associations was made by this act. At that time, section 8 (b) 77 was amended to include the following: In carrying out the provisions of this section, the Secretary-shall, as far as practicable, protect the interests of tenants and sharecroppers; is authorized to utilize the agricultural extension service and other approved agencies; shall accord such recognition and encouragement to producer-owned and producer-controlled cooperative associations as will be in harmony with the policy toward cooperative associations set forth in existing Acts of Congress and as will tend to promote efficient methods of marketing and distribution; shall not have power to acquire any land or any right or interest therein; shall, in every practicable manner, protect the interests of small producers; and shall in every practical way encourage and provide for soil-conserving and soil-rebuilding practices rather than the growing of soil-depleting crops. The Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 78 contains a number of references to cooperative associations. In connection with the adjustment in freight rates, it is provided: The Secretary is authorized to cooperate with and assist cooperative associations of farmers making complaint to the Interstate Commerce Commission with respect to rates, charges, tariffs, and practices relating to the transportation of farm products." As codified the act contains also the following provision: The provisions of section 590h (b) and section 590k of Title 16 [Soal Conservation], as amended, relating to the utilization of State, county, local committees, the extension service, and other approved agencies, and to recognition and encouragement of cooperative associations, shall apply in the administration of this Act; and the Secretary shall, for such purposes, utilize the same local, county, and State committees as are utilized under sections 590g-590i, 590j-590q, inclusive, of Title 16, as amended.00 The Federal Crop Insurance Act 81 enacted in 1938 contains the following statement: In carrying out the provisions of this chapter the Board may, in its discretion, utilize producer-owned and producer-controlled cooperative associations.82 Statutes Providing for Research The Appropriation Act for the Department of Agriculture for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1913,88 contained the following provision: That the President of the United States shall appoint a commission composed of not more than seven persons who shall serve without compensation to cooperate with the American commission assembled under the auspices of the Southern Commercial Congress to investigate and study in European countries cooperative land-mortgage banks, cooperative rural credit unions, and similar organizations and institutions devoting their attention to the promotion of agriculture and the betterment of rural conditions, and for the purpose of its investigations the commission shall be authorized to incur and have paid upon the certificate of its chairman such expenses in the city of Washington and elsewhere for the payment of the salaries of employees, clerks, stenographers, assistants and such other necessary expenses as the commission may deem necessary: Provided, That the total expenses incurred for all purposes shall not exceed the sum of $25,000, and the said commission shall submit a report to Congress as early as practicable, embodying the results of its investigations and such recommendations as it may see fit to make. Acting under this authorization the American and United States Commission for the study of agricultural cooperation in Europe undertook an investigation in Europe in 1913, and its results are published in a 900-page report, which has been printed as a public document.84 The Appropriation Act just referred to contained also the following provision: 85 To enable the Secretary of Agriculture to acquire and to diffuse among the people of the United States useful information on subjects connnected with the marketing and distributing of farm products, and for the employment of persons and means necessary in the city of Washington and elsewhere, there is hereby appropriated the sum of $50,000, of which sum $10,000 shall be immediately available. Pursuant to this authority, the Office of Markets se was organized, in which a project "Cooperative Purchasing and Marketing" was established in 1913. This project engaged in research and other work relative to agricultural cooperation which was continued by it and its successors, pursuant to authority contained in subsequent appropriation acts until the enactment of the Cooperative Marketing Act in 1926. The purposes of this act are disclosed by its title, which reads: 87 An Act To create a division of cooperative marketing in the Department of Agriculture; to provide for the acquisition and dissemination of information pertaining to cooperation; to promote the knowledge of cooperative principles 84 AGRICULTURAL COOPERATION AND RURAL CREDIT IN EUROPE. 63rd Cong., 1st sess., S. Doc. 214, 3 pts. See also Elsworth, R. H. THE STORY OF FARMERS' COOPERATIVES. F. C. A. Cir. E-23, 28 pp., illus. 1939. See p. 14. 85 37 Stat. 854. 86 Elsworth, R. H., THE STORY OF FARMERS' COOPERATIVES. 