Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1921-06-14

,. ing decent profit for the grower
o 1t was not simply question Of money
a it was question of higher standard
e of living and all that makes up modern
social life. That is why all the ele
ments of the community Joined in
{ everybody felt that his interests were
: bound up with those Of the grower
They put on q real campaign. Rowel
was the leader. The bankers and mer
chants got into line. and the growers
, followed. BY the time they finished
with the campaign they had little
over Is per cent of the entire raisin
acreage tied up tight under those five.
year contracts.
Organizing.
After they got the contracts they
selected trustees. The trustees elect
ed the directors. The directors were
all raisin growers. This was a great
safeguard to the growers. Each di-
rector was raisin grower, and his
raisins were in the same pool as those
OF every other member Of the associa-
ton. They couldn't get good price for
their stun without getting it for the
smallest fellow in the whole group.
They couldn't put charge on the
other mans raisins without putting 1t
on themselves.
10 fret Il
to do was to perfect financial condi.
tons. BY that time 81, 200, 900 had been
subscribed. Three hundred thousand
| dollars. or a fraction over, was sub.
scribed by the banks and merchants
and the friends Of the movement That
was in cash. Almost 100000 was
subscribed by the growers-that was
chiefly in notes because they
didn't have the money. But they dis
counted on this arrangement and got
all the money they needed to put up
their initial plant, and before the first
of the year was over they had a group
Of plants running, and packing their |
own raisins.
When those directors first met they |
said, I'VE fellows are pretty impor- |
tant growers, but as growers we are |
absolutely ignorant Of marketing |
problems. We are not fit to do the |
selling. That is not our game. We |
haven't the connections. We must
get managers, experts, who can do
this thing" They found the man
most generally recommended as gen.
eral manager was James Madison of
San Francisco and Fresno. They got
hold of Madison. talked business with
him and said they would like to get
him in as general manager. He was
highly recommended not only by the
growers but by the bankers. Madi-
son said yes. They said, I'VE want,
of course, TO pay you fair salary; it
is a big job you will have to take
care of. at least three-fourths Of the
raisin industry" Madison said, 81
am listening"
They said. Lets get together"
Madison told them he was directly
interested. and If there was any
chance of serving the growers with
out actually depreciating himself he
would be happy to do it.
Plans of Management.
Finally they hit upon an arrange
ment of paying him s17,5OO as gen
eraI manager plus a bonus, and for
the five years in which he served as
general manager the annual bonus
added to the salary amounted to from
$22 900 to $4,000. 1t was worth every
penny, and perhaps great deal more.
Madison went down and took imme
date charge of the whole business.
But Madison was no business fool.
He realized that he didn't know
everything in the world. The best
men always realize that. He proceed
ed to get assistants for himself. He
was given carte blanche to get any
assistants, with only one rule-they
must be experts. They are not back
ward in any of these cooperative as
sociations. If you want a transpor-
tation man, always take him from the
roads. If you want a finance expert,
get him from the banks. Get experts.
Pay what you have to pay but get I
experts.
He got experts. He got man in
as sales analyst, sales expert. The (
two of them started to study it out ,
together with the question, why is ;
1t they don't sell more raisins?" Then
came one of the most interesting dis
coveries ever made in any food in ,
dustry in the United States. This {
sales analyst took the figures Of sales {
ana deliveries OF raisins in the United
States. He found that the whole {
salers only wanted raisins in October I
and November. The retailers wanted {
the stuff in November and December. I
In November and December they sold :
over 90 per cent Of the raisins. They {
studied and then announced that they l
knew what was the trouble with the
raisin industry. They said. THE s
trouble is the American people think 6
the raisins are made to be eaten
and Christmas and no +
other time" Those fellows began to
think. They started to give figures E
and show the times Of delivery and '
sales. They began to realize that
they never saw raisins in their own r
homes or the places they visited ex. 6
cept on holiday occasions. They r
realized the real weakness of the
whole stuation-people were thinking I
Of raisins as a holiday CONNECTION and !