Social Democrat (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 1, No. 51, Ed. 1 Wednesday, February 5, 1913 Page: 3 of 4
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SOCIAL DEMOCRAT
The Sequelt0 the R.onvai\ce of tKe Reaper
HOW THE FARMER MAKES HIS OWN MACHINERY
*
At the Factories of the Independent Harvester Company at Plano,
Illinois, where Twenty-Five Thousand Farmers
are Smashing the Trust
By W. C. THOMPSON, President Independent Harvester Company
There are six million farmers oper-
ating farms in the Uniter States to-
day. To them is alloted the huge
task of feeding some ninety-odd mil-
lions of people. Of these six million
farmers one-half mlllian are members
of co-operative societies for the as-
sembling, distributing, marketing and
manufacture of their own products.
The beuefits to the farmers them-
selves by this co-operation have been
so great as to fully justify the wisdom
of their course. And when you come
to consider that this co-operative
movement is only a little over twenty
years old, can you doubt that there
half million farmers will in time
come a majority of the farmers of the
country instead of simply eight p< -
cent of the total number, as they are
today?
THE OLD DAYS.
The wheat crop of Wisconsin in 1910
was worth in farm value less than
$3,500,000, but the butter, cheese, mid
milk sold by the Wisconsin farmer
■-eh the factorlea were wor
000,000.
GROWTH IS ENORMOUS.
Thus the growth of manufacturing
on the farms in Wisconsin nas in-
creased with tremendous strides of
late years. Fully 80 per cent of the
farm products of that state leace its
borders as manufactured articles, flu.
ished and ready to go to the con
sumer. The Wisconsin fanner has, in
fact, become a specialist in farm inan
ufacturing.
NECESSITY URGED FARMERS TO
ACT.
this time become a capitalist in a big which opened the shops or the Jnde- lies in Plano empty and hundreds ot
way—the biggest capitalist in the pendent Harvester Company. Only mechanics Idle,
world—in the aggregate. He could i six hands responded to the whist <
run his finger down the long column j tor that was the entire working f '
of fugures representing his wealth, j of t he plant at that time,
and he found that if he wanted to j There is now a factory force of 35
The people of Plano, however, re
vived the harvester business, and or
ganlzed, through the aid of W. H.
Jones, the Plano Manufacturing Com
quit and go out of business he could ; and an annual payroll of a quarter of j pany. In 1893 the Plano Manufactur
clean up $30,000,000,000. If he did
the American farmer would have to
sell his farm on credit for, as a mat-
ter of fact, there Is not enough mon-
ey in the whole world to pay him
even half his price.
i million.
THE BEGINNING OF THE INDE-
PENDENT HARVESTER COM-
PANY.
, lng Company moved to West Pullman
again leaving Plano's factory build,
ings empty.
This is probably the only instill
A huudred years ago the farmer
was an active manfacturer of the
products he grew. At that time farm-
ing was half producing and half man.
utacturing. 1 he farmer manufactured
his grain into flour and produced and
manufactured his own butter, cheesw.
mutton and wool. He manufactured
h.s socks and his mittens aud often
all of the clothes for the family. He
manufactured his tallow into candles,
his hides into leather, his leather into
shoes aud harness. His timber,
grown by himself, he made Into fuel
and lumber aud the lumber he made
into fences, houses and furniture, lu
those days he was the master of his
own industrial kingdom.
As time went on, however, the city
man found that he could make a for-
tune by taking the burden from the
tarmer—by making his clothes, his
butter and cheese, his harness, his
Co-operation was absolutely neces-
sary for the successful manufacturing
of dairy products, and in the state of
Wisconsin today there are 1,000 local
creameries, the average membership
lor each creamery being eighty-three
while the average number of cows
per cteamery is 767. And there are
1,928 cheese factories , supplied by
228 cows per factory, and twenty-one
farmers per factory. Of course only
some of these factories are owned by
the farmers, but the entire effort is
of itself co-operative.
Look at the situation in Europe.
The farmers of Denmark have been
conspicuously successful in running
packing plants of their own. Not long
ago their co-operative pork packing
house fought and defeated a British
bacon trust formed to beat down the
price of Danish meals in England.
Germany haB 8.35$ co-operative
farmers' tanks with 1,500,00 mem-
bers. Belgium has 286 banks, with
six central banks and 13.000 members.
