, 1924-07-16
FARM
SELLING
BY E C. HAYES
One-Half Rice Sold Through
Cooperative Plan.

tation in ArkanSaS-200 acres of
the finest fields in the state. And he
made money on those acres until the
armistice was signed. That marked
the turn in rice profits. That year
the rice market took a downward
shoot and for two years nothing could
turn it from its course.
1t was in October Of 1920. For two
months Henry Jackson had been hold
ing his creditors off with a wait till
my rice check comes" Then one day
the long-expected letter came. II was
! waiting in the mail box at the cross
roads when Henry drove home from
town-a long, slim thin envelope with
the miller's name in one corner. Out
came he white slip. 1t wasn't n
check at all. Ii was a bin for rice
storage with a large kindly remit
across its face.
And Jackson wasn't the only Arkan-
sas farmer who received a kindly re-
nit" notice instead of a green bank
draft.
That particular crop was the most
expensive that had ever been raised
buDpi phittS mcIt me
highest. The seed rices planted in the
spring had been unusually expensive.
Everything that had gone into the
making of the 1920 rice crop was at
peak prices. Rice farmers all over the
state had enlarged their operations to
the last notch. They had m~ortgaged
their land, their homes and their
stock-everything they had, to borrow
money to plant rice. They expected a
boom in rice prices and they got less
than had ever before been paid for
Il rice crop.
Practically the same thing happened
In Louisiana and Texas, the other two
great rice-prOducing areas of the
South. Everything went to pieces.
The depression spared no one, no bust
ness, throughout the length and the
breadth Of the rice-producing districts.
Cooperation, the Magic Word.
Southern rice growers we're down
and out. They were ready to sell
their acres for mere nothing-anything
to get out of the rice industry. 1t was
In h lark hour that the farm bureau
proposed a way out-co-operative mar
keting vas the suggestion. The magic
word cooperation brought the dazed
lsrice farmers back to consciousness.
For the first time they set about to
analyze their markets and find out
just where the trouble lay. 1t wasn't
hare to discover.
Rice farmers old their rough prod
net to the buyers, who in turn dis
posed of it to the millers and some
times they sold it themselves direct
to the millers. They knew hat both
the buyers and the millers were spec
ulators. The term miller and specu-
lator had become synonymous in the
rice business. They knew hat there
were over 30 rice mills in America
and that So per cent of them were CON
trolled by less than twenty men. 1t
wasn't any secret that this little group
Of millers had In their power the com
plete price control. AS long as the
market had paid a living wage with an
occasional extra spill for good measure
the rice men merely Grumbled among
themselves and did nothing.
In 1911 they had tried organization.
The Southern Rice Growers associa-
ton was formed in Louisiana to act
as a growers selling agent in deal
ing with tho Iuillers. The %organiza-
ton was fairly well supported, but 1t
didn't accomplish much. Then came
the dark days of 1920. The asSocia-
ton, urged by its members, tried to
find a way out. A plan of toll milling
was tried, under which the growers
turned their rices over to millers, who
cleaned and milled and sold them,
keeping a liberal amount for toll. That
finished the growers. Under this syS-
TEN came those bills for handling, with
their big lettered please remit print
ed across the face. The prices for the
the finest grades were so low that 1t
seldom paid to haul them to the mills.
The association had failed complete
ly. the only thing left to do was to
reorganize, not as a bargaining associa-
ton, but as a full-fledged cooperative
marketing association capable of con
trolling its own markets. This was a
stiff Job for the growers were few in
number INT the rice growing areas
we're scattered in various parts of
Louisiana, Arkansas n Texas.
Leaders sprang up here and there
and offered themselves and their serv-
Ices to the cause. In place of the old
association a new movement was or
ganized-the Arkansas Rice Growers
Cooperative association. This was
started in January, 1921. The cam
/ paign was carried on with grim deter
mination md in less tha 90 days 800
growers. representing 80 per cent OF
the acreage Of the state. were signed
up and In time to market the 1921
crop.
Based on Five-Year Contract.
The association was based on a five
.a-. aa.4=aa+ naraElnn oil the rico