The Glasgow courier., 1921-02-04
The National Wool Pool
The National Wool Growers Market Plan Explained
BY Alfred Wenz

out of the wool / put into the pool?"
This question is being asked by
good many farmers. Some are get
ting anxious. They turned over their
wool. No money has come back for
it.
Recently / spent forenoon in sew
eral large wool warehouses in Chicago.
was interested, for l have wool in
one of those warehouses. | did not
see my lot-there are over 10000 lots
in all-but l saw the pile it was in.
This is not a mere dump-it is neat
stack of graded wool in clean ware
house. 1t is being taken care of as
well as wool can be. 1t is in the hands
of men who know the wool business
both storage and selling.
| have felt all the time that the pool
offered the best chance for a farmer
to get fair price for his wool What
| saw and learned in the warehouse
made me well satisfied that nv wool
is in the pool, even though no money
is coming out of it now-and probably
will not for some time. | am better
off with the wool where it is than if it
were kicking around in the barn or
granary on the farm, taking shrinkage
anu udHldSt, anu tllS llltICN Vi SbIllc
junk dealer or rowing wool buyer when
the market does open.
The Advantage in Pooling.
The question being asked by the
wool producers-when will they get
any money for their clip-can best be
answered by another, (Which way
would you rather take your chances; !;
each of you with his wool on his own
hands and waiting for neighborhood
buyers to come to you; or all united
with your wool gathered and graded
in a storehouse and in the hands of
| selling organizations which can deal
direct with the cloth manufacturers ?"
There is no market for wool at the
present time. Makers of wollen goods
have cancellations of orders running
into millions of dollars. The specula
tors in wool have been caught. job
bers can see no outlet Nobody is buy
ing So the clip has piled up. A good
deal of it is in pool-but still in the
ownership of the man who produced it.
The wool pool did not come into ex-
istence to meet this condition. The
idea was beginning to operate to a
considerable extent during 1919 For
chdluplt, loWd SiIScpIiltI, ulSSdLlSl leu
with the way they were being short
changed on their wool, got together
that year, pooled their wool and made
arrangements with a Chicago COM
mission and warehouse concern to
handle the clip. The net result was
a 62-cent average price-considerab
higher than they could have got from
local buyers, even after the local buy
ers started bidding up to get the wool
away from the pool. Another advan-
tage was that each mans wool was
graded and he was paid according to
grade. Sheepmen in other states did
work along the same line.
Importance of the County Agent.
One point not to overlook is the
| fact that these efforts to pool wool
operated through the Farm Bureau
the county agent was usually the man
on whom success depended. Such an
enterprise needs man to look after
it locally in county-to stir up inter
est, to get the farmers together. to
handle the thousand and one things
which must be done before a car of
wool from a dozen or two or so con-
| signors can be got on it's way. With
tilS WHY vi lIlS NOOl pun,
the county agent has become a more
important factor than ever. 1t is
doubtful if the millions of pounds of
wool now carefully housed and ready
for market through the pools would
cver have been gotten together if we
mad had no county agents.
How 1t Works.
| The warehouses | visited are in the
charge Of a commission and ware
house cOmpany-a commercial con-
Germ with whom various state pools
have made business arrangements.
This was organized originally by
western sheepmen, many holding
stock, to market their wool to better
advantage-a growers selling agency.
The company is empowered to issue
warehouse receipts and it's grading
and weighing are, of course, done by
Government licensed men. In reality
the farmers in wool pool have simply
hired this company to store, grade
and sell their wool for them. This
not the only company doing such bust