Learning of a position opened here for one possessing the required qualifications, a young man named John Walter Elden Coates, came here from Wisconsin, the leading dairy state of our country, to investigate the situation with the idea of applying for the job, providing conditions were favorable. He brought with him high recommendations from the Dairy Council of his home state, which were sufficient credentials to justify employing him. This man rendered the company valuable assistance from the outset in recommending necessary equipment for the plant. During 1897 after operations of the creamery reached full swing, daily receipts of milk ranged between 70,000 and 100,000 pounds, which with the help of two young men, Victor and Joseph Madsen, cousins whose homes were in the nearby town of Brigham, the large daily volume was processed into butter and cheese which excelled in quality any like products manufactured in this intermountain country. Demand for these products by the markets of Ogden and Salt Lake City that exceeded capacity of the creamery to satisfy, was mute evidence that quality played a great part in their sale. The Madsen cousins, after employment at the creamery for about five years or until 1902, quit their jobs, much richer in the art of dairy processing and infact, in dollars and cents than when they sought employment. Though fantastic as it may appear, the monthly salary of each for labor during that period never exceeded $40, good pay at that time, but since 1956, fifty-four years later, that amount of money has not been an exceptional day's pay for many civil and Government workers who enjoy far less responsibility. A half century and less ago, a man employed on a job expected to give an honest day's work for an honest day's pay. A half century wrought great changes in the political, social, and economic affairs of our people and country. Many hours loss sustained by business and industry over the country through coffee breaks of employees alone in 1962, according to the economic report, ran into millions of dollars. Loss of services, as in this case, of reliable men who had in the short time acquired such a complete understanding of dairy operations, was not taken lightly by Mr. Coates or management of the business, but output of quality products by a business possessing such enviable possibilities must at all costs be maintained which necessitated training new men in the techniques of dairy processing. At the recommendation of Mr. Coates, John Wallenzein, his brother-in-law, and Arthur Wheeler, brother of the writer, were employed. Mr Wallenzien, fortunately, had previously been engaged in dairy manufacturing which aided Mr. Coates materially in operation of the plant. Under the new setup, Creamery operations were successful; the business flourished with contented happy producers for the following four years or until 1906, when suddenly new was circulated that Mr. Coates had been relieved of his position. No cause was given for this unexpected procedure which upset the majority of producers and some members of the Board of Directors who declared they had not been consulted in the matter, which almost disrupted plant operations. Mr. Wallenzien quit his job as soon as he learned his brother-in law had been discharged, leaving Mr. Wheeler in charge of the creamery alone. Arthur Barrett, son-in-law of William Henry Manning and nephew through marriage -122- to the company manager, was employed to assume duties as overseer of plant operations; and Orson Hudman, also a nephew of the manager and brother-in-law to Mr. Barrett and also a brother-in-law to the writer, was employed to help in making butter and cheese. Mr Wheeler having had much of the responsibility of butter and cheese making under Mr. Coates, continued in that phase of plant operations under Mr. Barrett. Efforts were made to continue the output of high-quality products that established an enviable reputation under the direction of Mr. Coates. This successful business founded and established as a means of enhancing income from the farm, could have remained the property of and under the control of milk producers who held the stock had they refused to listen to flowery talk of "get rich quick" speculators and had not yielded to the persuasive power of big money offered for holdings in the company by business sharks who are always after and ready to prey on the innocent unwary. Two wholesale dealers of Ogden City who headed the firm of Blackman and Griffin Company, after watching for a time the successful operation of this farmer business, offered the fabulous price of $10 for every dollar stock holders had invested in the company. A holder of ten shares of stock that cost $100 could receive $1000, which appeared to be a good deal, and all but a few farmers sold their holding. Those who refused to sell finally lost their stock, as only a few years elapsed under the management of Blackman and Griffin who had succeeded in securing controlling interest, until their wholesale and creamery businesses went broke. Establishment of the Slaterville Creamery was, as far as can be learned, the first concrete move residents of our community and those of participating settlements ever made to solve the problem of skimming cream off milk that set in pans on shelves over night in cellars, a common practice years before, even the small hand separater was invented and came into use. The sad ending of an institution that had operated so successfully during the comparative short time under control of its founders and possessed almost unlimited potentialities, should pass from its original control, was a matter that unmistakingly demonstrated lack of wisdom, sound judgment, and foresight on the part of producers who, having disposed of their interest in the creamery found themselves devoid of a market for milk and its products, unsurpassed by any in the state. Milk producers of Slaterville which, for as far back as we have record, included ninety percent of the families, were for a number of years prior to enactment of the cooperative market law by Congress in 1921, bounced about in sale of that important food commodity from small market milk dairies that could handle only a limited volume, which was purchased by the gallon, to the mutual creamery, a concern that paid for milk on butter-fat content for cheese and butter manufacturing purposes, at prices often lower than costs of production. A new era dawned upon the farming industry of this section of the intermountain country with enactment of the cooperative marketing law first by the Federal and a year later, 1922, by our state legislature granting farmers the night to organize and set up facilities to market commodities produced on the farm collectively if they so desired. -123-