INTERVIEWER'S OPENING COMMENT
Scope and Content Note: Lenz first manager of Wisconsin Association of Cooperatives (WAC).

WILLIAM SANDERSON INVITES LENZ TO INTERVIEW FOR MANAGER'S POSITION
Scope and Content Note: Sanderson long-time activist in cooperatives and experienced in legislative work; secretary to Wisconsin congressman Merlin Hull.

LENZ'S EARLIER COOPERATIVE EXPERIENCE
Scope and Content Note: Up to that time youngest director ever of Midland Cooperative Wholesale. An organizer and manager of Merrill Farmers' Cooperative, one of state's largest co-ops in size and earnings. Wide variety of membership services, including funeral, grocery, hardware, oil products, farm machinery.

WAC AND WISCONSIN FARMERS UNION COMPETE FOR LENZ
Scope and Content Note: State WFU president Ken Hones wanted Lenz to run WFU insurance company. Sanderson approached Lenz on basis of Hones' assessment of his qualifications.

OPENS WAC OFFICE AT MADISON IN
Scope and Content Note: Brought secretary from Merrill; she was “very aggressive” and “very good on the telephone.” Encouraged members' use of WAC resources.

PERSONAL CONTACT LENZ'S PREFERRED METHOD OF WORKING
Scope and Content Note: Averaged fifteen visits each week; brought 30-35 new members into WAC during first year.

WAC MEMBERSHIP GROWTH
Scope and Content Note: Asked local members which key individuals to buttonhole in non-member cooperatives around the state. Took along information and materials on National Tax Equality League [National Tax Equality Association], private cheesemakers, and other anti-cooperative organizations in Wisconsin. WAC served as authoritative source of information on cooperative movement, and legislative lobbying voice in Madison.

MILES McMILLIN HELPS WRITE WAC NEWSLETTER
Scope and Content Note: McMillin then a Madison Capital Times reporter. Owner William Evjue approved of McMillin's involvement.

WAC ENDORSES WALTER GOODLAND FOR GOVERNOR
Scope and Content Note: Evjue objected but remained silent in light of Goodland's promises to allow WAC to name one appointment to state Department of Agriculture and one to University of Wisconsin Board of Regents.

REASONS FOR GOV. GOODLAND'S POPULARITY
Scope and Content Note: Recognized agriculture's dominance in Wisconsin. Although “conservative” Republican, he was popular because he was honest, and divided his appointments among all interest groups.

WAC FILLS VOID LEFT BY WISCONSIN COUNCIL OF AGRICULTURE (WCA)
Scope and Content Note: WCA emphasized producer co-ops; ignored most other types of co-ops. Executive secretary Milo K. Swanton dominated Council, whose directors represented different interests than WAC: (1) Dairy cooperatives didn't really have earnings to distribute; (2) Dairy co-ops involved in competitive market, while REA and consumer co-ops wanted to make purchases at lower cost.

WCA LOBBYISTS NOT IN TOUCH WITH MEMBER COOPERATIVES
Scope and Content Note: Unlike WAC lobbyists, who consulted members whenever unsure of direction to take.

WAC SELDOM OPPOSES OTHER FARMERS' ORGANIZATIONS
Scope and Content Note: Worked with Farm Bureau on issues pertaining to cooperatives as state organizations. Only important disagreements with other farmers' organizations over NTEA activities, distribution of commodities, and farm acreage “set-aside” issue.

LENZ FIRST AGRICULTURAL REPRESENTATIVE TO SPEAK TO WISCONSIN FEDERATION OF LABOR CONVENTION
Scope and Content Note: Organized labor wanted good relations with agriculture to begin organizing rural co-op workers; also wanted to reduce cost of commodities purchased by urban workers. Agriculture in turn wanted support from labor in starting co-op stores and in legislative lobbying. Tells anecdote about labor cooperation on particular legislative bill.^[1]

WAC BOARD SUPPORTS LENZ ON LABOR ISSUES
Scope and Content Note: Board supported farmer-labor ties; labor weaker and less active in organizing cooperative employees than in 1979.

