The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, May 16, 1921, Page 6

’1 | The Early Struggle of the Grain Men First Efforts at Co-Operation and How the Grain Gamblers Met Them— How the Equity Co-Operative Exchange Was Born Mr. Harmon will be remembered by many Leader readers as a former member of our staff. For the last three years he has been assistant to President J. M. Anderson of the Equity Co-Operative exchange. 3 BY. RALPH HARMON ONCERTED grain marketing by farm- . ers has been recognized as a necessity for 15 to 20 years. plaints had been growing in volume for a long time before the first abor- tive attempt of the farmers to organ- ize for their own benefit at Minne- apolis about 1906. But keenly alive to the needs of their industry, a new attémpt was made the following year, and from that time down to the present promising situation there has been constant warfare, with mingled defeat and victory. In 1907 the First district of the American Society of Equity, com- prising the two Dakotas and Minne- sota, organized for grain marketing and formed a pool. It is said that approximately 30,000,000 bushels of wheat were signed up in this “dollar wheat” pool of 1907, but lack of finance and lack of experience in the handling of such an undertaking caused complete failure. The next year a conference of Equity mem- bers from the same district was held in Minneapolis and it was decided to establish an “Equity co-operative ex- change.” A commission firm was chosen to handle the business and a large vqume.of grain was marketed through this half-farmer chan- nel for several years. But the purpose of the or- ganizers was to form a genuine farmer-owned sell- ing agency, not only for the First district, but ulti- mately for all the grain farmers of the country, and in 1911, after about $14,000 of -capital stock had been subscribed in the proposed farmer company, articles of incorporation were filed and the Equity Co-Operative exchange of today began its career. It did not enter into active business, however, until the crop of 1912, and it was not until then that the grain interests seemed to realize that the farmers were now equipped to do business and began their 10-years’ war upon co-op- erative farmer marketing. Abuses in the grain trade were so flagrant and of such long standing that not only farmers, but bankers who realized the necessity of promoting farmer prosperity, joined in the effort to eradicate them. Short weighing at country stations was com- mon. Overdocking was prevalent. Commission houses in Minneapolis as- sessed “switching charges” against farmers’ cars that were never charged by the railroads and kept the money thus filched from the farmers. HOW FARMERS WERE CHEATED There was no such thing as a track scale at the, terminal market and coun- try grain was elevated to the tops of elevators be- fore weighing, where suc- tion fans subtracted, not only dirt, but wvaluable dockage and light-weight grain, all of which was kept for the profit of the operators and entailed loss upon the farmers. In those days even the Minnesota state inspection was pub- licly condemned and be- lieved to be part of the / Justifiable com- The late George S. Loftus, fight- ing leader of the co-operators. low—Starting work on the ter e e e machinery by which the powerful elevator and mill- ing interests exploited the farmers. About 1905 a joint North Dakota-Wisconsin in- spection was established at Superior, Wis., with the view of aiding farmers to escape Minnesota inspec- tion and the grain ring. In 1908, after the disastrous “dollar wheat” pool of 1907, the North Dakota Bankers’ association sentia circular letter to all bankers in the state asking them to urge.upon ship- pers the necessity of demanding North Dakota-Wis- consin inspection and of consigning to Superior. : It is of interest to note that the name of F. W. Cathro, present head of the Bank of North Dakotd, appears among the' signers of this letter. Following the example of the spring wheat growers, farmers of in 1909, what they called the “Second district” of the American Society. of Equity and started out on another pooling expedition, in which farmers pledged a certain acreage, paid down $1 “per member, and promised to maintain loyalty and secrecy in the matter of pooling their grain. It failed. g g Up to the incorporation of the Equity Co-Operative exchange there was no great attention paid to farm- ers by the grain trade. Farmers’ ef- forts were regarded as a joke, inef- fective, likely to lead to squabbles, expense and discouragement. But B when, after several years of active leadership in market agitation, these leaders form- ed a company and set up a grain marketing machine in Minneapolis, hostility became open, grew fiercer and fiercer, and finally developed into an all-north- western drive of the grain interests and their allies against fatmer organizations, and ended in an un- expected double climax—on one hand the rapid growth and success of farmer marketing under the Equity Co-Operative exchange, and on the other, the formation of a political movement, the Nonpar- tisan league, that.has swept into many states out- ‘side the spring wheat section and expanded its pro- gram until grain marketing has became but one of its several planks. Above—The first headquarters of the Equity Co-Operative exchange at Moorhead, Minn., in 19'12.. Be- " PAGE SIX 2 T A R T A I T e I R TR R T e e T A Nebraska formed, at Hastings, Neb., ~ column. minal elevator at St. Paul four years later. The chamber of commerce quickly recoghized the - Equity Co-Operative exchange plan as a menace to the old-time speculative and price manipulating sys- tem. Field men were rushed into the Northwest in large numbers to compete with Equity solicitors for grain from farmer co-operative elevators and in- dividual farmers. Debates were held at many schoolhouses and picnic grounds, and whole com- munities turned out to take sides—usually against the chamber. As the fight grew hotter, argument was replaced by fearful and wonderful tales invent- ed by these chamber of commerce solicitors to frighten shippers into abandoning their own organ- ization. THE ILLEGAL METHODS OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 2 i) It was asserted that the Equity charged two com- missions. Then they raised the ante to three, and 3 finally the chamber of commerce had a pamphlet printed stating that the Equity charged as much as eight commissions on single carloads of grain, made false returns to shippers, was conniving with chamber members to swindle the farmers, that the officials were making huge profits and keeping them themselves, and much more. Gangs of solicitors traveling together at times broke up or tried to break up Equity meetings by hooting, heckling and bullying. Papers were bought up to fight the farm- ers, and through influential channels prominent dailies in Minneapolis, Fargo and Sioux Falls, S. D, took up the warfare. The grain trade journals for a long-time gave over much ‘of their space to at- tacks, both open and by innuendo, against the farmer organization, assailed the character and in- © telligence of its leaders and filled their columns with jibes and spite ‘questions. One of the interesting possessions of the Equity Co-Operative exchange today is a complete file of the Co-Operative Farmer and Manager of Minneapolis containing scores of articles so false and absurd that today there is no one who would read them except as a curious dis- play of unenlightened prejudice and proof of the widespread conspiracy against the farmers. Meantime the grain interests continued to gouge- the farmers in the manner that the farmer leaders were mercilessly exposing in public meetings and through such papers as would lend a friendly - They continued to charge the farmers freight on dockage and sell it for their own aec- count. Firms receiving grain, presumably on com- mission to be sold in an open market, continued to sell. it to mills and eleva- tors with which they were connected. George Loftus, sales manager and active field man for the Equity, used to quote in public the names of the big mills and the dummy commission houses connected with them, and it was because of his thorough inside in- formation, which he gave forth in a tumultuous stream at every meeting, that the grain interests fought so desperately. The Equity “had their range” and the chamber forces fought with the frenzy of despair. At one time chamber of commerce firms had 500 solicitors, speakers and secret service men of their own.traveling through the Northwest, fighting farm- er co-operative marketing. Through interlocking in- terests among elevator companies, mills and big banks, every bank in Min- neapolis except one was Prevailed upon to refuse to extend credit to the Equity - Co-Operative ‘ex- el R B A e A T B ‘e » 1 o &