Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-07-19
ORGAN| zAT|ON IS
URGED BY GILMORE

A. A. Elmore, organization direc-
tor of the Georgia Cotton Growers
COOPERATIVE association. urged the
farmers of Georgia. in a statement
issued Saturday. to lend their e.
forts toward the speedy organiza-
ton of the state association in or
der that the recent offer of the War
Finance Corporation to make a big
loan for export purposes NAV be ac-
copied this year.
The War Finance Corporation
loaned $5,0O0,0OC recently to the
Staple Cotton Growers association.
of Mississippi. and has agreed to do
the same thing in the other states if
the farmers would effect the proper
organizations.
Director Elmores statement fol-
lows:
I'VE are not only organizing upon
similar lines to this successful Miss
issippi group, but upon identical
lines. Sapiro drew the organization
contract of the State Cotton CO.
operative association. which, except
that it is confined to long staple
cotton, is Identical in terms with our
own. and, in fact. this Mississippi
unit is one Of the leading members
of the contemplated American Cot
ton Growers exchange.
'"The first crop now bound under
the five-year contract of the Geor-
gia Cotton Growers Cooperative as
sociation is the crop of 1922, but that
does not mean that the association
cannot handle 1921 cotton for its
member growers, if they so desire,
once it has secured the minimum
sign-up of 100000 bales necessary
to make it's contract effective, and
it's board of directors has been elect
ed and it is going concern.
eff the educational campaign and
sign-up drive, which we are now
preparing, is successful in proportion
to our present expectations, we nave
every reason to believe that our 3OO,-
900 bales will be signed to the CON
tract on or about September /. In
that case, our board of directors
elected by the growers, should be in
session and ready to do business by
the first of October. There is a
clause in our contract which permits
the association to handle cotton or
previous crops at the joint option
Of the board of directors and the
individual grower, and the amount OF
service which this association could
render its growers with regard to the
1921 crop can we'll prove inestima-
BILE. Z
Had the organization been able
to sign 100000 bales by July Is, our
contract would have bound the 1921
crop. AS it was, it is only within
the last week or so that the COM
mittee has obtained the means to
institute a proper educational cam
paign, much less real slgn-up
drive among the farmers. Fortunate
w.. that has changed, and we are in
the midst of preparation for one of
the most intensive organization
drives ever conducted in this state,
the opening guns of which will be
fired on July 81, when we expect
20 begin conducting a series of great
farmers rallies, which will be ad-
dressed by ten teams, Of two promi-
nent speakers each, holding ten
meetings a day and covering every
cotton county of the state for TWEEN
ty days.
Where our preliminary work has
already created local county commit
tees, Of which we have about thirty
in existence now, the organization
work will be largely in the hands OF
those committees. In the meantime,
we are sending. out a score or more
of field men, through whom we eX-
pect to have brought the number OF
county committees now in existence
to upwards of 100 by the time the
educational drive is we'll under way;
These men will remain in the field
assisting county committees in
great sign-up campaign to be con-
Quoted among the farmers during this
drive and afterwards, by which we
hope to complete our sign-up by Sep
TENDER /.
"Considering the little amount of
work that the organization commit
tee has actually been able to do up
to the present time, the sentiment
existing for correct cooperative mar
keting of cotton in this state is simp-
ly wonderful. We have signed up al
ready over a thousand farmers, and,
as I said before, our real sign-up
work has not even started.
Ninety per cent of the cotton
farmers in Georgia have not even had
a chance to see our contract or hear
our organization plan discussed but
1 have been in this sort of work long
enough to know when a community is
awake to it's opportunities and the
farmers are going in for thing, and
the campaign which we are now in
stituting is going over in Georgia
and going over big
THE situation is fortunate, be-
cause. if our organization is not soon
actually functioning, no one knows
what will happen this winter to the
Georgia cotton farmer and the whole
business fabric which is de-
pendent upon his welfare