The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1904-05-27
Cooperative Store a Certainty.


If any one in this community is yet
inclined to the opinion that co-Opera-
tive institutions are impractical and
unstable as commercial factors in the
business world of today, that person
has been, undoubtedly. set to serious
thinking by reason of the CO. operative
projects now fully on foot in our own
county. After a year and more of
successful operation the Lewis Grain
& Live Stock company, composed of
over one hundred of the leading and
influential farmers east and south of
the river, is preparing, with great en-
thusiasm, for it's annual conclave.
With the, same shrewd foresight
which impelled the southeast farmers
to their organization, the farmers
north and west of the river recently
combined for their interests and or
ganized an elevator company, through
which they expect to save the middle
mans profits and commissions.
The cooper erative idea is no longer
new. 1t is time tried and satisfactorily
tested. But suppose it is new. Is not
every progressive idea new at some
stage in it's development? The nom
sense of thinking that the farmer
free handed, free-hearted, whole
souled and independent as he is to-
day-should follow along in the SUBJ
missive, servile and narrow-grooved
occupation of his rural ancestry: that
he should continue to fatten the purses
of Others and contribute to their lux
ury and comfort, we'll knowing that
within his own intelligent reach is the
wealth that he should be making for
himself. Today the farmer does his
own thinking-makes his own plans.
In the cooperative movement he is
simply asking for his own. He is the
creator Of wealth aud the fundamental
producer of the worlds daily neces-
saries of life. BY marketing his own
grain at the top market prices he
saves for himself a margin of profit
which he used to pay to the elevator
man. This is business as applied
to farming.
Now come the farmers and the con-
sumers and rightfully ask why they
are not also entitled to handle their
own merchandise, and, instead of pay
ing the storekeeper twenty cents on
every dollars worth for handing
goods over the counter to them, they
say they will just reach over the cOun-
ter and help themselves. AS pro-
ducers they are saving the margin on
grain. market prices through the CO.
operative elevator; as consumers.
they would save also the margin on
mmodities which they consume in
the form of breadStuffs and merchan-
disc, through the cooperative store.
This is no new idea. 1t is an old idea,
intelligently applied to present day
circumstances. 1t is economy. 1t is
the old adage, ga penny saved is a
penny earned" ard it will take less
sweating and less digging for the far
mer and consumer to save all these
profits. if possible, than to red double
his strength aud energy, and, by
binding himself closer to the wheel,
endeavor to multiply his dollars in
this latter way.
At Hutchinson, Kans., is co-op-
erative store, gigantic in its proper
tions and far-reaching in its patron
age. This is only one of numerous
examples in this and other states. 1t
is ''The Peoples Store" The people
are at once it's proprietors and its
patrons. They are saving the bulk of
the profits for themselves. A man
would rather take dollar out of his
vest pocket and slip it into his own
pants pocket than to have TO hand it
over to stranger and see it dis
appear into the latter's pocket. Now
this is the idea of the cooperative
store in its savings, in a nutshell.
On Saturday, May q, an organiza-