The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, March 22, 1920, Page 3

In the interest of a square deal for the farmers Tlonp Qflicial Magazine of the National N;)nliamtisan League—Every Week rtigsin Rader == A magazine that dares to print the truth VOL. 10, NO. 12. WHOLE NUMBER 235 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, MARCH 22, 1920 $2.50 PER YEAR IN ADVANCE =~ HENRY KRUMREY’S OWN STORY The Fight of Wisconsin Farmers Against the Cheese Combine, The. Wisconsin Cheese Producers’ federation -takes in 8,600 patrons of -120 farmers’ cheese.factories, It has in. operation for seven years, with a steady growth of business, in 1919 selling 14,980,021 pounds of cheese . for $4,318,596, all receipts, after paying handling charges, going back to farmer members. It is one of the most successful co-operative enterprises-of America. " How the farmers were forced to organize for their self-protection is told by their leader. BY HENRY KRUMREY _President Wisconsin Cheese Producers’ Federation ISCONSIN now produces 70 per cent of all the cheese produced in the Unit- ed States. The Big Five packers con- trol the marketing of 75 per cent of this cheese. They receive "cheese-at 35 different places in Wisconsin where they have warehouses, which are run in the name of a packers’ agent who usually owns some of the stock. The packers'do not compete with each other in buying cheese. Each apparently has his territory allotted to him. The price which farmers get is established on the Plymouth cheese board, just as the price on butter was established on the Elgin butter board until the government had this board abolished. A cheese board exists only for estab- _ lishing the price. Less than 3 per cent of the cheese produced in Wisconsin is sold on.the board. The balance is contracted for on a basis of the board price. Practically all cheese on the Plymouth board is offered by the packers and the board is dominat- ed by them. They often bid on it themselves and the board price is fixed ‘high or low according to " whether they are loading up or unloading. ‘ - In the past the game of the combination has: usually been to keep the board prices very low dur- ing the summer, when the most and best cheese is produced, fill up the storages and then in the win- ter, when the farmers produce little cheese, run the board price up and unload on the consumer. In the past, winter prices have usually been 60 to 80 per' cent higher than summer prices, a condition which can-not be justified, as it costs not over one- half cent a pound. to store cheese for the season. HOW THE PACKERS MANIPULATED BOARD PRICES AT PLYMOUTH To show how the packers manipulaté board prices it is only necessary to state what happened at the - Plymouth board, July 28 last. A certain packer’s agent offered 200 Twins on the Plymouth board, 50 Twins were offered by some one else. . This con- stituted all the JTwins which were offered on the Plymouth board that week. An independent dealer offered 3124 cents for the 200 Twins. The packer’s agent refused to accept the bid. Someone sug- gested that he offer him 1éss and he might take it. The independent dealer then offered 31 cents. The ‘packer’s agent again refused to accept the bid. Then the independent dealer: offered 80% cents, which bid the packer’s agent accepted and which _bid fixed the price on all Twins which were man- ufactured in Wisconsin during that week. This - -packer’s agent was, of course, willing to sell the 200 Twins for less than they were worth if he could buy, perhaps 10,000 Twins, on the outside at - that price. ; : : The packers are gradually putting the independ- ent cheese dealers out of business by offering to * pay the cheesemaker who is selling to independent dealers a premium above board price, and they also try to work this game with factories which are in the federation. This they do.not do in sections where there are no independent cheese dealers or federation factories. Not only do they not pay ‘ - * low price. as Told by Their Leader @ premiums, but they dock the cheesemaker on however, the members of the Wisconsin Cheese _weight. Farmers never wake up to the need of org:mniza-> * tion and co-operation in marketing their product until they have been fleeced good and proper and that is what led up to the organization of the Cheese Producers’ federation. : For more than 64 years I lived on, and for more than 40 years I owned and operated the farm at Plymouth, Sheboygan county, on which I was born. Like most other farmers in the county I derived my principal income from the milk which I hauled to the cheese factory to be made into cheese. For years we allowed the cheesemaker, to whom we paid a certain sum per pound for making our cheese, to sell our cheese for us. He got this amount whether he sold our ckzese for a high or He was not, therefore, particularly in- terested in whether he got us a high or low price for it. It is true he guaranteed us the board price for our cheese. But we allowed the makers and dealers to set the board price. 