STRONG PERSONAL CONTACT AND ORGANIZED CONSTITUENT PRESSURE SECRET TO SUCCESSFUL LOBBYING
Scope and Content Note: Maintained list of twenty or more constituents of each legislator to carry out telephone campaigns. Could make many calls for organized action just before bill voted on.

DESCRIBES LOBBYING EFFORT ONCE DIRECTED AGAINST ANTI-COOPERATIVE MEASURE SUPPORTED BY STATE SENATOR VERNON THOMSON
Scope and Content Note: Support of farm people made Lenz's efforts successful.

LENZ MAINTAINS TWO RECORDS OF LEGISLATORS' ATTITUDES
Scope and Content Note: Carried small black book for recording voting, attitudes, and constituents' opinions of legislators. Office files from 1945 to 1948 contained voting records of less supportive legislators.

REGIONAL AND STATEWIDE MEMBERS HAVE NO GREATER INFLUENCE THAN SMALLER MEMBERS
Scope and Content Note: Difficult for regionals to oppose locals who were customers. Although larger co-ops paid higher dues, each organization had one vote. Lenz spent little time “nosing” at regionals.

INFLUENCE OF BILL SANDERSON, MELVIN MASON, WILLIAM RABE IN WAC
Scope and Content Note: Each represented a co-op but important as individuals. Bill Sanderson “never figured that he represented the regionals. He always considered himself himself and a top lobbyist in Washington, and he was.”

KENNETH HONES WORKS WITH WAC
Scope and Content Note: Persuaded several local Farmers' Union boards to join WAC; lobbied cooperatively with WA Hones an individualist, a stubborn person who always accomplished what he promised to do.

WAC STAFF,
Scope and Content Note: Added two office workers and two field organizers, who spent all their time on the road. Organizers must know farmers' problems and speak to their problems in their terms. Lenz sent one organizer back to talk again with people who had complained he talked over their heads, instructing him to change vocabulary and not to tell farmers what they “should” do.

MEMBERSHIP GROWTH,
Scope and Content Note: Included all rural electrification cooperatives (REAs) and farm supply co-ops, nearly all shipping associations, and many small producer co-ops, often cheese factories.

MANY LARGE CHEESE PRODUCERS JOIN WAC
Scope and Content Note: Some left Wisconsin Council of Agriculture (WCA) to join WAC; others maintained membership in both. Lenz argued that dairy farmers' dependence on co-ops was stronger than that co-op's need for a particular cheese plant. WCA involvement with groups that were not pro-agriculture caused dissatisfaction among some of its members.

NOT ALL CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE ARE ANTI-AGRICULTURE
Scope and Content Note: Cites example of one southeastern Wisconsin chamber which favored co-op stores as means to stabilize prices. Milwaukee chamber (Association of Commerce) strongly anti-WAC

WOMEN'S AND YOUNG PEOPLE'S INVOLVEMENT IN LOCAL RURAL GROUPS
Scope and Content Note: WAC especially interested in 4-H and Future Farmers of America groups.

LITTLE CONFLICT AMONG VARIOUS WAC MEMBER ORGANIZATIONS
Scope and Content Note: All recognized that they worked for the farmer, although educational organization brought up subjects that were “not part of the regular cooperatives material.”

REJECTS “STANDARD” ECONOMIC THEORY OF PRICE INFLATION
Scope and Content Note: Highest cost and profit go to middlemen between producer and final sale.

STRENGTH OF TWO-PARTY SYSTEM
Scope and Content Note: Democrat and Republican labels don't always reflect individuals' view of issues.

WAC DIRECTORS PERMIT STRONG STANDS
Scope and Content Note: Directors understood an outspoken person necessary for effective lobbying, public appearances. Lenz describes own style as “a little loud, but always considerate.”