Austria has over 2,000 of these banks.
Finland has 51. Italy has 1,700, with
476,000 members. Hungary and Swit-
zerland have a large number. They
are increasing each year.
Italy has 750 cooperative dairies
and creameries, Holland has 539,
fences—in fact everything—and sell- j Germany 1,682, Sweden 430, Norway
ing It back to him. And the farmer j 650, Finland 72. Austria, Hungary and
was glad that the day of drudgery
For years the hum of manufactur-
ing in Plano was hushed, and the fa-
mous little harvester city became
C’ompareing his wealth with that of j tion of its kind and strength in the practically dead to the world,
the big industrial combinations, the wori<j. The 25,000 farmer-partners But, in 1902, when the harvester
American farmer has found that he who own it, represent the most In trUBt ’wa8 formw|, „nd the big Peering
earned enough in seventeen days to j telligent and the wealthiest farmers W()rks un{1 a]BO (bfi pU||man WOrks
buy out the Standard Oil Company, jn our grain growing states. Those : (botb bay|ng had tlseir origin in
and enough in ilfty days to wipe ,,ho arP directing this move- Piano), decided to Join that combina-
Andrew Carnegie aud the Steel Com. others who are watching and studying tion of capital, piano began to sit up
pany off the industrial map. He had i tHe various problems that arise in a | an(j taks notice. The farmers and
enough money to do anything he business of this character will ■* >'f. , (.ltizeuB of began to watch the
wanted. You see he was beginning less be as much astonished at the ex trust operations colsely. They saw
to Ague in the aggregate himself. His ,ent nf its growth and increase- in ,hat ,he promises made by the trust,
farmers' elevators an co-operative : ilext six years as its organisers have;nf cheaper machinery, were broken
creameries had taught him the value been surprised at Its rapid growth They realized that the trust never
of money in the agregate. in the six years thrt have already , meant to keep these promises. They
This was the only real money, passed. saw the prices on all farm machinery
Himself in the aggregate amounted to ; One thing none will lose sight of. ! forced upward instead of downward,
something—the bigest something in [ and that is, the necessity of impress- j Then these farmers decided to act.
the world. But alone, merely as an j ing on each individual member of the The time was ripe. Why should not
individual, separate, aloof, he did not ; company THE VALUE OF THE J i»]ano, the home and birthplace of
cut much of a figure. So here was | FARMER IN THE AGGREGATE, fifty per cent of .the component parts
reason number one why he should The recognition of this principle has of ths present harvester trust, have a
take hold of the tack of making his been the foundation of the success of factory managed and owned by the
reached by its representatives is Skilled mechanics, experts in their re-
widely extended across the United for employment because they need the
States This great band of Intelligent, wages ami because they are In sym-
representative farmers Is at this time ipectlvo trades, have gone to Plauo
putting out the manufactured prod- pathy with this groat undertaking
uct of its factories in large quantities ; Many farmers throughout the country
The Increase of output each year Is
-* that of the previous years
stockholders In the institu-
:iun obtain employment for their sons,
be meaning of which Is most obvious Today the factory manufactures tweu-
as to the future. ty-two Kinds of farm machinery that
Today their great buildings, filled go to all parts of the world. The
with the most modern and high speed plant paid out $250,000 for labor dur-
machinery, cover many acres of ing the year 1911. The average
ground, and iu addition to this they amount paid out monthly for labor and
own a great experimental farm on raw material is $100,000. The co-op-
whlch each and every new device and erative method of manufacture and dls-
implement is tried out. tribution has impelled the manage
MACHINES MANUFACTURED AT to quadruple the capacity ot the
PLANO factory. Pinna have been drawn and
work on the new buildings will begin
The Independent Harvester Com- next spring,
pany is making a mower, a standard
sulky plow, a standard gang plow, a
harrow made in two, three, or four j
sections with thirty teeth to a sec in Investing in the stock of this or-
tion and a disk harrow of very supe- ganization the American farmer is tak-
VE8TMENT.
is also ing no chance whatever, for, many
bind times, the saving on implements
own machinery.
HIGH PRICES OF MACHINERY SET
FARMERS TO THINKING.
Other reasons? Well, the high
prices of machinery had begun to
gall him, even if he could afford to
j the company and plans are now un farmers themselves, a factory that
der way towards the cementing more
| closely together the members of the
j company, and towards perpetuating
, in concrete form the principles which
- govern it.