3 . ‘Down to the spring of 1911 there was some com- petition in buying on this board. About that time, . Big ‘business is always in polities to get the kind of laws it wants and is nonpartisan, contributing to several parties. Farmers must do the same if they expect to get laws which are just to the farmers’ interests. I was the first man in Sheboygan county who signed up as a member of the Nonpartisan league and T am firmly convinced that much good has been and can- be accomplished through it. All selfish special in- terests that are fleecing the farmers are op- posed to the League and are “trying to dis- credit it, and that is why I am for it and why, in my opinion, all farmers should be for it. All farmer organizations should be working together for the good of the farmers.. Farmers should beware of professional farm leaders (usually not real farmers themselves) who are try- ing to discredit the Nonpartisan league and other sugcessful farm organiza- tions. These men are playing into the “hands of the big business interests and may be secretly in their employ. HENRY KRUMREY, - President Wisconsin Cheese Producers’ Federation. < } HENRY KRUMREY PAGE THREE Dealers’ association, composed of cheese dealers and packers’ agents, apparently came to a perfect un- derstanding in regard to fixing board prices. From that time on the cheese board became a ridiculous farce insofar as establishing legitimate prices on cheese was concerned, and beginning at that time the board price was fixed arbitrarily low during the summer, when the most and best cheese is produced, and arbitrarily high during the winter, when little cheese is made and when they were un- loading what they had in storage. The cold storage owners at Plymouth, where more cheese is stored than in any other place in the country, had a rule that no one but a cheese dealer could store cheese there. This was done to force us farmers to sell our cheese weekly and even though we were satisfied that we could get much more for this clieese later on we had no place to keep it and were obliged to sell. CHEESE DEALERS’ ASSOCIATION * KEPT COMPETITORS OUT : The cheese dealers were thus able to manipulate the’ board price as they wished because it was a closed board and absolutely under the domination of the cheese dealers. The president of the Wis- consin Cheese Dealers’ assgciation was chairman of a committee which passed upon applications for membership. This was done in order to limit the board membership and they went so far in July, 1911, as to adopt a rule on the Plymouth board which provided that no person could become a member of the Plymouth board unless his applica- tion was in in April and that was done to keep members out until the following April. I called attention to this rule in the Plymouth Review, a paper which stood by the farmers all through this fight, and I said if this rule was not made to keep buyers away and to thus stifle com- petition, why was it made? I asked the organs of the cheese combination to please answer that ques- tion in the next issue. One of the organs, the Plymouth Reporter, did not attempt to answer, but the other one, the Plymouth Correspondent, an- swered it and got its foot in. They answered it in this ‘way: “This rule was made to keep buyers away who want to buy cheese in the summer when it is ‘cheap and who do not want to buy in the ~winter when it is high”’ For five months throughout the summer of 1911 the board price was so low that our milk made up into cheese brought us less than $1 a hundred, which is less than 2 cents a quart. We got 11 to 13 cents a pound for our cheese. Much of this cheese was put into cold storage by the dealers and in the winter was shipped out, some of it by the trainload, at a price as high as from 18 to 22 cents. This summer cheese when it reached th> consumer cost him from 25 to 30, cents a pound. Local dealers, members of the Plymouth board, cleaned up on the 1911 make from $10,000 to $50,- 000 each. The packers probably cleaned up mil- lions. Over $400,000 went into .the pockets of dealers and packers which should have gone into the pockets of Sheboygan county farmers during that one year. In the spring of 1912, after the dealers had dis- posed of what, they had in storage, they gradually dropped the board price to 15 cents, which it was on May 21, 1912. There was at that.time a demand at 15 cents a pound which could not be supplied. In spite of that fact, however, on May 28, the next - board day, they dropped the board price to 12