New-York tribune., 1921-05-29
Growers Form Corpora
ton to Eliminate Mid
dleman and Waste and
to Help the Consumer
Other Foodstuffs
May Be Included
Financial Support to End
Sales Without Profit;
Baruch Directs Action

A cooperative financial institution
with a capital stock of 500, 900 900, to
be owned and controlled by most of the
grain producers of the country, will be
launched Wednesday, when articles OF
incorporation are to be filed at vii.
mington, Del, for the Farmers Finance
Corporation, subsidiary of the United
States Grain Growers, Inc, recently or
ganized at Chicago.
Announcement of crystallization of
plans of the grain producers, under
consideration for more than year, was
made in this city yesterday by officers
of the parent body, who have been
' here for several days consulting with
Bernard M. Baruch on final details. Mr..
baruch, it was announced, would serve
in an advisory capacity for the cor
poration.
Benefits for Consumer
Elimination of speculation, waste and
the middleman, for the benefit of pro-
ducer and consumer, is among the
aims of the organization, which, its
founders say, is the greatest in the
history of agriculture in this country.
BY solving financial and warehouse
problems now confronting the farmer
and making more uniform and economi-
cal the distribution of all kinds of
grain, the functions of the organiza-
tion will tend to stabilize and, per-
haps, reduce the price of -four, accord
ing to those who originated the un-
dertaking.
In addition to the grain industry,
the central body plans later to en1-
brace, along similar lines, producers
OF live stock, fruit, vegetables, poultry,
eggs, tobacco and other products. Its
present activities will deal with the
establishment of terminal sales agen-
cies, warehousing facilities at termi-
nal markets, an export corporation and
marketing news service.
Farmers to Get Stock
A campaign for the distribution of
stock among farmers at S100 per
share will be launched next month and
the officers of the organization say its
activities will have a bearing on this
years crop Arrangements are being
perfected, it was announced, to lease
and later purchase terminal elevators
at New York, Chicago, Kansas City,
Cleveland, Omaha and at Seattle or
Spokane.
In a statement yesterday, Clifford
Thorne, of Chicago, general counsel
for the United States Grain Growers,
Inc, declared emphatically that the
organization would ask no special
privileges of the government, nor ex-
emption from the law.
We are simply doing what every
other important industrial organiza-
ton tl9n in America hasadene in the past"
supplement and in no sense supplant
existing financial facilities. We de-
sire to work through existing agencies
to the fullest extent possible, but we
are asking no favors OF the govern
ment. Nor are we asking for anything
that we are not willing to accord to
every other line of industry. We are
gong to operate on a business basis"
Regulation of Profits
In the past, Mr.. Thorne pointed out,
the farmer marketed the bulk of his
crops within three months after har-
vest. Because of conditions, Mr..
Thorne said, the farmer was forced to
dump. his products on the market, de-
pressing prices at the very time when
iiN ""o oSAAliiS VIC HlOoJ OI MS gram,
with the result that others took ad
vantage of the situation and reaped
profits the producer was entitled to.
"One of the principal causes of this
unsatisfactory system of marketing"
continued Mr.. Thorne, "has been the
lack Of credit at the crucial moment
when most needed. This we purpose to
eliminate through the finance corpora
tion. One hundred million dollars of
non-voting preferred stock will be is
sued; the common stock, voting but
not dividend-paying, will be held by
the United States Grain Growers, Inc.
We expect to sell the preferred stock
to the farmers themselves"
G. H. Gustafson, of Lincoln, Neb..
president of the United States Grain
Growers, Inc, said that its member
ship comprised most of the grain
growers in the country. It's organiza-
ton, he said, was authorized by dele
gates from state and local groups in
nearly all of the grain centers. who,
he added, felt that they should cstab-
lish a grain cooperative marketing
agency that would eliminate waste and
the uneconomic methods now prevail
ing in the marketing of grain.
The report of the committee Of
seventeen, which led to the organiza-
(cnntinusS nm a,,o .4L.-.>