by Ben Bailey
The following is reprinted from a column entitled MEMORY LANE written by Lettie Little Pabst and appeared in the Pratt Tribune Thursday, February 11, 1965.
All of the directors currently serving at the time of the writing of this article are now deceased with the exception of Virgil Smith who now resides in Pratt. All the directors who were serving in 1965 were known personally by this writer.
Pratt Equity Exchange - 1965
Much talking and planning preceded that eventful meeting when fifty Pratt County farmers of unusual vision banded together and organized the Pratt Equity Exchange August 4, 1914 for the good of all.
Admittedly, some records have been lost, but what follows is the record as given by the Pratt Equity Exchange Board of today and as recalled by charter members still living.
J. L. Pipkin, one of the fifty charter members and Secretary of the Pratt Equity Exchange for the first twenty-one years, recalls that the meeting to organize was held in the Court Room of the Pratt County Court House. Both Mr. Pipkin and F. F. Reschke state that the Pratt Equity Exchange was organized under the guidance of C. O. Drayton of Ohio (official organizer) according to the Rochdale Cooperative Plan of England.
Mr. Reschke says it was Oliver Bailey who brought the idea of such an organization to Pratt County farmers from Bloom, Kansas where a similar organization had been started by farmers of that area in 1911 and “thirty-four men subscribed to stock in this cooperative venture” according to Jay Andrews recent writing in “The History of Bloom.”
It is believed that the Bloom farmers were the first men to form a cooperative grain company in this part of the country. And that the Pratt County Farmers were the second. The idea was new…almost unheard of hitherto!
The very idea of farmers cooperating to help solve their own problems and to secure a just share of the profits on their own products was indeed new!
True, some local business men had organized what was called a Farmers Union Elevator, but the membership was limited and the organization soon failed. Mr. J. F. Harkrader had bought out the firm but when the Pratt Equity Exchange wished to buy him out he declared he did not wish to sell but would sell rather than compete with a local farmers’ cooperative elevator. He then was made the first manager of the Equity. Even thought the Farmers Union had failed some of these same men and many others assembled to organized the Pratt Equity Exchange August 4, 1914.
Cooperatives were but a dream in those days but such men of courage and determination as were most of these charter members felt that their dream of working together for the common good must not fail.
The organization was simple: name, Pratt Equity Exchange, purpose-organized for profit in buying and selling flour, meal, feed, grain, coal, etc. on a cooperative plan.
No person shall be allowed to own more than 10% of the capital stock of this corporation. Each member shall be entitled to vote for each director to be elected.
Place of business-Pratt.
Capital stock shall be $10,000 divided into 400 shares of $25.00 value. A member may purchase six shares, his limit of $150.00 all at once or he may buy one share and allow his annual proration to buy the rest.
The first directors were: C. Fincham, J. L. Jackson, J. L. Pipkin, J. D. Hill and J. R. Riney.
Of the fifty charter members, the following are still living: Ray D. Clark, J. L. Pipkin, F. F. Reschke, O. L. Miller and C. D. Pipkin. Ray D. Clark is President of the Pratt Equity Exchange today, 1965.
From the start the Pratt Equity Exchange has been a success…not that there were no problems. There were plenty of problems for competition was keen. The Mill and Elevator across the street to the south seemed determined the Equity should fail. One of the Mill men said to an Equity stockholder “You can’t win! You just can’t. You see, we have the money and we can force you out of business!”
As J. L. Pipkin recalls, they sought to get the Equity to agree to pay the same price and pay less but the Equity refused. Next, the wished credit for half sold in the north end and vise versa. Again they offered to give the Equity four cents for every bushel they’d run through the Mill elevator but they’d set the price and do the grading. The Equity remained independent.
Last and worst of all, the competitors upped the price for grain ten cents per bushel more that the Equity could afford to pay.
“It looked as if the Equity might fail” recalls Mr. Pipkin, “But do you know, the farmers who were not even members and must lose by patronizing the Equity remained loyal to the farmers organization and saved the day! You see what these farmers lost paid the Equity expenses and remember they received no refund for they were not yet stockholders.”
“The success of the Pratt Equity Exchange has been due to many things,” Mr. Pipkin declares. “Success was due to the great need for such an organization, the loyalty of the members and even of non-member farmers, to good management and to the fact that there was never a quarrel among board members.
Ray D. Clark, President was one of the original fifty charter members. He has been on the board since 1918 and has been President since 1944. His heart is in the organization to which he has given much, much time and in which he has carried heavy responsibility for decades. Floyd Moon has been a member of the board for twenty-seven years and knows and understands the work thoroughly. Donald Fincham is the grandson of C. Fincham one of the fifty. Donald is Vice President. He has studied the problems of modern elevator for many years and has been on the board for twelve or thirteen years.
Edwin McGuire’s father, R. E. (Rolin) McGuire was a charter member and Edwin himself has served as board member fourteen years. Virgil Smith is the newest member but he has served for seven years.
Curtis Huitt is Pratt Equity Exchange manager and has worked at the Equity for fifteen years and been manager for last seven years. These men have all been proved.
They report that the original elevator was of wood and had a twenty thousand bushel capacity. Their present capacity is 1,000,000. The board members of today Clark, Fincham, Moon, McGuire, Smith and Manager Huitt wish it to be known that the Pratt Equity Exchange does pay taxes to the extent of $17,500 on personal and real estate owned…the largest taxpayer in the City of Pratt are in the upper ten in the county.
The board states that refunds last year amounted $126,274.84. They report that the total refund for the fifty years amounts to $1,457,987.93. The five percent paid annually on stock has amounted to $148,900.00. Assets of today are $1,173,000.00. The Equity has been doing a $2,000,000.00 business the last three years. Capital stock today is $400.00. Seventeen employs do the work of the Equity today.
Mr. Huitt states that originally the business transactions were simple but since the government has become so much involved in the farmer’s business “I must hire one man full time and he must be a trained expert to handle that part of the business.”
Mr. Huitt says the work of the Equity is divided into three departments: feed, grain and petroleum. The petroleum is comparatively new as is the feed mixing work.
Equity managers have been J. V. Harkrader, Vernon McGathon, Guy Sitton who served for thirty years, John Baker, Lloyd Greenstreet and Curtis Huitt, who has been the manager the last seven years.
Many, many people have served the Equity loyally and well. H. C. Bailey was President of the board for many years about the time Guy Sitton was manager and Walker Crossfield the bookkeeper. These men worked when depression and lack of equipment made the work difficult. Recently the large new office has been remodeled after a design made by Benny Bailey who works in the office. Low counters are featured and over all vision.
Ray D. Clark, President since 1944, knows well the history of the organization. He states that the highest price paid was $3.25 per bushel of wheat. He says that he himself grew nervous and sold more than 900 bushels at $3.10 barely missing the top price of ever paid by the organization. These prices were paid during the first World War.
But prices were very low in the depression when much wheat was purchased for twenty-five cents and some it is believed for twenty-three cents. Stockholders began to wonder if the whet would pay the storage for a year even. Perhaps that was the one year when no refunds were given.
Mr. Clark believes that the Pratt Equity Exchange, being a farmers co-op, has been of real service in the community. Now 662 stockholders share in annual profits. The money is for the most part given to local men and is spent locally.
Pratt community and Pratt farmers particularly owe much to the original fifty who met August 4, 1914 to organize one of the first Farmers Cooperative organizations in this part of the world. It took courage but they were men of vision and they were practical men who made their vision come true.