CONTRASTS SELF TO WCA'S MILO K. SWANTON
Scope and Content Note: Lenz tried to represent people, respected individual's right to form own opinion. Swanton carried grudges against some of own Council of Agriculture directors and against Lenz.

WAC AND WCA DO NOT WORK TOGETHER
Scope and Content Note: Did not actively lobby for each other's bills even when they agreed on the issue. Lenz aware of WCA's internal problems through contacts with some of Council directors.

RED-BAITING TACTIC BACKFIRES, HELPS WAC DEFEAT STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE CANDIDATE
Scope and Content Note: Cooperatives opposed appointment of cheesemakers association representative to State Board of Agriculture. Senator [Gordon A.] Bubolz tried to blunt opposition to [Leonard E.] Kopitzke by accusing Lenz of Communistic ideas. Newspapers' and even conservative legislators' defense of Lenz increased votes against Kopitzke's appointment; WAC nominee eventually received appointment.

BUBOLZ TACTICS AS FORERUNNER OF McCARTHYISM
Scope and Content Note: Red-baited liberals or any who disagreed with him.

LENZ BECOMES DEMOCRAT IN
Scope and Content Note: Had been a staunch Progressive Party member, but wanted a party more involved and influential in national legislation. Knows many who had become Democrats before 1945, but now prefers not to name them. Has been a middle-of-the-road or conservative Democrat with strong support of commodity organizations and people's rights.

UNHAPPY WITH ROBERT LA FOLLETTE'S DECISION TO RETURN TO REPUBLICANS
Scope and Content Note: Lenz did not vote in 1946 senatorial election.

ACTIVE DANE COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PARTY MEMBER
Scope and Content Note: Gives financial help and lends his influence to people in power.

HELPS ENACT PREPAID HEALTH PLAN LEGISLATION IN
Scope and Content Note: Convinced cooperative members that plan would benefit their children as laborers or civil service employees. American Medical Association hostile to WAC and Lenz.

GENERAL SATISFACTION WITH WAC'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS,
Scope and Content Note: Recalls no major disappointments, but feels one can always do better. Lack of money to hire staff biggest hindrance.

COMMENTS ON CONTEMPORARY COOPERATIVE LOBBYING
Scope and Content Note: Sponsoring bills unrelated to agricultural interests only makes enemies and loses votes.

MEMBERSHIP OF SUBSEQUENT LEGISLATURES LITTLE DIFFERENT FROM 1940'S
Scope and Content Note: Conflict between price control and individual profit-making advocates brings conflict among agricultural cooperatives' interests.

WAC LOBBIES WISCONSIN U.S. SENATORS AND CONGRESSMEN DIRECTLY
Scope and Content Note: WAC almost always agreed with Cooperative League's positions. National Association of Cooperatives in 1940's not yet interested in consumer groups. Lenz still has good contacts with legislators' offices.

WAC REPRESENTS BROADER GROUP THAN COUNCIL OF AGRICULTURE IN 1940'S
Scope and Content Note: Attitudes toward business not distinguishing difference. WCA represented producer groups primarily; WAC favored representing all groups which didn't oppose cooperative movement as a whole. Lenz's own private business an example how business not necessarily anti-cooperative.

LENZ LEAVES WAC TO TAKE OVER ALLIS-CHALMERS DEALERSHIP IN SUN PRAIRIE
Scope and Content Note: Wanted to spend more time with family. Earlier Lenz had handled Allis-Chalmers equipment at Merrill co-op. Company in 1948 guaranteed Lenz's half-interest in Hanley Implement Company and also sold Lenz management contract.

ALLIS-CHALMERS' AGGRESSIVENESS APPEALS TO LENZ
Scope and Content Note: Total sales at Hanley rose from $400,000 in 1948 to $4,000,000 annually by time Lenz retired.

HIGH REGARD FOR JACK KYLE, HIS SUCCESSOR AT WAC
Scope and Content Note: Close to Kyle all during years at WAC; Lenz helped to influence Kyle's selection as Wisconsin securities commissioner.