On every side of farm life Science
pay the price. Then, again, were not j >* prodding us Incessantly Jo new
the first Inventors of modern farm
machinery themselves farmers? Jeth-
ro Wood, the Inventor of the modern
plow, was a Quaker farmer of New
York State. Cyrus McCormick and
C. W. Marsh built their first reapers
in a barnyard on a farm.
Here wag the whole thing in a nut-
shell. The American farmer had
ideas, new plans and new activities.
Modern machinery has lifted farm
1 work from a drudgery and made it
an exciting race.
Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas
would never sell out to a trust or
merger?
On Jan. 11, 1906, W. C. Thompson
j made a proposition to the Kendall
J County Farmers' Institute for the or-
ganization of the Farmers' Indepen.
dent Harvester Company of Plano,
j He recommended that this company
- be owned, managed and operated up-
jon a co-operative profit sharing plan
by the farmers of the Uhl ted States.
It was decided at this meeting that
and the rest are running neck and j the time bad come for the farmer to
neck in the raising of corn, oats and go into the manufacturing business,
wheat. They were tired of purchasing farm
Exciting, is it not? Ana - • An- j implements at prices that were not
been so busy feeding his 90,000,000 j other race is on, more exciting, more regulated by values given.
was passed and yielded readily to the
new order of things. So the city man,
the manufacturer, made money at
the expense of the American farmer,
and the latter began to pay a higher
price each year for everything he
used, until today he is the largest
consumer and pays the highest prices
of any farmer in the world.
Evolution of Co-operative idea.
All of the co-operative movements
spring from the same motive—viz:
that of self-betterment. And yet. i
curiously enough the transition ot 1
the farmer from a grower into a man-
ufacturer preceded the entire co-op :
erative movement. We can explain
this best by giving a short survey of
the trend of agriculture in the state
of Wisconsin.
In 1880 Wisconsin had 2.000,000
acres in wheal, 1,000,000 in oats,
about 1,000,000 in corn, and 200,000 in
barley. Wheat was the big crop—the
money crop. The ylend was good, the
sale for cash always possible. But
the development of the railroads and
the cansequent settlement of the vast
areas of wheat lands in the United
States and of tbeworld iu general in- i
creased immediately the supply of,
wheat and battered down the price
end the profit. So the Wisconsin j
France have their quota, and little
Denmark, the richest farming country
per capita in Europe, has 37,lo0.
children that he had overlooked the
fact that he was losing one of Die big
opportunities of his !ite
Just think of it. The very man
who knew most about this business
and who had originated most of the
labor saving devices in use on his ow n
farm was actually not in thp game.
And. the farmer could not get. into
the game. He could not get into the
ue and get a square deal, notwitb
finding all his surplus cash. He
was being exploited. He was being
made a fool of. They were playing
I strenuous, and far more Important-j Thls Bman g(lthpring of fannprB
the race between the farmer-ln-the-1 Btarted R ro<,perat.i¥P movement
' segregate and aggregations of eapi amnnB themselves that has grown to
tal, the race between the farmer iover 25.000 BI<K,khold(,rB. |<K.ated in
manufacturer and trust-power, the
race between co-operation and greed
onMANCE OF THE REAPER
BEGUN AT PLANO.
Why Plano, Illinois, was chosen as
the place where the American farmer
sRued his first defi to the harvester
trust by starting an implement fa"
lory of his own, which has grown in
th his money. When they wanted years to enormous proportions, is
more of it, all they had to do was jeaBUy told For Plano is the j
f the first American reaper It was j
twenty states; and six years ago
rior quality. This company
manufaituring a light drsf* — _____
ed equipped with self aligning boxes bought during oue year will more «h»q
and adjusting devices, the most im- equal the total amount of his stock In-
proved of any on the market today. vestment, and when his dividends am
PORTABLE GRAIN ELEVATOR, added to this, one can readily sen
The company is also making a port how wisely each aud every stock-
able grain elevator to handle cob corn, holder has employed his money.
Hinall grain and silage. It is built of Twenty-five thousand American
the best materials on the most lm j farmers, a vast army In Itself, and
proved lines. This elevator is mount- each and every one buying all of his
ed on transport trucks so that It can machines from his own company.
