The patron of husbandry. (Columbus, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1881-07-09
rO.OpERATION.
From Past Master VIM. Maxwell.
President OF the Southwestern
C0Onerafiye Associations.

makes money seems TO become Ialll-
er a favorite with the Masses
1t is looked upon as natural tor
one who sells goods to make money,
when, as matter of fact it is an ar
tificial process. He does not pro-
duce something that did, not exist.
He adds no additional value to what
others have produced. The real
value of an article is in how far it
will 90 in satisfying the necessities
or natural cravings of human or an
imsl appetities. It's intrinsic value
is not in the amount you or give
in exchange for it. The amount we
have to give is what another chooses
to demand for it. What he makes
is the amount he gets from us over
and above what it cost him. 1t
may be a barrel of flour that cost
him S. and we pay him So. That
pays him 81 gain, yet the -four has
no added value to us in its proper
ties to satisfy the demands of our
natural appetites over what it had
in the hands of the producer from
whom it was bought at IS. 1t is a
process fixed by the laws of nature
by which flour is produced, it comes
of the 'sweat of the face it costs
labor and toll, and the gain to the
laborer who made it may be very
small, if anything at all. But it had
all of its properties of actual value
to us the same, while it was in the
producers hands that:it had in the
hands of the dealer.
But its money or exchange value
is materially and arbitrarily fixed
and widely different. If there be a
supply and a small demand its ex
change price may be fixed lower,
it is none the less arbitrarily fixed,
not by you and l. And the whole
process of fixing an exchange value
upon an article is not natural, but
an arbitrary ruling of the dealer,
from whose ruling there is no APP
peal, as long as we remain subjects
in that realm with these self-ap
pointed monarchs of commerce.
Those who are in the retail business
are the rulers of the purses of those
around, and their customers volun-
tarily accept to become their SER
wants; no:matter what is our occu-
patton, we are all in the same servile
service.
According to the Father of His
tory" the world was not always in
servitude to retail business.
Herodotus states of certain ma
ton he visited, These are the first
people to engage in retail trade"
If in his day it began there must
have been a time when it was not.
Since then it has become habit,
perhaps universal. 1t takes an eff
fort to. overcome habit.
Does not the hardships of that
system call loudly for the effort to
overcome the habit?
Does not moral ethics and the
financial good of the masses demand
a change?
What can be substituted for that
sy stem?
Cooperation of the customers in
all business.
Will that bring relief? Can a
customer by that system get bar
rel of the same flour at the same
place for less than so?
He can. How? There are two
ways. One is for all the customers
in reach of place, where their re-
tail trade centers, to associate some
money from every one of them into
a common fund, like companies do
who build railroads, steamboats, or
other great and commendable en-
terprises. Then invest that associ-
ated money in -four by the quantity
and get it at s. from the great cen
tiers, where the mills are, then every
one who needs barrel of it, go to
that store and pay So, cash for it,
buying it thus from his own store.
in place of buying it from some
other mans stock, who had money
enough to buy it in quantity at S..
You then pay no more for it than it
is yonr custom to pay. At the end
of the quarter in which you buy it
let a settlement of the business of
you own store be made. If it is
found SIS paid for the cost and
carriage and expense of handling
the -four, it leaves a clear gain of
$3.50 on every barrel thus bought
and sold. Then give every Gus
toner s.. 50 as his profit on every
barrel he bought He now finds
his -four only cost him actually S.. go
Had he bought it from another store
So was the actual cost to him.
This is larger profit than is
usual to make on flour for cash.
But it is not as large as is made
when sold on a credit. No matter,
the princi pie is the same, whether
sold for SO cents or SIS profit, and
whatever it may be in cooperation
the profit is the customers. and in
the usual business the profit is the
dealers.
Another way to make co-opera-
ton success and a benefit to the
customers is for them to combine
orders in a neighborhood~ or send
singly, if need be, their orders and
the money to the cooperative asso-
Citations in the great centers, where
n &c established a,J o1Jar wy q r