LENZ CONTINUES TO RECRUIT MEMBERS FOR WAC AFTER LEAVING
Scope and Content Note: Kept WAC informed of what he heard about cooperatives among Chamber of Commerce and Implement Dealers Association members; defended cooperatives against criticism by business people.

CONSULTANT TO WISCONSIN FEDERATION OF COOPERATIVES (WFC)
Scope and Content Note: WAC and WCA merged to form WFC.^[2] Lenz able to organize successful on-the-job training program for WFC because he knew how to work with co-op managers. Experience also enabled him to help co-op boards with their problems.

GLENN ANDERSON STRONG EXECUTIVE SECRETARY FOR WFC
Scope and Content Note: Lenz and Anderson frequently disagreed, most often because Anderson wanted to know sources for Lenz's information about organizational matters. Lenz either supported Anderson publicly or said nothing.

CIRCUMSTANCES DELAYING WAC/WCA MERGER
Scope and Content Note: Eliminated some directors' positions; revealed Council of Agriculture's ' financial problems. Financial pinch and member dissatisfaction forced WCA to merge. Many co-ops slow to realize how much WAC could help them in solving organizational problems.

WFC VERY SUCCESSFUL
Scope and Content Note: Anderson's successor as executive secretary, Rod Nilsestuen, hasn't put foot in mouth yet.

LENZES START SUN PRAIRIE GROUNDHOG 4-H CLUB
Scope and Content Note: Involved both farm and city youngsters in wide variety of projects. Recruited able and interested project leaders. Largest club operated by a single member.

4-H OFFERS MORE VARIETY THAN FARMERS UNION YOUTH GROUPS CAN
Scope and Content Note: Lenzes used home and local high school for 4-H meetings. Old members still come to Lenzes for help with problems.

LENZ FAMILY BACKGROUND IN UKRAINE
Scope and Content Note: Lenz born of German farmers in Russia west of Kiev on December 27, 1907. Three other children born between 1911 and 1914.

GERMANS SENT TO SIBERIAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS AFTER OUTBREAK OF WORLD WAR I
Scope and Content Note: Lenzes shipped to Siberia in winter of 1914-1915. Released in January, 1918 after German army broke into Russia.

FAMILY TRAVELS THROUGH COMMUNIST REVOLUTION BATTLE AREA
Scope and Content Note: Russian government ended responsibility for Germans at battlefront. Family travelled by horse-drawn taxi to depot still controlled by regime, and travelled by boxcar to Ukraine.

ESCAPE TO GERMANY,
Scope and Content Note: Five weeks' travel by boxcar required to get to Germany. Father worked at railroad from September, 1918 until July, 1920; then family emigrated to free state of Danzig.

IMMIGRATE TO SOUTH DAKOTA,
Scope and Content Note: Migrated to be farm laborers for mother's aunt in Badger. Moved to Merrill, Wisconsin, in 1924 to work in lumber mills.

NORWEGIAN WOMAN TEACHES LENZ CHILDREN ENGLISH
Scope and Content Note: Eighteen-year-old school teacher, Maude Severson, knew no German; three Lenz children knew no English or Norwegian.^[3] Although Lenz had some German high school education, he began in grade one in South Dakota. He and Ms. Severson still correspond.

LENZ'S EDUCATION AND FIRST JOBS
Scope and Content Note: Completed eighth grade, then attended night school at Merrill business college for three winters. At age twenty-two, completed day school; got diploma. Early jobs at dowel factory, printing office, and canning company shipping office.

ORGANIZER AND EARLY EMPLOYEE OF MERRILL FARMERS COOPERATIVE OIL COMPANY
Scope and Content Note: Became bookkeeper and filling station attendant for cooperative beginning in July, 1931.

LENZ BECOMES MANAGER AFTER SUCCESS WITH FIRST AUDIT
Scope and Content Note: Took books to Midland Cooperative auditing service. After reporting back to Merrill Co-op board, directors offered him manager's job in January, 1932.