10 e-aslly moved from one part of the Even though implements were sold to
farm to another wherever it Is needed. - stockholders only, think of 25,000 reg-
In addition to these* machines the ular buyers. This In Itself Is basis
company Is also making an indepen for a wonderful business. These srs
dent manure spreader with a steel customers who will never be lost. This
heater with teeth arranged dffferen. business requires no expensive sell-
tially along th* tooth bars, assuring i,lg organization, for each and every
a uniform and steady spread the full one l8 a filing agent h,ma<(,f and
ith of the spreader. Oas engines j ,his means certain, uninterrupted bus-
,ire also among the machines manu- lm,B8 regardless of financial condl-
factured by the company. These en tions throughout the business world,
pines have the self contained open The farmer today who Invests In the
water jacket top with no batteries or independent Harvester Company's
spark colls to get In trouble, because j ilock ig taking a long „tep f(>rward
Ignition is produced by an automatic He Is putting himself In a position
where he can make money on his own
purchases rather than pay the profit
to some one else.
Through conservative management,
efficient executives and careful con.
high
THE BIRTH OF COOPERATIVE
MOVEMENT IN U. S.
Before 1890 groups of farmers were
meeting In hundreds of communities
in the north central states and dis-
cussing the question of railroad regu-
lation and the storage of grain. They
brought about the most wonderful re
forms which have been secured by
any country at any time. Out of It
all grew the different state railway
and warehouse commissions, the inter-|arm( (J v,cUln and with pointPd
state commerce commission, the anti- j ¥0,ver bld„ h,m Btand and . ..
,r„r, >-tion and various other I
, _ . __________ But, why prolong the arguup
measures for popular government.
! The American Farmer Is, perhaps, came the
But better even than all three r* j Jo 8Uffering an(i ,)aUpntt buL h,
forms-the farmers made up their I got tired holding up bis hands
to add a little on to the price of the
reaper, and presto—they hud his
money with the same ease
as the
I hold-up man when he catches his un
farmer decided to grow less wheat
and more of other things. In 1909 the , aplenty lying all around him.
wheat area was only 140.000 acres For the American farmer had
minds to help themselves directly by
building elevators of their own and
after many uphill fights with the rail-
roads and private elevators the first
farmers' elevators in the United
| States were started about tewnty-
! three years ago. Today $20,000,000 Is
; iivested in farmers' elevators and
warehouses in the north centra!
states, doing a gross selling business
of $250,000,000 a year.
THE FARM MACHINERY PROBLEM
It was about midway in this period
that the farmer took the time to look
into the big problem a bigger one
than he had ever tackled before—or I
making his own farm macMnedy and J machinery sales approximating over
selling it to himself If be needed a i half a million dollars annually, and
reason or excuse for going into this!turning out 22 d'fferem machines is
phase of industrial activity there!'*-- —-»t of this effort on the part
were excuse*, reasons and precedents i -f the American Fanner to get ins:de
j of his own kingdom
Six years ago the
; It would have been different if he
• 'o his pockets, as —- •'
[case in former years. "The man with
J nothing in his pockets can w histle
j the presence of the robber." But
! now it was different w-tth th-
His pockets were bulgir--
1 own wealth. **••* “ *•*«« In an effort
to retain this wealth, to conserve his
resources for himself and his poster-
ity that he went into business of
manufacturing *-'- e~•> machinery
The Independent Harvester Com
pany of Plano, with its twenty-five
housand members, with
agencies in thirteen dlffc- -• -tstes
built in 1843 on the old Steward and
hti Hollister. Marcus Steward be
ing the grandfather of William fleer
ing Steward, the present Mayor of
Plano. This machine cut twenty-five
harvests Then, in 1857. Plano he
birthplace of the second
American reapei, the Marsh Harvest
er, invented by ('. W and W. W.
>rsh The Marsh brothers, wj.o
high tension ignitor similar to
priced automobiles.
Tin- Farmers' Co-operative Compa
nv of Plano claims the distinction of
being the first organization In the
I States that established a pre- i nervation of stock and resources the
there were less than half a hundred. |o««l<*nt or distributing the profits of , independent Harvester Company is
The organization was promoted to manufacture to the many. Mr ablp to make prices below those of
meet existing conditions. The farm j Thompson claims this method willj„te ,mp|Pmrnt trust and still show to
ers were believers In the old adage prove to b.* the very foundation of es - j ,hp .uoekbnldent a very handsome
that "Heaven helps those who help j tabllsfcing a higher standard of living proflt When it Is considered *bat
every farmer stockholder who buys a
machine from the Independent Har-
vester Company is paying a profit to
When it becomes universal the
high cost.-of-living problem will have
been solved, because all consumers
then w-il! be compelled to produce
themselves "
TM- /"V OPERATIVE PLAN A SUC-
CESS.
