The Carbon County news. [volume] (Red Lodge, Mont.) 1924-1931, 1929-10-31

IL ioie, unless provided against. therf
ig may come an expansion of wheat
re acreage this fall and next spring. and
II the wheat growers will again hp
20 helpless to cope with the situation
r because of their lack of unity. Such
= a prospect spurred the Board to for
n muiate plans to mobilize the wheat
= growers. This undertaking was it's
: flrst major project.
I Greater Unity and Cooperation
Information which government ex-
perts had been collecting for wears
I showed the Board that the growers
: OF wheat have made excellent prog
< ress IN owning and operating coun-
{ Try elevator facilities About 5 400
farmer-owned elevators are in onera.
tion Some sections shipping grain
20 market send from 80 to 60 per
cent through cooperative elevators
out little progress has been made in
selling or handling wheat at termi-
mails. The Board also found that there
are three different types of wheat
eooperatives: % the local farmers,
elevator, which ships usually to a
commission merchant at terminal
market and pays the farmers the cash
price OF the day of sale; f21 nine
wheat pools which have individual
contracts with growers: and {el
about the same number of tern,;naT
m ke t cooperative commission
houses which market wheat ON CON
slgnment for elevators and large in
alvldual shippers Little or no wheat
IN the export trade is being handled
by cooperatives.
Here seemed to be situation
which could easily be met by greater
UNITY and coordination It was
challenge to action. The Board MEM
oers met the challenge by working
out a plan for an incorporated ma
lonal wheat-selling ageniy. They
proposed that the pools, the coopera-
tive commission houses. the farmers,
elevators, and even individual shin
pers be permitted to own stuck ir tho
agency. They proposed that tbi,
agency be headed by one of the hest
wheat merchandisers to be found in
America. They also proposed that \
campaign of selling stock and taking
sales contracts be Immediately in
augurated, and offered to finance tba
new agency to any extent necessary
Ter 1t to function.
Sixty Astonished Men
10 iaunch this plan, the Board
members asked some sixty leaders Of
wheat cooperatives to meet them in
Chicago on July &c. At that meet
ng this plan was laid before the as
'onlshed leaders nearly all of whom
lad expected that the Board would
propose the setting up of a wheat
taDiilzatlon corporation. At the IN
tance OF the Board, committee of
fifteen was created to study the pre-
osal and to start the new agency if
ne various groups could get together
n The Idea. What happens in the
sheat enterprise will be watched with
1ucn interest by cooperatives every
'here. Growers of wheat in the IN
ed States may take heart from the
otaDie achievements of their Cana
ian neighbors. The wheat pools of
anada market about SO per cent of
he crop. Operating through ma
onal sales agency since their incep
on, these pools for several years
ave been powerful factors in the
heat trade of the world.
The Board has already developed
vast amount of routine work and
18th it the need for the advice and
slstance of various experts. Ac-
rdlngly the Board has created a
lmber of special divisions to deal
'th problems of personnel, law,
ans, cooperative marketing, public
formation, and economies.
An Aid to Group Competition
The farmers whom the Board is to
Up have already done lot for
About two million farm
miles participate in 1880 cooper
we associations which do an annual
slness of over two and half bill
dollars a year. Some of these
soclat1ons are of large-scale
~ oSecl. ABOUT one hundred and
ty OF them each sells more than
million dollars. worth of produce
nually. The forty-six groups af-
ated with the National Coopera-
e Milk Producers Federation sell
r $40 million dollars worth of
TX and its products. In the season
l927-28, the twelve cotton associa-
rs affiliated with the American
ton Growers Exchange handled
ITO bales. In some years they
idle over million bales. Twenty
en- cooperative livestock commits
! agencies last year sold over
I've million animals, valued at 2S9
lion dollars.
hose who are still wondering
,ther the Board will attempt abri-
y lifting of farm products
Z be interested in what Chairman
gee has to say:
There are many people," he told
delegates to the American Insti-
of Cooperation on July 80 at
on Rouge "who think that the