Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1903-12-10

An Interesting Communicated
by A. Farrneran the Brit
ton Journal.

$500
ago with a yoke of oxen and fifteen dol
lars in currency. now W a section
of land and have a nice bank account,
and pay cash for what | buy. Ipatron-
ize the Farmers Creamery at Kidder,
and ! have never sent out of the county
for a dollars worth OF goods as | find
building mp the home industries has
raised the price of my land from So to
$50 per acre.
The other day ] was over at the
county seat and there was a man i'll a
certain store talking cooperative eleva-
tor, cooperative mill. AT the same
time the fellow had just come from the
! depot after shipping his cream to the
Minneapolis cold storage. He was a
little cold and went into a merchants
store. sat on an apple barrel and com
nlenced TO confiscate some of the dies
pissed owners profits, and at the same
time commenced to enDghten me on
the benefits of cooperative industries.
He was such a good talker and so much
smarter thar l was | felt SO ashamed of
myself that | took a sneak out of the
back door aud went right straight home,
and when / came into the house my
wife asked me if had been to d funeral,
or did | break all the eggs she sent to
town with me, or did / forget my ter
bacci With tears in my eyes / told
her mot II of those things, Mary, but
| have been a meditating and feeling
sorry for you for marrying the biggest
fool this side of 'fiddlers' green ~ aud I
thought | would never stop crying. My
partner, becoming alarmed, told me /
did not understand cooperation as well
as my neighbor, but I was better look
ing aud that healed my bleeding heart,
and j forgot my troubles.
The next morning, fool as felt /
was / got to the barn as usual, MIXED
old Rosie. patted her on the ribs, and
felt darned glad that | was still on
earth. Chores done, / went to the
house and found my waywaId partner
hard at work. She knew my failings;
guess she ought TO, as / had been her
partner for nigh two and twenty years.
Goods GOSH If Mary wasn't making
pancakes, not slap-iacks, but real pan
cakes, and she invited me to sit right
down, and when my partner tells any
one TO set down, they had better do SO,
so / sat down as she requested, as / did
not want any more trouble the rest of
the week.
After filling myself with Mary's COM
~forters, the pancakes / mean, / brought
the milk OF old Rosie down to our own
creamery at Kidder, went over to the
store close at hand and bought what /
wanted. 1t happened to be pay day,
the 25th of each month regular as the
day comes, got my $50 that / have been
accustomed TO get each month, put my
cash in my pocket as i did not owe the
merchant anything went home to my
partner feeling as If / was not very
good on cooperation, but was mighty
good on money getting, and after
unhitching old jess / went toward the
house. ! saw my partner was looking
kind of serious and i asked her If she
had been to a funeral and whole lot of
questions same as she asked me when |
was feeling blue.
John, she said, be charitable, our
c~o-operative friend has got into trouble;
the company that he shipped his cream
to has busted, four of his best poland
china pigs died this morning, the hired
girl poured some of Montgomery,
Ward & Company'a canned fruit into
the swill pail, and they say that the
doctor has a mortgage on his farm for
d~octoring his wife and himself for
dyspepsia caused from eating cheap
trash that is shipped in without the
protection of u state food laws.
Moral: You men that talk co-opera-
tion-why do You try to starye out our
cooperative creamery? Why do you
try to discourage every home industry?
Why not ~patronize your home merchant
who cannot put goods on his shelf that
do not come under the state pure food
laws, if he does he lays himself liable to
a fine and imprisonment. Your county
newspapers that are sounding your
praises and booming your conatry, yon
will forget to pay your subscription for
five or six years at ii time. Is this right?
Let rs cooperate to help one another
right here at home and we will benefit
ourselves.
1.-THE above sketch on cooperation con-
tains much food for thought aud had