The plan on which the company
was organized was right in principle
and Us success was therefore an
among the farmers.
SOLVES GREAT PROBLEM
sured. Today there are 25,000 what they consume either individually
AMERICAN FARMERS who. through <>r by co operation
the INDEPENDENT HARVESTER
COMPANY,, make all of their own
machinery and implements and have
enough left over to supply their neigh
hors
BACK TO THE OLD HOME TOWN
Thus has the sequel to the Ro-
mance of the Reaper” been written in
The publicity force back of this
n,■ co-operative movement
great factor. Until now the work has
gone on steadily and surely without
publicity. But the farmer knew the
time would come when their princi-
ples must be heralded to the peoph-
of the United States through Die pres-
made the first plan of their machine the old town where the scenes of the °f the country.
whistle Rr*
in their home town of DeKalb, 111.,
built a dozen machines in 1860 The
machines proved fro frail for the har
! vest of that year, and the War*h
brothers were on the point of giving
up. w hen they prevailed upon !.ea js
help them. For many years Marsh
harvesters were manufactured in
Steward, son of Marcus Steward, to
Plano, large factories were built there,
and the machines were sold all over
the world The twine binder, the
-otter and other important additions
to the harvester were all invented and
made in Plano
Then, in the early seventies the
Marsh Harvester Company passed in !
to the ownership of William fleer-
ing, and in 1880 William Deering
moved to his present location in
North Chicago leaving the big factor-
first great chapter in American farm
i ing were laid The progress of
American Farming has returned to
the old town for a new Impetus and
sit has found it In the co-operative
| plan that has been tried aud found
effective.
The 25.000 farmers have investi-
gated the workings of this remark
able co-operative plant and have been
so convinced by the things that they
have seen and the facts that they
heve *--■—r; shown that each and every-
one considered it advisable to invest j
his money in the Independent Har. !
With this end in view they have
been compiling and storing away in
’ - refernce department a wealth of
information pertaining to every coop-
erative enterprise )n the world The
jhlmself you can gee the reason for
the wonderful growth of this institu-
tion
Every implement Is constructed to
; fill a definite farm need In the most
’practhal way that farmers know, and
if any one knows what the farmer
• • •-* it l« the farmer himself,
in these machines, built for them-
the "Farmers’ Company" has
first put In a hugh amount of quality.
Every device, every scheme for im-
the machines Is tried out In
actual us*- on the large experimental
farm before being incorporated Into
any of the machine* for sale Thus
every Implement i“ th-erotically and
-radically perfect before it leaves
-he factory.
THE INDEPENDENT HARVEST
farmers' cooperative organization has j Kit COMPANY Invites you to come to
therefore the best and most exclu j Plano, 111., and see this romarkabl*
«lve data obtainable In regard to the jcoKtperat,ve plant—the largest In the
world Get down to the home of the
greatest movement that has been
science and practice of co-operation
GAIN FOR THE COUNTRY
started in America in the last twenty
years learn the Romance of the
lieaiwvr from men still living who
wore on the ground when this groat
Invention first established itself as a
iccess Come into the library of this
n j great co-operative plant and learn
glstance of a handful of farmers in j the Interest of co-operation j the science of farming economic*.
Kendall County, Illinois, this remark- j The opening of the co-operative i Let us demonstrate to you thst ♦*•*-
able organization is growing by leaps I plant has attracted 566 workmen and i great co-operative plan will maka
and bounds and today the territory | their families from many states j money FOR YOU.
vester Company
Started six years ago.
This knowledge is now being given
to the country at large, through the j
(medium of a magazine published in
| Piano. The first number of this perl-*!
odical appeared recently and Is the]
with the as- ] roost authentic literature know n
Address INDEPENDENT HARVESTER CO., Oklahoma City, Okla.
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Stallard, H. H. Social Democrat (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 1, No. 51, Ed. 1 Wednesday, February 5, 1913, newspaper, February 5, 1913; (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc942140/m1/3/: accessed April 23, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.