28 pp., illus. See p. 14. F. C. A. Cir. E-23, and practices; to provide for calling advisers to counsel with the Secretary of Agriculture on cooperative activities; to authorize cooperative associations to acquire, interpret, and disseminate crop and market information, and for other purposes. In accordance with an Executive order in 1929 88 the Cooperative Marketing Division was transferred from the Department of Agriculture to the Federal Farm Board, and in accordance with another Executive order executed in 1933 89 the Division became a part of the Farm Credit Administration. Statutes Involving Electric Projects The Tennessee Valley Authority Act of 1933 as amended oo authorized the board of directors to cooperate "with farmers, landowners, and associations of farmers or landowners, for the use of new forms of fertilizer or fertilizer practices * * 19 The act as amended provides that States, counties, municipalities, and cooperative organizations of citizens or farmers shall be entitled to preference in the sale of surplus power, and in order to facilitate the disposition of surplus power the corporation is authorized to extend credit to such institutions for a period of not exceeding 5 years. The acts authorizing the Bonneville project 91 and the Fort Peck project 92 also conferred on cooperatives certain preferences and priorities in the purchase of power. At the time this is written,93 it is believed that the most significant references to cooperative associations are contained in the Federal statutes referred to herein. Of course, there are other Federal statutes which affect cooperative associations as they do other business entities; such, for example, as the Federal Trade Commission Act,94 the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act,95 the National Labor Relations Act, 96 the Fair Labor Standards Act, but cooperative associations are not mentioned in these statutes. 88 89 Exec. Order 5200, dated and effective October 1, 1929. 97 Exec. Order 6084 dated March 27, 1933, effective May 27, 1933. 9048 Stat. 58, 49 Stat. 1076; 16 U. S. C. A. 831d(c). 91 50 Stat. 731, 16 U. S. C. A. 832. 92 52 Stat. 403, 16 U. S. C. A. 833. 93 1941. 38 Stat. 717, 15 U. S. C. A. 41. 95 46 Stat. 531, 7 U. S. C. A. 499a. 96 49 Stat. 449, 29 U. S. C. A. 151; National Labor Relations Board v. GrowerShipper Veg. Ass'n, 122 F. 2d 368. 97 52 Stat. 1060, 29 U. S. C. A. 201; Redlands Foothill Groves v. Jacobs, 30 F. Supp. 995. Bibliography Of Books and Articles Pertaining to Legal Phases of 1 London, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc. Legal basis of agricultural cooperative associations, pp. 268303; Membership contracts, pp. 304-334. 2. Benton, A. H. 1926. INTRODUCTION TO THE MARKETING OF FARM PRODUCTS. 427 pp., illus. Chicago and New York, A. W. Shaw Company. Marketing legislation, pp. 323-335. 3. Bullard, C. K. 1931. AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVE MARKETING LAW. 473 pp. Austin, Texas, Gammel's Book Store, Inc. 4. Campbell, Macy. 1927. RURAL LIFE AT THE CROSSROADS. 482 pp., illus. New York, Ginn and Company. Cooperative marketing laws, pp. 146-221. 5. Conacher, H. M. 1935. AGRICULTURAL MARKETING ACTS. 192 pp. Edinburgh, Scotland, W. Green & Son, Ltd. A discussion of the 1931 and 1933 marketing acts of Great Britain. 6. Evans, Frank and Stokdyk, E. A. 1937. THE LAW OF AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVE MARKETING. 648 pp. 7. Filley, H. C. and Sons, Inc. 8. Francis, G. M. New York, John Wiley Legal phases of cooperative organizations, pp. 85–100. 1926. FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT OF FARMERS' ELEVATORS. 109 pp. Chicago and New York, A. W. Shaw Company. Liability of cooperative elevators for income tax, pp. 79–91. 9. Goldstein, B. F. 1928. MARKETING: A FARMER'S PROBLEM. 330 pp. New York, Macmillan Company. Discussion of legal phases of the cooperative movement, with particular reference to grain marketing. 10. Hanna, John. 1931. THE LAW OF COOPERATIVE MARKETING ASSOCIATIONS. 'Compiled by Wilmer H. Balderson, Law Librarian, Farm Credit Administration, December 1941. 11. Mears, E. G., and Tobriner, M. O. 1926. COOPERATIVE MARKETING. 580 pp., illus. New York, Ginn and Company. 12. Montgomery, R. H. 1929. THE COOPERATIVE PATTERN IN COTTON. 335 pp. New York, Macmillan Company. The contract in law, pp. 220-236. 13. Nourse, Edwin G. 1927. THE LEGAL STATUS OF AGRICULTURAL COOPERATION. 14. Packel, Israel. 1940. THE LAW OF THE ORGANIZATION AND OPERATION OF COOPERATIVES. 307 15. Powell, G. H. 1913. COOPERATION IN AGRICULTURE. 327 pp. New York, Macmillan Company. (Rural Science Series.) Legal features of cooperative organizations in agriculture, pp. 40-77. 16. Williams, W. M. 1923. LAWS THAT AFFECT COOPERATIVE MARKETING. 31 pp. Chicago, Government Publications 17. Bassett, C. E., and Jesness, O. B. 1918. COOPERATIVE ORGANIZATION BY-LAWS. U. S. Dept. Agr. Bul. 541. 20. 1929. LEGAL PHASES OF COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATIONS. U. S. Dept. Agr. Dept. Bul. 1106, 126 pp. and Bain, H. M. 1922-29. SUMMARY OF CASES AND DECISIONS ON LEGAL PHASES OF COOPERATION. 6 pts., mimeographed. Washington, D. C., U. S. Dept. of Agr., Bureau of Agr. Econ. 21. Jesness, O. B., and Kerr, W. H. 1917. COOPERATIVE PURCHASING AND MARKETING ORGANIZATIONS AMONG FARMERS IN THE UNITED STATES. 22. Ostrolenk, Bernhard, and Tereshtenko, V. J. 350 pp., 1940. ABSTRACTS OF THE LAWS PERTAINING TO COOPERATION IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ITS POSSESSIONS AND TERRITORIES. mimeographed. New York, Work Projects Administration. 23. Tereshtenko, V. J. 1941. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW OF LITERATURE ON LEGAL PHASES OF COOPERATION. 242 pp., mimeographed. New York, Work Projects Administration. |