New Britain herald., 1929-07-31
COOPERATIVE FARM
 GROUPS PROPOSED
Half Dozen Corporations Seen
 by Board as Solution

olutlon of perhaps a half dozen gi- gantic farmer owned cooperative organiza tions to conduct orderly
 mass marketing of the principal az ricultural commodities is under con- | sjderation by the now completed federal farm board as the founda- | ton for it's attempt to bring pros perity to the farming industry. Once the program is brought to fulfillment, farm leaders expect it to make the United States the arena for the greatest experiment in CO., operative marketing the world has ever known. AS now contemplated, it will be based on demonstrated needs in each branch of agriculture affect crop conditions.
 Relief is Sought
 Under the guidance of President Hoover and the members of the farm board, all avowed advocates of the cooperative movement, stabiliza- tion operations by the government on the open market will be avoided, if possible. Large marketing associ- ation, they believe, will be able 10 produce results as beneficial as the government could obtain by employ l ing the stabilization provisions of i the farm relief act.
 The cooperative program, involv- 1 ing an enormous amount of worr. is recognized as requiring consdera ble | time, but it's development is believed | to have been greatly facilitated by | the completion of the boards mem-
 bership with the appointment of Sam R. Mckelvie. former governor of Nebraska, as the spokesman for | the wheat and coarse grains indus l try. Because of differences between the cooperative and pool groups in the grain industry. President Hoover
 had much difficulty in filling the place. and Mckelvie accepted only 1 on condition that he would be free i to retire at the end of year.
 First Step Taken
 | Information made available by members of the board indicates that the formation of the s20.oo0,o00 | Farmers National Grain Corpora ton in Chicago last week to market
 wheat and other course grains which
 preceded Mckelvie's appointment
 was the first step in the plan to set | up such organizations for each of the principal commodities in need of attention. The first formal forecast
 of this program was given by Chair
 man Legge, in his speech in Baton
 Rouge, La. before the American
 Institute of Cooperation. when he
 said:
 "The board believes that it can be
 of great assistance to the American farmer by encouraging the develop
 ment of large sealed. central coop
 eratiye organizations. Such an agency
 would be in itself, because Of Its
 prestige and influence, stablllzlns element in marketing. It would be able to exert a measura ble decree o'
 control over the flow of its product: to market It would avoid temporary
 surpIuses which so often result 1T .unduly depressing the price Of farh
 products much below their real value
 Tn other words it would be strong
 merchandising agency. virtually IT control of the conditions under
 which the products of it's members
 are sold,
 To Use Present Foundation 1 He made it clear that, in setting
 out to strengthen the cooperative marketing machinery, the board eX-
 poets 10 build on the foundation Of lthe present private cooperatives, of which 12.5O0 are already in eXls- itcnce with memberships totalllne ! 2.00O. .0OO. or practically one-thlrd of the American farmers. Most Of these gre struggling organizations with many of them considered to have memberships only lukeWarm to the i benefits Of cooperation, and one of 1 the boards first efforts will be to strengthen them.
 Another field Of farm aid endeaNor 1 to which it is attaching great lm-
 portance is the study of land utlllza- tion nroblems. regarded by many as 7 the hub of agriculture's difficulties i Some members also have indicated that they favor the creation Of a national educative organization, such as was proposed before the Amer1- can Institute of Cooperation. to be i known perhaps as the National 1 Chamber of Agricultural Coopera =
 lives. which would be analogous to the United States Chamber of Con- Imerce or the American Federation of i Labor.