Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1881-07-27
Farmers aud Merchants.


mechanic, the professional man, the teacher,
or any other industrial business. Effecting
the exchanges of commodities, which is the
trade of the merchant, is Of the first impor-
tance, and without that civilization in its
present form could not exist. There is no
necessary antagonism between the agricul- |
turist and those engaged in any other kind |
of industry. Properly pursued, each aids |
the other; while together they form whole
which is perfect only in the perfection and
harmony of its parts.
When, trade, from any cause, gets into an
unnatural state, so that its purposes and
uses can be effected only at an exorbitant
cost, absorbing the profits and lessening the
means of living which belong to the pro-
ducers of commodities that are the subjects
of trade, then it is right and proper for
those who are the losers by this derange
ment of business to resort, temporarily, to
expedients to protect themselves. The ex-
cesses of the credit system often raise the
prices of all articles of trade, and also COM
pei those who can pay to pay not only for
what is consumed by themselves, but also
for what is consumed by the defaulting
debtors of the merchants. This evil, when
it arises, finds its promptest corrective in CO.
operative buying by associations of con-
sumers, thus eliminating extra and need
less profits When these cooperative trad
ing methods are used by farmers, they are
made the subject of severe criticism and
much abuse. But when other classes OF
consumers attempt the same thing on
much larger scale, it is called an excellent
thing. The cooperative trading assoca-
tions, or stores, in England are now said to
do very large part of the retail trade of the
kingdom, and are very popular.
We have advocated this cooperative buy
ing (for cash only as temporary relief,
but, never have thought of it as profitable,
proper or necessary, when trade is in a
healthy and legitimate condition. The
"grange stores" were simply protest from
the people against abuses in trade quite as
hurtful to the merchant as to his customers.
An intelligent writer upon this topic, refer
ring to the English cooperative stores, says :
Cooperative store-keeping is an arrange
ment for the distribution of products which
eliminates credit and bad debts. In a COM
munity where the usages Of trade were all
bad, and where the honest and prompt pay
ers could get no advantage because they
were lost in the mass of dishonest and bad
payers, the good aud strong separated them
selves from the bad and weak. The CO.
operative stores have freed the industrious
and economical from part of the burden
they used to bear when they paid the store
bills OF the idle and wasteful."
This writer seems to be of the same opin-
ion that we have held as to the emergential
and temporary nature of this kind of CO.
operation. He says; "There is great rea-
son to believe that cooperative stores in
England will bring about great reform in
the modes of retail trade, but that when the
reform is accomplished the private trader
using his own capital under individual risk
and with individual energy, will beat the
cooperative store"
The whole matter amounts to just this
When the good-paying customers unite in
what is really strike against paying the
store bills of the lazy and shiftless, then the
merchants, left with only this worst and to
tally Improbable class of customers, ART
compelled to give up the credit system ant
, sell cheap for cash." This is best for al
| -; tha din 10
1t has been so far accomplished, now, il
rural New England, that most of the co
operative associations are practically dis
solved, and will continue inactive until tn
recurrence of the same evils again bring
' them into temporary life.
The antagonism generated by the heat o
any contest, however necessary and health
full in its results, leads to some ill-feelin
and misconception of the real points a
ISSUE 1t is absurd to denounce merchant
for state of trade not of their own choic
= and by no means to their advantage, bu
!. which was forced upon them and the whol
i community in consequence of vicious sy'
" TEN of credits which is most extended in
speculative time. These arrangements wi
perpetually recur so long as speculation
, periodically generated and fostered by ou
barbarous and irrational system of lega
lied credit We have always deprecate
: such attacks upon the mercantile clas
q, Writers who speak of the g. middleman
Se either merchant or transporter-as nece
o. sarily an evil, do not understand their SUI
al ect. Such writers lay themselves fair
: open to replies like one we find in recel
issue of the Home Farm, where one write
Il 81 think an examination of the matt
would result in establishing the fact-coul
some one devote the time necessary to it.
\ that larger per cent of the sons of " on
- horse country merchants have adopted Il
business of farming for the business of the
I lives than have the sons of farmers. II kno
the son of one country merchant, nc
H. twenty-three years old, who has this spril
put into the rich soil of Aroostook fife
/. and one-halt acres of potatoes, ten acres
oats, four acres of wheat and nearly eig
acres of other crops. That and other so
VI of the same country merchant "a mi