The Rice belt journal., 1921-06-04

rice growers in the district sur
rounding Welsh met at the audi
tOrium Monday night for the pur-
pose of hearing The plans of the
new American Rice Growers AS
sOciation, recently launched by
representative growers from var
iOuS sections of Louisiana and
Texas, a large proportion of those
present pledging their support to
the organization.
Committee Reports
MeSSrS. A. R. McBurney and l.
e. Lewis, of the committee of
three selected some time ago to
make investigations concerning
the disposition Of the 1920 crop
made a brief report of the work
done by them and the results.
Their efforts had been confront
ed with many and varied obStacl-
eS.
1--WE got very little consolation
from the mills" Mr.. McBurney
said, "and with the exception of
the Lake Charles mill and few
of The Louisiana State mills, very
little encouragement. The records
of some of he mills which we I'M
dertOOk to investigate were OBJ
Scure, and there was no way of
telling what had became of the
farmers rice"
This committee has decided to
leave the matter of investigation
up to the senatorial investigating
committee which is working on
the case at present.
Explained New Organization Z
NJ. J. WinkIer of DonaIdSonviIIe.
leader among the river rice grow
erS, explained in detail the plans
of the new organization. He called
attention to the report of the local
committee as sufficient evidence
of the need of a strong Organiza-
ton.
"The Organizers of the new as
sociation," said Mr., WinkIer, ''in
"a series of meetings, covering
many days tried in every way pos
sibIe 10 form an organization that
would profit from lessons learned
by the old association and by
avoiding the defects of the old
organization. The old rice grow
erS' association was a stock com
pany controlled by the votes. Of
the stockholders, andnot by the
farmers. The new association is a
Inon-tradin9 corporation controll-
led by trustees elected by the rice
farmers in their own local organi
cations throughout the rice dis.
drict. These trustees elected by
the rice farmers will select the
officers of he association and will
decide on the marketing plan from
year to year. The present officers
of the company were named at
the organization merely to COM
Iply with the charter, and will
serve only until their successors
are elected by the farmers in July
Under the charter of the new
organization no contract signed
with ii will become effective until
| it has enrolled 1000 members. AS
the success of the association de-
pendS as to whether or not it con-
trolls the majority of the rice
grown in the United States. In
1920, there were l, 274,000 acres
in rice in Louisiana, Texas, Ar
kansas and California. This year
there will probably be about 600,
1000 acres planted in rice. On a
basis of 1913 acres to the farmer,
as figured by The old Southern
Rice Growers association, it will
require 1000 members to control
the majority Of the 1921 rice crop,
"One defect of the old Southern
Rice Growers association was the
financial weakness of the organi-
zation. We propose to remedy this
defect by charging 1Oc per barrel
for service. This is 4c above the
cost of the service. With the ac-
cumulation of profits of 4c pei
bag, we propose to accumulate
a surplus of $500,000 in four years
| in addition to the sum of $4,000
which will be Immediately at Lane
as soon as the 1000 member 'niT
at S25 each have been subscribed
and the association begins actua
Operations.
1 Mr.. Chalkley next addressed tht
farmers, explaining the constitu
ton and bylaws of the new aSso
citation and the operation of tin
new cooperative contract. Mem
bership he said, are S25. Contlnu
ling he explained; Each member
ship entities a man to vote Ill In
organization. Any rice farmer cal
take out 100 memberships if h
wishes to, but vii. BE- alloNe
only a maximum OF ten votes
This is done so that The control Q
the organization would foreve
II - ~ 4l,n foY