The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1891-07-17
From Wiscousiu.

XOAA " ASCO0SxAs
EAU CLAIRE Wis, July 18th, 1891.
EDITOR GREAT WEST:
Occasionally we notice an item in
some paper telling OF some business
transaction by the Farmers Alliance
by which they have made or saved
some money. The recent purchase OF
Irvine by the state alliance of Dakota
for members OF the organization by
which eight or ten thousand dollars
was made or saved by the farmers is
a case in point. By this transaction
we see what can be saved by Cooper
alton on one item alone, and the Da-
kota Alliance, by taking this saving
as basis for calculation, ought to
be able to estimate quite correctly
the amount they could save on other
lines of goods. do not know what
the Irvine cost the farmers last year.
But they claim to have saved five
cents per pound by purchasing for
themselves this year, and this prob
ably is a saving of 25 per cent. Will
the best financier in the Dakota State
Alliance take the trouble to give the
total OF the alliance membership in
the state with an estimate OF the total
value of all kinds of goods of every
kind and description that they pur-
chase and consume in one year, and
the saving that would be made if
they bought all these goods through
their own agency, and made the same
per cent of saving that has been
made on the purchase of Irvine.
Make the estimate as near correct as
possible and publish it in the alliance
papers, so that other alliances in
other states may get the benefit of
the estimates and make the same
calculations for themselves. The
financial school for the study of bust
ness matters by which the farmer is
to learn how to improve his financial
condition should be established at
once in every local alliance and in
dustrial organization. If the Dakota
farmer has learned how to save 25
per cent OF the cost of binding Irvine,
he should use this lesson as the key
in solving the problem of saving
the same on all the goods he has to
buy. All other organizations should
adopt the same course, and when
they have studied out the way to
make this saving no time should be
lost in putting the system in prac-
tice.
There seems to be two plans or sys-
TENS open for adoption. The
agency system, by which the mem
bers act through the local alliance,
and these through the state alliance
by the appointing of a competent
person to act as purchasing agent
for the state. The other or cooper
alive system-which proposes to es-
tablish regular supply stores of their
own, in which all kinds of goods
needed by the people including ma
chinery will be kept in stock; each
county having it's retail store or two
or more counties could trade at the
same store if convenient; or more
than one could be located in coun-
ty if this would be more convenient
for the patrons; always keeping in
mind the fact, that the more the
business can be concentrated the
less will be the rates Of expense and
the profits therefore larger.
The state alliance would arrange
and locate the wholesale department,
and any number of states could COM
bine their interests in one centrally
located wholesale establishment.
The same reason which will make it
more profitable for the retail stores
to supply as large territory or popu-
lation as possible will apply with
equal force to the wholesale depart