Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1921-03-04
GIANT GRAIN SALES
AGENCY PROPOSED
COMMITTEE OF SEVENTEEN OUT
LINES PLAN FOR NATIONWIDE
COOPERATIVE SELLING

COuSAucI CHc PIdH Uc4UIc IL - uudAy dp
proved. The Committee of Seventeen
is now drafting plan for national
convention, in which representatives of
every state and every farmers organi-
zation will meet to ratify the marketing
program. .S !
Under the grain selling plan, as an
nounced through the Minnesota Farm
Bureau federation today, a national CO.
operative selling agency is to be in
corporated on nonstock, nonprofit
basis. ,.,.
Grain growers will become life men,
bers Of this national organization.
5 Year Contracts Proposed
Wherever local cooperative eleva-
tors or grain shipping associations al
ready have been formed, they will be
used as the basis Of the national agen-
cy. All existing cooperative units are
to be asked to take part. In commQni-
ties, where there is no cooperative ele-
vator, the farmers will organize a local
grain growers association.
+ Farmers will sig contracts to sell all
their grain through their local co-opera-
tive for five years. The cooperative
will make similar contract with the
national sales agency.
The farmers, however, are to choose
the method by which they will sell their
grain. They may sell on consignment,
they may sell direct to their national CO.
operative agency, or they may decide to
establish community pool. They may
sell to local mill, or for local consump-
tion. The object of the contracts is to
enable the national organization to sell
the grain as the world needs it, and
prevent violent fluctuations and price
depressions as result of flooded mar
kets at harvest time.
Warehouse System Planned
The Committee of Seventeen is COM
plcting the details Of its plan for financ-
ing this giant farmers organization. It
proposes to establish sales agencies in
every important market, and acquire
government licensed warehouses for
storing the farmers grain. With the
warehouse receipts for this grain as
surety, it is planned to sell debentures
or securities on the open market, or to
farmers, country bankers and the public
generally and thus raise money to fin
ance the cooperative marketing plan.
William G. Eckhardt, treasurer Of the
Committee of Seventeen, in St. Paul. to
confer with farm bureau officers, said
that the committee believes the national
marketing agency can be made 50
strong that it can raise $1,000, coo, 900 a
year to handle the farmers grain
The national cooperative probably
would advance to the farmer, when he
ships his grain, Is per cent of the price
it hopes to obtain for him; the rest of
the selling price would be paid to him
when the grain is sold. The aim of the
organization is to enable the farmer to
get some return from his crop at once,
without dumping the country's entire
production on the market at harvest
time and forcing the price down.
In that way, farmers would be able
once, and their national agency would
hold the grain and market it as world
demands calls for it. It is designed to
prevent violent fluctuations through
manipulation, and sudden price depres-
sion at harvest time, as result of an
oversupply of grain flooding the mar
ket.
So County Bureaus Against Short Sales
Legislative committees or executive
boards of So county farm bureaus in
Minnesota have reported their $4,000
farmer members as overwhelmingly in
favor of the futures trading bill, now
pending in the legislature, to prohibit
short selling Of grain end other farm
products. Seventeen counties have
reported in the last week, the Minneso-
ta Farm Bureau Federation announced
today.