The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1892-05-27
COOPERATIVE FARMING.
The Situation as Viewed by tho Rising
Sun of Maryland.

COOPERATIVE FARMING.
The sltaatien as Viewed by tho Rising
Sun of Maryland.
The day of individual effort is past
The times and changed conditions are
demanding cooperative effort When
farm wages were 40 cents a day,
wheat 80 bushel corn 40 cents. a
good COW SIG, calico. 10 to Is cents
a yard and other goods at correspond
ing prices times were better for all,
because all found employment and
production and distribution went hand
in hand. But now all these conditions
have changed and producers and en-
ployers must change to conform to
present conditions. The best labor
deserts the country for the city, hop
ing to find a more prosperous field,
but in this they fail Bright young
fellows can get but So and S. week
in the city and it costs all of that to
support them. The railroads and
other corporations pick out the very
best and send ten adrift where one is
employed. When the country is
abandoned for the city the door is
closed behind them and few are able
to return. and step by step they sink
lower into the depths OF want
The great changes which artificial
power and invention have worked in
the last fifty years have destroyed the
individuals ability to compete in
price. and in so doing have multiplied
production tenfold. which has thrown
labor out OF employment. Labor
used to own its tools and create the
products of the land and shops. Ar
tifcial power and invention have
taken the tools from labor and own
ing the tools few own the products
which machinery and artificial power
create. and vast numbers of laborers
have no employment. Every thing
therefore tends to force labor toward
cooperation in order that it too may
produce cheap and enjoy large por.
ton of its products. The farmer has
chung to his old methods longer than
any other producer, but the time has
come when combinations of specu-
lators have taken charge of his pro-
ducts set the price of them and sup
piled him with tools and merchandise
at their own price. In trying to stand
alone against such formidable forces,
he is being overwhelmed. He must
reform his expensive methods and
save much which now goes to waste.
The expense and unavoidable waste
to conduct one farm by the present
Individual method employed. under a
proper cooperative system would
do the work of two or three
Farmers like every other class of
business men must study along the
lines of cooperative labor and estab-
lish their business on that system or
sink to lower plane of society and
dependence. They cannot stand
alone and resist the fearful odds that
are against them. They may hug
their foolish conceit and say "Oh. l
am independent l am capable of at.
tending to my own business. He
may. if entirely clear of debt keep
his head above water while he lives
if he does not live too long, but where
will his children be? The inevitable
future his present condition leads to
ought to be considered and measures
taken to prevent the tenant and wage
slavery degradation and want pres
mt conditions point to for the next
generation.
The idea Of the forty acre farm and
the independent farmer: the little
farm we'll titled is bit of pastoral
poetry, an idle dream. that may be
realized by one in hundred, aud for
a limited time. but must soon be
swallowed up by the great octupus OF
capital. The large tract conducted
on true cooperative principles is the
only hope OF the farmer to escape the
condition of the European peasant.
What American farmer would live as
the French peasant farmer on patch
OF four acres cultivated by himself
and wife with hand tools? And this
is what the small farm and So called
independent farmer leads to. Either
this or the renter under a landlord
who owns hundreds of farms. as in
Ireland and England