SHOPPING CENTER VENTURE BANKRUPTS MERRILL CO-OP BY EARLY
Scope and Content Note: In 1945, Merrill co-op had high earnings and three groceries, four filling stations, hardware store, and funeral home. Poorly located shopping center drained co-op's treasury, resulting in eventual bankruptcy. Midland Cooperative Wholesale the chief creditor; other creditors paid off. New co-op oil company in 1979 is smaller than co-op was after six months in 1932.

MAN COOPERATIVES BEGIN AS OIL COMPANIES
Scope and Content Note: Farmers “felt that they were being held up” by private oil companies. Merrill group wanted to sell hardware, groceries, and farm machinery. Farm machinery store began in 1937.

MIDLAND AND EQUITY LIVESTOCK SHIPPING ASSOCIATION HELP MERRILL CO-OP START
Scope and Content Note: About half of Merrill members also belonged to Equity.

MERRILL CO-OP KEEPS STRONG FARMER-MEMBER BASE
Scope and Content Note: Lenz maintained membership, kept public support - courted advice, hired farm youth to work at co-op. City business never comprised more than fifteen percent of clientele.

FARMERS OF MANY ETHNIC BACKGROUNDS JOIN CO-OP
Scope and Content Note: Board members represented by five districts; two directors-at-large. All farmers representing various membership ethnic backgrounds; cites group of Italian farmers as example.

SUPPLIERS TO MERRILL CO-OP
Scope and Content Note: Midland Cooperative Wholesale supplied all goods except hardware and farm machinery. Merrill handled Allis-Chalmers machinery; also handled J. I. Case for two years. Co-op equipment displayed at county farm machinery exhibits.

PEOPLE'S CONFIDENCE IN MERRILL CO-OP THE REASON FOR ITS SUCCESS
Scope and Content Note: During bank closings in early 1930's, Lenz able to raise cash among farmer-members to release two railway cars full with gasoline. Small bank at Gleason, one of first in Wisconsin to re-open, honored all co-op checks regardless of co-op's balance or which bank check was drawn on.

RELATIONS AMONG DIRECTORS GOOD
Scope and Content Note: Lenz occasionally disagreed with one director, who preferred Farmers' Union Central Exchange to Midland, but they remained friends. Central Exchange not interested then in handling grocery, hardware, and farm machinery.

LENZ HELPS TO START SEPARATE FARMER-RUN FEED AND FERTILIZER STORE
Scope and Content Note: Lenz did not know much about feeds himself. Co-op and feed store made gentleman's agreement that they would not handle same types of merchandise.

VERY DRY, BUT DROUGHT'S EFFECT RELATIVELY SLIGHT IN LINCOLN COUNTY
Scope and Content Note: Hay and grass for feed available.

WORLD WAR II
Scope and Content Note: Lenz not drafted because of poor health.

LENZ DIRECTOR OF MIDLAND WHOLESALE COOPERATIVE,
Scope and Content Note: Helped to instigate firing of general manager E. G. Cort because Cort often defied directors' instructions. Lenz resigned from board in 1941 to get involved in other things.

WORLD WAR II HAS LITTLE EFFECT ON FARM PROSPERITY IN LINCOLN COUNTY
Scope and Content Note: Manufacturing areas prospered; farm prices remained low.

LENZ FARM IN UKRAINE
Scope and Content Note: Equivalent to 40-50 American acres. House and barn in one building. Grew rye and some oats. Hexal, a mixture of chopped straw and beets, fed to horses and cows. Kept three cows, team of horses and stallion for stud. Father went wood-cutting during winter.

LENZ'S SCHOOLING IN UKRAINE
Scope and Content Note: By age seven, had equivalent of two years schooling in German. Learned to write some Russian. Schools in area usually either German or Polish language.

RICH UKRAINE FARMLAND ATTRACTS GERMANS
Scope and Content Note: Russian government lenient as long as able to buy all grain produced by German farmers.

