The Russian order of 1930

1930 — 1930s

The world's biggest farm buyer came to the plow works: In 1924 the Soviet government set up its American buying agency, the Amtorg Trading Corporation, in New York, and when the first Five-Year Plan turned to mechanizing Soviet agriculture, Amtorg was instructed — in the words of the trade press's account — to buy "the largest number of combines ever purchased, before or since, in a single transaction, plus a fleet of big tractors to pull the combines." The story of what followed is preserved by the implement trade itself: Elmer Baker Jr., longtime editor of Implement & Tractor, told it in his column of 21 October 1963, drawing on the reminiscences of George Bird, who had charge of tractor engine manufacture at Oliver's Charles City works, and it is printed here as that account, attributed.

In August 1930 a Soviet delegation was shown the new Oliver 28-44 tractor at Charles City — a prototype finished, after its bearings burned out in Sunday testing, in an all-night rebuild hours before the delegation arrived. "The demonstration went off without a hitch," Bird wrote, "and before the day was over, the Russians signed an order for 5,000 Oliver tractors along with a big order for Oliver plows, cultivators, and combines." The geography of the order matters to this section: the tractors were Charles City, Iowa work and the combines Battle Creek, Michigan work, but the plows and cultivators were South Bend's — the chilled-plow works' share of what Baker called the largest single farm-machinery purchase ever made. The credit was the risk: an initial payment, then annual installments as the machines earned, and Baker records the Oliver office's anxiety before the first annual payment fell due — and its result: "The Communists continued to meet every jot and tittle of future obligations, and their credit was established." The order kept a Depression-struck company — nearly closed down and $17 million in debt in 1930, on Baker's figures — alive through the worst years. It was the second time in fifteen years that Russian orders had reached South Bend's works, and not the last time Russian demand would decide a South Bend factory's fate.

Sources:

1. Elmer Baker Jr., "Reflections," Implement & Tractor, 21 October 1963, republished by Farm Collector (2021) — the Amtorg instruction, the August 1930 Charles City demonstration, the order for 5,000 tractors "along with a big order for Oliver plows, cultivators, and combines," the credit terms and their punctual payment; printed as the trade press's account.
2. George Bird's reminiscences, in John D. Culbertson, The Tractor Builders — the prototype's all-night rebuild and the signing, as quoted in Baker's column.