Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1890-09-01
a WORD FOR COOPERATION.


The keynote to whatever success the
farmers may achieve in the way of re-
lief from the hardships now surround
ing them, whether it be in business or
politics. will certainly be found in CO.
operation. We believe that every mem
Der of every farmers organization is
alive to the fact that farmers will accom-
plish anything only through being
united. 'In union there is strength"
And this means cooperation.
This is a subject that many people
have not thought out to it's legitimate
conclusion, although it is evident from
the great number of letters we get that
most of the farmers are getting wide
awake to the general principles if not to
the details of the possibilities Of coop
Grafton. 1t is fascinating subject, and
is worthy of deep thought.
Cooperation means working together,
and the special sense in which we use it
is the working together of producer and
consumer, so as to eliminate as far as
possible all intermediate handling, and
thus reduce the cost to the consumer.
through, and the more unnecessary labor
there is attached to the distribution of
it, the more the consumer will have to
pay for it, The farmers are fully alive
to this when they pass resolutions con-
demning the buying of goods through
travelling men, because they know that
the immense expense of sending out
! &c a%+ 1l<,1 Il ID Dc%
to the goods, and they are the ones who
have to pay it.
But the drummer is but one instance
of the unnecessary middleman. They
are as thick as hops in every branch of
trade and commerce, and every last one
Of them has to get his living out of it,
and the consumer of the goods pays for
all The great question is, How can this
army of middlemen, doing unnecessary
labor, be dispensed with, SO that goods
may pass most directly from producer to
consumer with the least added cost? The
answer is, by cooperation.
Some people think that general CO.
operation would throw out of employ
ment thousands of men, who would have
to become producers, and thus reduce still
further the profits Of the present pro-
ducers. Such is not the fact. If true
cooperation should Danish every pos
sible man, and if it did create many pro-
ducers, it would still be better for all,
because the unnecessary labor now
wasted through competition, if put to
good use, would enable enough of every
thing to be produced with less labor than
at present, and all would be better than
now, and none have to work so hard.
This point may be illustrated thus:
Between st. Louis and Kansas City there
are three lines of railroad. Each road
runs say four trains a day each way,
and none of them is full. Each train
has to have say 10 men. that is 40 men
each way on each road, OF $40 men in all.
Suppose they get $3.50, that will make
$3.50 per day wages on the passenger
trains between st. Louis and Kansas
City, and the 240 men working an av-
erage of ten hours day.
Now suppose the roads went into Co
operation and were operated by their
owners for the benefit of the owners,
that is the train men. Instead Of run
ming IL trains day on each road they
could make not more than trains do
the work and thus save one-third of the
labor, and if the 240 men still continued
to do the work it would enable them to
reduce their working hours by one third
in each week, while their wages might
remain the same. What will apply in