RUSSIANS ROUND UP ALIENS
Scope and Content Note: Compares Siberia experience to internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. Remembers fear and cold. Ten to fifteen families travelled in each boxcar; fed soup once a day. Gave livestock away; left machinery for non-enemy-alien farmers to appropriate. Lenzes exchanged Belgian stud to Catholic priest for transportation to depot.

CAMELS AND HORSES IN SIBERIA
Scope and Content Note: Camels housed inside. Snow deep enough to necessitate tunnelling between farm buildings.

CONCENTRATION CAMP JUST SOUTH OF ARCTIC CIRCLE
Scope and Content Note: Families stayed together, but Russians kept dividing Germans so they wouldn't know one another. Lenz since has been unable to find people from same camp as his.

OATS AN IMPORTANT SIBERIAN CROP
Scope and Content Note: Fuel for camel and horse power.

CAMP LIFE
Scope and Content Note: Lenz family moved to another camp, where they knew no one, after six months. Camps consisted of barracks; each family had own corner; tea; usually cabbage soup and sometimes rice soup once a day. Unable to identify camps because Communists later changed their names.

MOTHER'S SKILL AS SEAMSTRESS HELPS FAMILY
Scope and Content Note: Made over hand-me-downs of families from outside camp, and so Lenzes were better clothed than most camp inmates.

SIGNIFICANCE OF BERING STRAITS AND ALEUTIAN ISLANDS ON ASIAN SETTLEMENT IN ALASKA
Scope and Content Note: More escapees in Siberian army camps during severe winters; many may have gone to Alaska, where there are Russian Orthodox churches and cemeteries.

CONTINUATION OF REMARKS ON ASIAN SETTLEMENT OF ALASKA
Scope and Content Note: Those who disappeared while Europeans believed world was flat actually populated North America. Several people disappeared during Lenz's second winter, a severe one, in Siberia.

INMATES DO ALL WORK IN CONCENTRATION CAMP
Scope and Content Note: No formal inmate councils.

NEWS OF OUTSIDE WORLD
Scope and Content Note: Local farmers the only source. Lenz family always believed they would be released.

GERMAN SOLDIERS FREE CAMP INMATES
Scope and Content Note: Little resistance by Russian soldiers because German invasion of Russia and internal revolution more immediate concerns. Russians provided boxcars to carry German nationals to their points of origin. Boxcars left within a day of soldiers' arrival.

GERMANS' UKRAINE HOMES NO LONGER STANDING
Scope and Content Note: After return to Ukraine, four German families shared schoolhouse as residence; worked and began scheming to leave Russia. Lenz's father disappeared” to cross border as soon as family resettled in Ukraine.

LENZES FOLLOW ESTABLISHED UNDERGROUND ROUTE OUT OF RUSSIA
Scope and Content Note: Trip across Polish and German borders took thirty days.

SETTLE IN LOBLAU, SOUTH OF DANZIG, WITH FATHER'S FAMILY
Scope and Content Note: Uncles in army, aunts farming. Lenz's father worked on railroad and farmed. Children attended school.

LENZ CHILDREN ATTEND CHRISTIAN SCHOOL IN SIBERIA
Scope and Content Note: “My mother kept us absolutely busy on schoolwork.”

GRANDFATHER HERTER RESPECTED TEACHER IN KIEV THROUGHOUT COMMUNIST REGIME
Scope and Content Note: Mother's brothers and brothers-in-law shot when Communists took over Ukraine; her father spared for use as teacher. Still taught Russian diplomats at age 97; survived Stalinist purges because taught mixed classes at that time. Lenzes heard from him very infrequently.

HERTER UNCLE MAY HAVE SURVIVED COMMUNIST FIRING SQUAD
Scope and Content Note: Lenzes received name and address through Canadian connections. Letters in German and Russian have brought no response from purported relative. Does not believe person involved is his uncle.

