O615
Corn sold .................. 105,41S
Barley sold Observation-Disclosures. 5,045 |
Pounds.
Wheat sold 5062
Bran and middlings ........... $50 900
OIL meal $1,000
Barb wire and nails ........ 63,737 |
Irvine ............ ........ s2,6s5 (
Timothy seed ............ 53,73S
Glover and other seed ..... 10000 |
Salt .................. ....... .175,70o
Barrels. |
Salt gao |
= sT1to 5ss2ssssa WSIcKLY? |
BITTERS !. persuade.
~ to try the
- >