The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1923-03-21
THE PRODUCERS CONTRACT
AND THE SHIPPING ASSO-
CITATION.

(Reprinted by request from Wallaces,
Farmer.)
"We have very successful assocla-
tions where the members are signed
on the membership agreement at
hurry, Northwood, Clear Lake,
Floyd, plymouth, Rockwell, Clarence,
Upton, Joice, Truro, Gilmore City,
Humboldt, Stuart, Cambridge, Roll
and, Clarion, Primghar, Winterset,
Exira, Daugherty and Rockford be-
sides many others.
"Most of these associations were
organized before the contract was in
use and most of them were dead or
dying when we reorganiZed them un-
der the new plan. One good look
back over the past history of cooper
alive shipping is all that is necessary
to convince one of the need for some
thing binding on the part of the mem
Der. In the past the shipping asso-
citation has been looked upon as an
organization to either force the local
stock buyer to pay up or to give the
farmer an opportunity to ship his live
stock himself if the buyer didn't bid
up. This is simply organizing for
competition and not cooperation. AS
result, since every member of
shipping association has been left to
do as he pleased, nearly two-thirds
of them over the state have used the
association as club to force a high
er bid out of the local buyer for their
good stuff and then dumped their
odds and ends-stags, piggy sows,
cripples, culls, Gamer cows and bulls
-on the shipping association. This
has left the burden of keeping the as
ISOLATION in existence upon the
shoulders of the other one-third, and
oftentimes it has proved to be too big
a burden for so few to carry, thus
killing the association.
'Too many or the members in these
old associations have been so obsess-
ed with the idea of getting the last
nickel possible that they have fallen
for the stock buyers bid, regardless
of the fact that they have driven their
association out of business, thus Civ
ing the buyer clear field again and
placing themselves at his mercy.
Members have failed in the past to
appreciate that shipping association
cannot keep an efficient manager,
giving satisfactory service to the
members that use it or afford compe
tition for those that sell out, or even
exist, unless majority of the farm
ers are 100 per cent behind the asso
citation. So many members viii not put
all their stuff through as long as 9TH
ers are permitted to be in or out as
the please. Experience, too, has shown
to any local market.
Lastly, experience has demon
strated that the bulk of the farmers
who use theassociation as a club over
the local stock buyer will continue to
take free ride just as long as the
association will allow them to do it.
The only way to stop this is not to
ship for the men who will not agree
to shop all of their stock through
their association.
LESS than two years experience
with the membership agreement in
about $50 shipping associations in
Iowa has demonstrated beyond all
doubt that the farmer will sign up,
That the contract will put weak and
invalid associations back on their feet
on a permanent basis, that they will
maintain a permanent shipping $3.50
citation in territory where one couldn't
exist before and that they get mar
ket outlets such as local packing
plants and concentration point mar
kets that were not open to them pre-
viously.
Eve feel that the membership con-
tract is putting cooperative market
ing of live stock on the map in Iowa"
KNUTE ESPE.
Executive Secretary, Iowa Fedora
ton of Live Stock Shippers. ~