American Society of Equity of North America - Indiana 1904

Beautiful stock certificate from the American Society of Equity of North America issued in 1904. This historic document was printed by the American Banknote Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of a man making a speech saying " For Equity the Farmers Call...". This item has the signatures of the Company’s President, James Andrew Everitt and Secretary, and is over 108 years old. Small splits anbd holes.


Certificate Vignette



THE PLAN OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF EQUITY

Copyright 1903 by J. A. Everitt

THE PLAN OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF EQUITY. The headquarters is at Indianapolis, Ind., and is called the National Union. Branches called Local Unions will be formed all over the country, in every township as frequently as necessary, to accommodate every farmer. They may be in every school district. It is not necessary for a member to belong to a local union, but it is recommended where ten or more members can join together and where they can have a meeting place. The plan of the American Society of Equity is so flexible, however, that a member, no matter where situated, can cooperate for all general benefits, with other members, without belonging to a local union. An official paper containing all advice, is the key to cooperation and goes direct to the farm. This is the only farmers' society in which members can get the full benefits of national cooperation without belonging to a local lodge or union, and without attending the meetings.

The affairs of the society are regulated by a board of seven or more directors. These directors will be experts on various lines of farm products. To illustrate, there will be a director representing each of the following and- all other important crops: Wheat, corn, oats, cotton, beef, pork, poultry, dairy, tobacco, fruit, etc. The directors may be selected by members interested in the particular crops, or appointed by the officers of the society.

The key to the workings of the society will be the official paper. This will go to every member. At present it is published twice a month, as soon as the society is sufficiently developed it will be printed four times a month. Through the official paper the National Union—officers, directors and editors —will speak to all the members, giving information and advice, so that all may have the same information and be in a position to act as one man, or cooperate, as well as if they were all in one community, and could be seen individually. The National Union will be the head or clearing house for the entire agricultural business.

A very important part of the plan of the American Society of Equity is the crop reporting system. Each member will be a crop reporter. Either direct, or through his local union secretary, on blanks furnished by the National Union. This will be the most complete and most reliable crop reporting system ever undertaken or accomplished, and will afford reliable information instead of unreliable reports, as have been given to the public in the past. The crop reporting will also be carried to foreign countries which produce or consume sufficient to make them factors in this great problem.

With reliable information about crop yields and the known consumption of any commodity, the board of directors will decide what is an equitable value for each crop as it is produced, and recommend members to ask that price, and not sell for less. This will be called the minimum (lowest) price. If members will quit selling the moment the market will not take any more supplies at the minimum price, prices will be maintained, the demand will be supplied regularly as it appears, no over supply, surplus or glut will occur on the markets, and farmers, dealers, millers and consumers will be benefited, to say nothing of the relief from uncertainties and fear of loss attending the old system.

Remember, it will not be necessary for each person to be told when to sell any crop. The plan contemplates that each owner of produce, wherever situated, shall supply the markets through the. regular channels with all they will take at the minimum price, and stop selling the moment the buyers won't take more. There need be no fear that buyers will be out of the market long, because the world must have your goods all the time. They can not do without a month, nor week, nor even a day. The price can be made and maintained as soon as this society has a million members. Then other millions will ask the price also.

We expect, under the new system, that speculation in farm products will be at an end, but should the speculators choose to send the prices above the fair minimum price recommended by the society, members and non-members can of course accept them. It is the hope of the society that they can never bear prices below the equitable price named.

When a value is placed on a crop of grain, cotton, pork, beef, etc., it would be expected to control until the next crop year, unless very material changes occurred to affect consumption, or future crop prospects warrant a revision. To prevent too liberal marketing at the start an advance will be made on each staple article each month it is held, thus justifying part of the producers in holding their crops. This advance will be for protection only, but if there is a tendency to market too much it can be increased so as to make it profitable to hold back.

The frequent fluctuations of the market (many times a day) are not in the interest of the farmers, but for the speculators and gamblers. Do farmers profit by these fluctuations? Certainly not. But they could make many improvements, provide many comforts for their families, or indulge in many pleasures, if they knew the wheat in their granaries was worth not less than eighty-five cents or one dollar a bushel, the same in September, January and April, and the same way with other crops.

A plan such as this is the only practical one for the farmers. Manufacturers may form trusts and partnerships and be bound by ironclad agreements, but with the great agricultural industry any enormous concentration of capital to control prices would prove an incentive to unusual production, an inducement to hold crops and a desire to obtain fictitious values when the plan would fail. With our plan, where price is based entirely on merit, an unusually large world's crop, whether from increased acreage, increased yield per acre or accumulations in the hands of producers or holders, means lower prices in the future. This fear of lower prices will of itself be sufficient incentive to keep the crops moving into consumption. The safety-valve will be reliable information placed before them, a fair minimum price and the intelligence and common sense of a fair portion of the American farmers....

History from Wikipedia and OldCompany.com (old stock certificate research service)