The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1922-07-28
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES
THE POOL.

cred by the cooperative pool contract
| is not definitely known, it is asserted
| by those In charge of the promotion of
the pool that it is lover the top" As
sured of the success of the campaign
for signers to a Is per cent of the total
Wisconsin acreage, meeting was held
| in Madison to redistrict the tobacco
| areas of the state for the purpose of
determining the voting precincts whose
| duty it will be to select board of di-
recrors for the big corporation.
By this meeting the state was divided
into 16 districts, nine of which repre-
sent the 16, 600, more or less, acres of
northern tobacco, and seven the 81, 900,
more or less, acres of southern tobacco.
Vernon, Crawford, Trempealeau, Bar
ron, Dunn and the other northern coun-
ties will have nine directors represent
| ing less than one-t third of the tobacco
acreage in the state. Two-thirds of
the Wisconsin acreage will have only
seven directors. The reason for this
discrepancy we have not been able to
ascertain.
Rock county has been given two dis
tricts, and Dane county with it's 16, 900
acres will have four directors. Colum-
bia county will together with the town
of Dane and town of Vienna of Dane
county form one district.
Dane county is divided as follows:
Albion and Dunkirk; Christiana, Deer
field and Jefferson county; Cottage
Grove, Blooming Grove, Dunn, Pleas
! ant Springs, Rutland, Oregon and
Fitchburg; Burke, Westport, Madison,
Bristol, Windsor and Sun Prairie.
The 9th of July was fixed as the
| date for the signers in each district to
| choose one delegate for each 10 signers
within the district. On July 81 these
| delegates will come together and NOM
mate one director and five delegates
| from each district, and these will on
| the 18th day of August meet in state
| convention at Madison to elect the
board of directors and transact such
| other business as may come before it.
With the organization of the corpora
| tion and it's board of directors chosen.
| the really serious business of the pool
| commences. To promote corporation
of this size is lot of work, but it is
| matter that anybody conversant with
che aims and purposes of the contem-
| plated organization may do. The cam
paign for signers requires information
and ability to convince, but not con-
structive and executive ability. The
board of directors must possess this
ability to a marked degree to make the
corporation successful as business
proposition.
Anybody in any way interested in the
welfare of the tobacco industry in the
state is also interested in the success of
the pool when it becomes a reality.
The same interest in growing, handl-
ing, packing and selling of Wisconsin
tobacco will continue under co-opera-
tive management as under private and
individual and competitive operation.
The success of business so intimately
related to the whole economic welfare
of tie state is of no small consequence
to all citizens. To insure success to a
business in which thousands of farmers
in Wisconsin are directly interested as
partners, and where values of goods
averaging not far from $4,000, 900 an
on all as a matter requiring the best
iency possessed by the organization.
This should be emphasized in the
choice of men to represent the growers
July 27, 81, and on August Is. 1t is
not matter of choosing 16 men, but
of choosing 16 men who by their char
acter and past performance in business
have shown themselves capable of di-
recting their own affairs and the affairs
of others successfully. Wide-awake,
conservative, courageous, independent
men are needed, and with these quail
| ties it would be desirable to link an
amount of financial solidity which would
in the aggregate place the men sitting
upon the board of directors before the
banking and business interests of the
country in light that would tend to
create confidence in them personally,
and through them the corporation as
whole.
That these and many other matters
of equal Importance are clear in the
| minds of the members of the pool must
be taken for granted; but The Reporter
would not be true to its mission if it did
not at this time give voice to its opin-
ion and underscore the Importance to
the pool that the most conscientious
care should be exercised in the choice
of the members of the board of direct
ors, the body which is to stand between
the individual growers and the direct
management of the business of the big
corporation. It is to the board of di-
rectors that the individual growers
must look for that wisdom, discretion
and judgment which the grower him
self has delegated to insure success and
financial returns.
It is becoming more and more clear
as time passes that the big manufact-
uring concerns are Indifferent in their
attitude to the pool formation. They
are not lifting finger to further or
check it. When the time comes that
they are in need of goods they will buy
as conditions then confronting them
will dictate as the best policy. They
have their problems to solve exactly as
the grower and packer have their prob
lens to solve. The individual packers
with expert knowledge of the handling
of tobacco have service to perform
that neither the pool nor the manufac-
turers can dispose of without harm to |
the industry. Business relations may
have to be altered to accommodate new
phases arising in the relative powers of |
the producer, the merchant and the |
manufacturer; but changes of a revo- |
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