The Wisconsin Cooperative Milk Pool was incorporated, on April 7, 1932, as a non-stock association under Chapter 185 of the Wisconsin Statutes, The Pool was established to promote “reasonable profits” for the farmer through legislation and collective bargaining. The Pool expected to belong to a National Cooperative Milk Pool which never materialized. In spite of the absence of a national organization, the Pool participated in the Farm Holiday milk strikes of 1933.
On August 6, 1934, the Milk Pool Products Cooperative was formed to direct the manufacture of products in the Pool plants, its purpose being to market the products by controlling the supply through warehousing. In 1963 the Milk Pool and the Milk Pool Products cooperatives were combined.
The Wisconsin Dairyman's News Cooperative (incorporated October 22, 1934) was established as a subsidiary of the Pool in order to more effectively run the Wisconsin Dairyman's News, the official Pool paper.
The Wisconsin Cooperative Milk Pool consisted of chartered county pools which in turn were made up of chartered local pools. Membership was also granted to individuals. The Board of Directors was elected at the annual conventions, and the Executive Committee members and officers were selected from the Board.
Despite attempts at collective bargaining, quality control, product warehousing, and advertising campaigns; the Pool was unable to improve the economic status of the farmers. The result was a decline in membership which in turn led to insolvency, in spite of a loan for $145,000 made by First Wisconsin National Bank of Milwaukee in 1939. During the ensuing liquidation process, begun in 1940, a petition was filed by this same bank calling for the involuntary bankruptcy of the Pool. The issue to be settled, in what seems to be a landmark case, was whether or not the Pool was protected from forced bankruptcy by its special status as a non-stock, non-profit cooperative under Chapter 185 of the Wisconsin Statutes, Apparently, the result of the decision affected the distribution of the Pool's assets to farmers and to the bank. The case was decided in favor of the Pool at the district court level, but this decision was reversed in the Circuit Court of Appeals in 1941. An appeal by the Pool to the Supreme Court was refused, and the final distribution of assets was completed in 1943.
Additional information may be found in the State Archives Series 747, State Department of Agriculture, Marketing Cooperatives.
