Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1924-03-06
FARM
COOPERATIVE
SELLING
By GLENN c. HAYES
@00000O000O0OO0000
60. 1924 Western Newspaper Union.)
One-Half Rice Sold Through
Cooperative Plan.
ern Newspaper Union.)

Cooperative Plan.
HENRY JACKSON has a rice 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 downward
shoot and for two years nothing could
turn it from its course.
It 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. It 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 the white slip. It wasn't a
check at all. It was a bill for rice
storage with large Kindly remit
across its face.
And Jackson wasn't the only Arkan-
sas farmer who received kindly re-
NIT notice instead Of a green bank
draft
That particular crop was the most
expensive that had ever been raised
in Arkansas. Labor prices were the
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 mortgaged
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
a 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 reproducing districts.
Cooperation, the Magic Word.
Southern rice growers were down
and out They were ready to sell
their acres for mere nothing anything
to get out of the rice industry. It was
In the dark hour that the farm bureau
proposed a way out-co-o operative mar
keting was the suggestion. The magic
word cooperation brought the dazed
rice farmers back to consciousness.
For the first time they set about to
analyze their markets and find out
just where the trouble lay. It wasn't
hard to discover.
Rice farmers sold their rough prod
uct 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 that both
the buyers and the millers were spec
ulators. The term miller and specu-
Iator had become synonymous in the
rice business. They knew that there
were over 90 rice mills in America
and that IS per cent Of them were con-
trolled by less than twenty men. It
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.
TIE Southern Rice Growers associa-
ton was formed in. Louisiana to act
as a growers selling agent IN deal
ing with the millers The organiza-
ton was fairly well supported, but it
didn't accomplish much. Then came
the dark days of 1920. The associa-
ton, urged by It's members, tried to
ind a way out. A plan Of toll milling
was tried, under which the growers
turned their rices over to nlillers, VINO
cleaned and milled and sold them,
keeping a liberal amount for toll. mat
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 II
seldom paid to haul them to the mills
The association had failed complete
": the only thing left to do was to
reorganize, not as a bargaining assocla-
ton, but as full-fedged cooperative
marketing association capable OF con-
trolling its own markets. This was
stiff job for the growers were few IN
number and the rice growing areas
were scattered in various parts OF
Louisiana, Arkansas and 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. Thls was
started in January, 1921. The cam
paign was carried on with grim deter
nination and in less than 80 days 500
growers. representing so per cent OF
the acreage of the state, were signed
IN and in time to market the 1921
crop.
Based on Five-Year Contract.
The association was based on a I'VE
war contract covering all the rice
produced by the signer. The title 60
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