The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1923-01-25
SAYS EQUITY GIVES
FARMER GOOD DEAL
NORTH DAKOTA FARMER SITS
FLED WITH EXPERIENCE
WITH EXCHANGE.
HAS FAITH IN OFFICERS
EDITOR OF COOPERATIVE MAG.
AZINE REVIEWS OBSTACLES
OVERCOME.

Journal which purported to show the
financial condition of the Farmers
/ Equity Exchange who have branch
elevator in this city. At the reques.
! of B. H. Otte, local director in the
Equity, the Herald is publishing here
with the following, taken from a re-
cent issue Of the Cooperative Herald,
published at Fargo, the Equity's Of
4 fetal organ, with will, no doubt, be
/ of interest to many Herald readers:
Equity Cooperative Exchange.
1 ST. Paul, Mimi.
Gentlemen:
| 1 want to say to you that my rea-
| son for boosting for Equity is the
| square deal they always give US, and
! the lack of it from old line elevators.
Most of us are through farming. un-
| less the stabilized price advocated by
| Mr.. Noltimier recently in Washington
! is given us by Congress, and that's an
other reason for building up confidence
1 in the Equity hereabouts. If l am
| forced out of the game during 1873 or
! 1924 L mean to- try the Equity for a
, job as messenger boy, clerk or some
| thing of that nature in order to make
| living, if don't return to railroad
| Station Agency instead.
Have car Of barley for you yet, but
| received no reply as TO best market to
| ship to, so may wait now until my re-
turn from Bismarck in February or
! March.
r1nancial conditions here are worse
i than in Pioneer Lays In some RESPECTS.
| Most Of the banks are not functioning.
! except as collection agencies, and, like
| ourselves, if obliged to iquidate, would
| not have enough cash to buy boot
| jack, let alone a Wheel-barroW
/ Though we have more moisture in
/ the ground than any year since 1908.
/ and conditions for growing a crop are
excellent. many thousands of acres viii
not be cropped in 1928. Many farms are
| abandoned and many banks are Wob-
| ping, In other words; "a new deal or
| the game is about played out.
/ been in it over a quarter of a century
in Bottineau County, and never was
| gutter, but one shock after another
through recent years makes us feel like
| shock absorbers, and we are getting
weary of raising grain for less than
Hike telling some Of the bankers to go
! and buy a mule if they feel like rid :
| ing something. However, Wen keep
| using the spurs ourselves occasionally,
| by shipping car to the Equlty-.they
are real thorn in the side of big
| Fred E. Sims,
Willow City. N. D..
! r.
The above letter should engage the
serious consideration of every reader
! of TINS magazine; and then after one
has carefully read and studied it for
| himself, he should hand it to his
nelghbor and call his ne1ghbors at
| tention to it's salient points, The let
ter is the more important because the
| author never dreamed when it was
written that it would appear In print.
Note what he says:
."rhe reason that I boost for the
Equity Cooperative Exchange is the
] square deal it always gives us, and
] the lack of it from the old line elevat-
ors." -;
And then again:
Most of us are nearly through farm
| ing unless the stabilized price adyocat-
| ed by Mr.. Noltimler recently in Wash
lngIon is given us by Congress. And
| that's another reason for the building
/ up of the confidence. in the Equity
/ hereabouts." g.. -
1ow many farmers have stopped in
consider this phase of the question?
How many have given credit to the
| Equity Exchange for the almost silen
work it is doing for agriculture along
| this line-sending delegates to Wash
ington to appear before Agricultural
| Committees of the House or the Sen
ate to argue for the enactment OF
| measures Of benefit to farmers?
| The Equity Cooperative Exchange
| has paid the expenses or the editor OF
| this magazine five times in the past
| eight years to present problems eff
| fecting the interests of farmers to the
Congress Of the United States. And on
the last occasion. when this writer
and Mr.. Noltimier appeared before the
! Senate Committee on Agriculture, De-
cember 18th last, to advocate the sta
| bilization of prices of farm products,
what did we find?
! We found that strong pressure was
| being brought to bear on Congress by
| Boards of Trade and Chambers of Com
merce against the very measure that
!, we were advocating. Read the follow
| ing comment by Senator Norris, the
| chairman of the commlIree:
| Senator Norris-"Now, Mr.. Kelly, J.
am satisfied that the committee ar
in sympathy with what you are trying
| this problem: One Of the largest farm
| organizations in the United States il
| the Farm Bureau. Their represents
| tives, who represent that great organ
| ization, and speaks, L suppose, with
authority, is opposed to the stabili-
| cation of prices of farm products.
| Mr.. Kelley: Senator, 1 suppose you
| want the absolute facts in that mat
ter"
Senator Norris: THAT is just what 1
| want. Are they representing the
| farmers truthfully when they take that
position?''
ident of the Chicago Board of Trade
| stated before the late Farm Confer
ence that was called by the President
| about a year ago. that the Board had
contributed 100000 to the Federal
Bureau when it was first established
at Bonnie County, New York, and that
| the Board of Trade had contributed
| $1,000. 90 since at one hundred differ
emit places for the establishment of the
Federal Bureau or 100000 90 in all"
So it would appear that the Mr..
1 Howard and Mr.. Gray Silver, who
| have been opposing the plan for the
| sterilization of prices Of farm produce,
are acting under the influence of the
grain speculative interests.
But the Equity Cooperative Elk
| change has always been true to the in
! terests of farmers, as Mr.. Sims points
out in his letter and consequently, if
/ farmers were strictly looking out for
| their own interests as the grain men
do gamblers and spectators, they
would ship exclusively to the Equity
Cooperative Exchange, for as Mr..
/ Sims points out, 1T always gives them
square DEAL" the Senator again
! quoted.
Senator Norris: '.Of course, you real
ize Mr.. Kelley. probably more than your
/ colleagues, who are with you today,
that members OF Congress are infiu-
/ enced to q great extent, and very prop
erly so, as to what farmers want by
theier representatives here"
/ Thus. while the Equity Cooperative