The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-02-06
Annual Convention of State
Union Is in Session Today.
AgricuIturistS From All Over
Kansas Gathered in Topeka.
NATIONAL PRESIDENT TO SPEAK
c. S. Barrett of Georgia on Pro-
gram for TOnight's Meeting.
Organization Enjoying Great
Prosperity, Reports Show.

Seventeen hundred members of the
largest cooperative organization in
the country in point of volume of
business, are arriving in Topeka to-
day as delegates to the annual con-
vention of the Farmers union. A
year of uneXampled prosperity for the
union and fair weather are fulfilling
President Maurice McCauliffe's pre-
diction of the largest convention in the
history of the organization.
Smiles are the rule of the Kansas
farmers in town for the convention,
for last year saw an increase of 50
per cent in the gross business of the
525 local cooperative associations.
The total volume of business, thew
will be told by President McCauliffe
in his address tomorrow afternoon,
has amounted to S110.O0O,OO0, making
the Kansas union the largest and most
successful cooperative organization in
the world next to the English Whole
sale society. The hundreds of cooper
alive stores, stock shipping associa-
lions, grain elevators and produce
stations have not only returned the 5
per cent dividend guaranteed in most
Of their constitutions, but have return
ed millions of dollars profits which
have been pro rated among the mem
bers of the local associations in addi-
ton to their dividends.
The first regular meeting of the
convention will be held tomorrow
morning, when addresses of welcome
will be delivered and responded to.
However, this Afternoon the jobbing as
ISOLATION of the union met with Sec
rotary of the jobbing department. Last
year the jobbing association did
business of $658,000.
Big Meeting Tonight.
Tonight a big ..get-together meet
ing will be held at the auditorium,
where all sessions will be held. G. S.
Barrett of Union City, Ga, president
Farmers union will deliver a speech
and an address will be made by c. V.
Swift Baker City, Ore, vice president
of the national organization
Tomorrow morning the real open
ing meeting will be held and the hun
dreds of delegates will be welcomed
by Mayor J. Z. House. in behalf of the
city, and ]. VIII Kelley, in behalf of
the Chamber of Commerce Responses
will be made by President McCauliffe
and W. C. Lansdon.
The afternoon sessions both Wed
nesday and Thursday will be secret in
which the business and legislative pol
icies of the big organization will be
discussed. Tomorrow afternoon will
be featured by the presidents address
and the election of officers for 1917.
The evening sessions are open meet
ings and the general public is urged
to attend. Governor Capper and c. S.
Barrett will be the chief speakers
Wednesday evening and Charles E.
Lobdeu. member of the farm loan
board; c. V. Swife, vice president of
the national organization; Mrs. Hat
tie Moore Mitchell, dean of women at
Pittsburg Normal institute. and w. c.
Lansdon of Salina will be the drawing
cards Thursday evening.
Hold Secret Sessions.
he
routine business necessary to the con-
Quoting of the affairs of the great Or
ganization will be conducted in the
CLOSED" sessions Wednesday. and
Thursday afternoons and Thursday
morning is not definitely known. The
threatened demand of the 1. w. w.
harvest hands for IS a day wages will
receive attention and in all probabili-
ties a fair wage for harvest hands will
be determined upon by the delegates
and adhered to by the $4,000 MEM
bers of the union.
Resolutions will surely be passed
urging the passage of the bill giving
the p. u. G. power to fix the car dis
tribution of the railroads, according
to the actual needs of each elevator
according to w. c. Lansdon. Under
the present plan if there are four ele-
vators in one place each gets the same
amount of cars, regardless Of the VOL
ume of business.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars
were lost to the cooperative elevator
associations by their inability to get
cars last year" w. c. Lansdon said
today I'm almost every case the
union elevators do a majority of the
business but they get no more cars
than the lesser competing elevators
The elevator association at Ellis has
suit for $4,000 filed for loss of pro-
fits from this cause
According to Lansdon many of the
Farmers Union elevators with a cap
italization of only $4,000 or $1,000 re-
turned as high as $4,000 in profits
during 1915.