The patron of husbandry. (Columbus, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1879-05-31
COOPERATION
LETTER FROM PAST MAXWELL, OF tt


few days mixing with the considerable
merchants and farmers of Kenton, Tenn,
convinces me that they can and will see
that it is to their interest to practice coop
Grafton in business. They have all realized
that the commission merchants in the diff
ferent cities charge them on their business
the usual 2 J per cent commission, the reg
ular charges for drayage, insurance, sto-
rage, and in some cities for sampling and
weighing, and in nearly all make no return
of the money the samples sell for. Out
of these, taken out of the sales of produce,
the actual cost of drayage, storage, insur
ance, office rent, clerk hire, stationery,
drummers' wages and travelling expenses,
is paid, and what is left is in all cases the
gain of the commission merchants. The
people see, when it is explained to them,
that the cooperative business system can
and does save to them all that is charged
above the actual cost of doing the
business save enough to pay the salary of
the agent who manages it, and this agent
is chosen by them in their associate or del
egate capacity. This man takes charge on
a salary, receives the business sent him by
the same people, merchants and farmers,
who in their associate capacity elected
their individual capacity each to elect
his commission merchant to whom
he was influenced to send business by
salaried drummer, who was paid his salary
and travelling expenses out of money taken
little from each customer, and charged
up to the customer in his account sales as
drayage, commissions, ETC., and in this in
direct way the customers paid all expenses
c1xr
shorn of all the profits in producing, under
the fiction that it is necessary expense
of doing business, and made to believe
that it cannot be done any cheaper, while
the fact stands before the world that men
constantly set up in the commission bust
ness, and if they get custom, and do not
break by accepting, or advancing, or spec
ulating, soon retire on large fortune made
in the business or continue in it as million
aires. And these fortunes come of charges
upon the business of customers above
what it cost to pay the actual expenses OF
the business. If not, where do they come
from? Many farmers and their families
who made these fortunes by the labor of
their hands, are this day slaves TO capital,
because they did not have their business
done on the cooperative plan.
The cooperative plan charges on bust
ness as much as is charged in the old COM
petitive business, but no more. 1t is nee
essary to make the customary charges:
First, to conform to business. A Co-ope
rative association is simply large firm in
business with chartered privileges-ch
tered, so that no one shall be liable for
more than he invests in it as share capital
Then it conforms to the customary charges,
as any other firm or individual. Second,
it is necessary to charge the same so that
there shall be fund to pay the actual ex
penseS, as there are actual expenses in
business no matter who carries it on; and
it cannot return dividend on each sepa-
rate item, because no one can tell what
will be the actual expense in any house or
firm until the business is done and settle
ment and balances made-the more the
business, the less the expense in any one
house, so the more the business, the greater
are the profits: therefore, every customer is
an interested drummer, for it makes every
customer beneficiary in the profits. And
in the end, when it comes to be generally
understood, cooperation does away with
the necessity and expense of paid drum
mers All this expense saved becomes an
additional profit to the customers.
tbs not necessary for any man or woman
who has business to send to city where
there is cooperative commission house,
to wait for any one to call on them to tell
them this. Send your business to it-not
merely one bale of cotton, or one hogs
head of tobacco, just to try it, but send all
your business, and get others to send theirs.
Then there will be benefit to you, and the
more sent the greater will be the benefit.
Millions in the Old World and thous
ands in the New are testifying daily that
what thus publicly tell you is the truth.
Then do this and complain no longer of
burdens and hardships for which you have
no lemedy. There is remedy, and it is
Cooperation. The people will be bur-
dened until they unite and act for them
selves No man acting alone can relieve
himself or others of the burdens imposed
by false business system. "When all
help to lift the load, no one person has
| much to do" And no one can afford not
to help, when that help helps himself.
One merchant in Kenton, who had been
in business but a short time, has paid
$3.50 more for having cotton that he had
bought sold for him under the old system
| than it would have cost him if he had sent
I1dt COlIOH 10 Co-o1cidliNC SOlIiiiiiooioi
house, which paid a dividend of only SO
per cent to customers, and it does not take
large business to pay that dividend. He
and others now see how they can save
money by cooperation, and they have de-
termined to adopt that system.
And remember that you have to trust
your business to somebody in spite of your
self, and you may as well trust the mar
attending cooperative business as any one
else. There is no greater probability o.
his defaulting than any other man. We
all know that men do default, but why
distrust the man who is working for yot
any more than the man who is at work
for himself?
If were to do this much writing for ;
house that was paying me S. 1000 year t.
drum for it. and many of them pay mer