LENZ REFUSES TO TRAVEL TO RUSSIA OR EUROPE
Scope and Content Note: Turned down opportunity for U.S. Department of Agriculture tour.

MOTHER ACCEPTS AUNT'S OFFER TO BRING LENZES TO SOUTH DAKOTA
Scope and Content Note: Aunt offered one year's work on farm. Lenzes found life in Germany very difficult; mother eager to join relatives in South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Canada, and father did not object.

SHIP FROM DANZIG TO LIVERPOOL TO ELLIS ISLAND
Scope and Content Note: Brought only clothes. Seasick on both voyages; Lenz over-ate abundance of food on Danzig ship.

AUNT PAYS FAMILY'S PASSAGE
Scope and Content Note: Lenzes lost all money that was still in Germany.

STATUE OF LIBERTY HIGHLIGHT OF ARRIVAL; OUTSTANDING EVENT IN LENZ'S LIFE
Scope and Content Note: “Nothing in this world that I would see that's earthly that did more to me than the Statue of Liberty.” Prepared for conditions at Ellis Island; found food there palatable.

TRAIN RIDE ACROSS NORTHERN U.S. TO BADGER, SOUTH DAKOTA
Scope and Content Note: “We were very happy people...,we were just enthused of the things we saw, and especially the farmland.”

AUNT'S FAMILY PROSPEROUS FARMERS
Scope and Content Note: Farmed one-half section including farm which aunt's husband had inherited; employed Lenzes for two years. Raised all rye and corn; first time Lenz had seen corn.

LARGE-SCALE AMERICAN FARMING
Scope and Content Note: Plowed for six weeks with two teams of five horses each pulling two-bottom plow. Disk, corn planter, grain drill all new to Lenz.

MANY NATIONALITIES IN SOUTH DAKOTA
Scope and Content Note: Recalls pheasant-hunting in 1940's with Clark Gable's hunting party.

LENZ CHILDREN SETTLE IN MIDWEST
Scope and Content Note: Brother married Estonian woman; sister married Scotchman, Lenz married German woman, daughter of parochial school teacher, he met during church activities. Had Lenz remained in South Dakota, he would have entered ministry.

UNITED STATES NOT SUSPICIOUS LIKE OTHER COUNTRIES
Scope and Content Note: U. S. Department of Agriculture trip example of attitude by country toward foreign-born.

COOPERATIVES WILL GROW BECAUSE OF CONSOLIDATION
Scope and Content Note: Cooperatives fill gap left by money-hungry private industry.

COOPERATIVES BEGUN OUT OF ECONOMIC NECESSITY WILL SUCCEED
Scope and Content Note: Urban cooperatives as a whole will not succeed; Eau Claire co-op shopping center an exception.

COOPERATIVE COMMONWEALTH NOT FEASIBLE IN UNITED STATES
Scope and Content Note: Dr. Warbasse's^[4] cooperative commonwealth not viable; no such thing as a general necessity. Private industries better than cooperative at many activities because they will do almost anything to make money.

COMPARES PRIVATELY AND COOPERATIVELY OWNED UTILITIES
Scope and Content Note: REAs began because private companies rejected many areas as poor investments. But privately owned utilities also needed.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COOPERATIVES AND PRIVATE BUSINESS
Scope and Content Note: Lenz as businessman always helped and never competed against cooperatives in his area. Eugene Schiller, John Deere dealer in Madison, another example of former cooperator who entered privately-owned farm implement business.

IMPLEMENT BUSINESS CHANGING BECAUSE COST OF MERCHANDISE HAS RISEN
Scope and Content Note: Number of implement dealers today is forty per cent fewer than dealerships in 1940. Many factory-owned dealerships.

LENZ ASSOCIATION WITH LIBERAL DEMOCRATS
Scope and Content Note: Lenz as a conservative Democrat gets along well with Congressman Kastenmeier and Senators Nelson and Proxmire. Worries more when people totally agree with him than when they disagree.