Summary Information
American Society of Equity. Wisconsin State Union: Records
1907-1934
- American Society of Equity. Wisconsin State Union
Wis Mss LR; PH 6721
0.8 cubic feet (2 archives boxes and 5 volumes) and 3 photographs (1 oversize folder and 1 folder)
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Records of the Wisconsin State Union of the American Society of Equity, a farmers' organization for the promotion of cooperative commodity marketing and cooperative ownership of factories and retail outlets. Records consist of proceedings of state conventions, 1916, 1917, and 1919; minutes of the state executive committee and board of directors, 1919-1934; quarterly financial reports of the state union, 1921-1934; and proceedings of national conventions which met in Wisconsin in 1917 and 1920.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-wis000lr ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
The American Society of Equity was organized at Indianapolis, Indiana, February 1903, and the Wisconsin organization was formally launched in January 1906. Dissolution of the state organization came about when its executive committee adopted a resolution on August 15, 1934 assigning all assets and liabilities to a new organization to be formed under the name of Farmers' Educational and Cooperative Equity Union of America, Wisconsin Division.
According to its by-laws, the state organization was primarily interested in spreading the benefits of cooperative marketing. In this connection, it was at various times concerned with the cooperative marketing of wheat, wool, tobacco, potatoes, and livestock; cooperative slaughtering and meat packing; and the production and sale of products by farmers and workmen in factories and stores owned by themselves.
See also Theodore Saloutos, “The Wisconsin Society of Equity,” in
Agricultural History, April 1940.
Scope and Content Note
The collection consists of official records of the state union, including five volumes of the proceedings of annual state conventions, namely those at Chicago, December 14-16, 1916; Green Bay, December 4-6, 1917; Wausau, December 11-14, 1917; Madison, December 18-22, 1919; and Milwaukee, November 30-December 3, 1920. One box of material consists of the minutes of meetings of the executive committee of the Wisconsin Union, December 8, 1919 to August 15, 1934, and a second box comprises a number of financial reports of the organization for the years 1921 to 1934 (not complete), the articles of organization of the Wisconsin Equity Dairy Marketing Association, 1920, and articles of organization and by-laws of the Equity Dairymen's Cooperative Association, 1921. There is also a copy of the charter of Dane County Union No. 33, 1905, and of Wisconsin Union No. 1, 1914, and a folder of credentials and tables of membership by counties for the Chetek convention in 1933.
The proceedings are very full for the conventions to which they relate, running from 400 to 700 typewritten pages, and include in the text of the proceedings the addresses given by guest speakers. There is much information concerning the farmer viewpoint and at times the viewpoints of other groups such as labor, farm problems (especially the matter of profitably marketing products), cooperative marketing methods, advantages of organization, policies, business affairs, organization finances, membership, cooperative purchasing, agricultural education, personalities connected with the agricultural cooperative movement, and dissensions within the organization. Among the names of guest speakers are those of Daniel W. Hoan, Milwaukee mayor, Philip Grau, secretary of the Milwaukee chamber of commerce, C.P. Norgard, state commissioner of agriculture, Frank L. Glynn, secretary of the state board of vocational education, Edward Nordman, director of the state marketing commission, L.P. Johnson, former secretary of the state organization of North Dakota, C[harles] A. Lyman of the National Board of Farm Organizations, John A. McSperran, master of the Grange of Pennsylvania, and Henry Ohl and J.J. Handley of the Wisconsin Federation of Labor.
The minutes of meetings are not so complete as to information as the convention proceedings, but they are continuous, and trace the history of the organization through the years after the First World War, years which witnessed the gradual decline of the organization from the high point it reached in membership and importance, during and just after the war. Some of the subjects to which the minutes relate are the business affairs of the organization, financial matters (particularly the problem of a large indebtedness in the 1920s), membership, publication of the organization paper, the Equity News, general policies, dissensions, and personalities connected with the movement.
A few of the names of prominence in the Equity movement which appear at various times in the collection include those of George A. Nelson, Ben Lang, D.O. Mahoney, B.J. Gehrmann, E.C. Pommerening, J.B. Houston, F.J. Hertzfeld, and J.N. Tittemore.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Two volumes containing the proceedings of the fourteenth and fifteenth annual national conventions were presented by Magnus Brown, March 1942. Accession Number: M2013-120
Contents List
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Wis Mss LR
Box
1
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Minutes of meetings, 1919-1934
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Box
2
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Financial reports, articles of organization, by-laws
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Proceedings of State Conventions
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Volume
1
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Chicago, 1916 December 12-14
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Volume
2
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Green Bay, 1917 December 4-6
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Volume
3
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Wausau, 1917 December 11-14
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Volume
4
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Madison, 1919 December 18-22
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Volume
5
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Milwaukee, 1920 November 30-December 3
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PH 6721
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Photographs
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Folder
1
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Group portrait: delegates at National Convention, Indianapolis, 1907
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Panoramic portraits
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Oversize Folder
1
Pan Box
3
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13th Annual Convention, Madison, Wisconsin, 1918
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Oversize Folder
1
Pan Box
3
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Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1920
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