Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1874-08-22
For High Bailifr
JOSIAH ii. BENTON.
For Assistant Judges
WILLIAM r. SILVER.
HARVEY H. LUCAS.


The immense additions made to the
cost of all articles to the consumer, by
the commissions and profits of agents
and middlemen, has induced many to
make efforts of various kinds to bring
the producer and consumer into more
immediate contact. Union stores,
clubs to supply fuel or other impor-
tant articles of consumption to their
members, and many other plans have
been tried heretofore to do away with
these middlemen, scheme which the
grangers are now trying their hand
at, hoping to solve the problem. Per-
haps this is well and they may sue
ceed,as some of the cooperative stores
have done in Britain, but it must be
admitted that most Of the efforts of
this kind have terminated in disap-
pointment and loss. Nor is the rea-
son for this rule hard to find, for these
enterprises are usually gotten mp by
the active efforts of few individuals,
who are naturally appointed managers
whether they possess the requisite bus
mess experience and ability or not,
and they generally are found much
better at speech making and drawing
up prospectuses than in the practical
assiduous attention, and practical
knowledge which the business re-
quires. Without attributing dis
honesty to the managers of co,opera-
tive concerns, it is not wonderful that
they should get into confusion, incur
heavy expenditures, meet with many
losses, and of course fail to give salts
faction. Indeed such result is to be
expected in the great majority of
cases, and where it does occur the
temptation is strong upon the man
ayers to do g little feathering of their
own nests out of the wrecks of the
business. The exceptional cases are
those in which thoroughly competent
and honest managers have been Sc
cured. Our readers who are among
the grangers should remember that,
judging from the past, the probabili-
ties of the success in any cooperative
enterprise, is not great, and that they
may lose all the capital which they
subscribe to business Of that kind,
and perhaps be brought in for its
debts Notwithstanding all the precau-
tons they may use.
One of the reasons in favor of indi-
vidual enterprise in all business which
can be carried on in that way, is
that the individual has all his interests
depending on has business, and looks
carefully into all things connected with
it, and is free from all temptation to
embezzle his own money or to cheat
himself. His business is therefore in
q much safer position than that of a
cooperative association which must
trust all to its managers, who have
comparatively little interest in the
final result, but who may have great
interest in obtaining commissions OF
presents from parties who supply the
goods, and whose temptations (if in
clined that Way to steal or embezzle
are constant. Another reason fol
middlemen in the store business is
that each lengthens the credit to the
consumer. A cooperative business,
buying for cash and selling for cash.
can and should supply goods much
cheaper than store which gives cred
it. But what are those to do who
need the goods and have not the casl
to pay until after harvest, or perhaps
till next year. The city jobber buys
of the importer or manufacturer on {
short credit, and sells to the country
storekeeper on longer credit, and
he in turn retails it to his customers
on an extension Of credit, and in this
way the settlers of this country have
been enabled to give credit to tht
soil, and to live till their crops were
gathered and sent to market.
Without the credit system thi:
country could not have been peoplet
half so fast as it has been. But tbt
sooner credit can be shortened an(
purchases made on more favorable
terms, the better.