The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1905-01-26
Don't Invest In Great Stock Com
DanfeS.

We feel it our duty to again urge
farmers to be very careful about in
vestipg their hard earnings in great
81 ock comps MES of whose manage
ment they can know but little. A
glib tongue can make things appear
very attractive, and future results
can be made magnificent on paper
but money in the pocket or deposited
in some safe bank is far better as
set for the farmer and his family than
If invested In the brightest corpora
tion scheme yet devised. 1t means
nothing to say that each investing
farmer Is a stOckholder, and that each
stockholder has voice in controlling
the business The farmer out at home
on the farm may have the voice all
right, but 1t cannot be heard at the
center of operations. The business
must o. necessity be managed there,
and the farmer stockholder can exer-
else no influence upon It and can know
but little about It.
A concern of this character, to
which we have referred in former is
sues of this paper, known as the Farm.
ers' Cooperating Harvesting Ma.
chine Company of North America, is
still being exploited among the farm
ers of Ohio and perhaps other states.
An article, but recently sent to the
press as promoter of the concern,
really shows 1t up in more unfavor-
able light than we would care to do,
yet it might deceive the unsuspecting.
In is to be S5,O0O,O0O concern, and
claims to be now getting money from
Ohio farmers at the rate of $4,000
per county, and expects S1,760,OO0
from the farmers of that state.
We do not care to say word as to
the honesty of the concern or its pro-
moters. They may be as honest as
humanity gets, and yet the scheme Is
not safe or profitable one for farm.
ers to invest in. 1t proposes to
manufacture all kinds of machinery,
and thus destroy the farm implement
trust by building up another one at
the expense of the farmers, and all
the benefit 1t promises the farmer Is
implement ten per cent. cheaper than
the trust prices. Is any farmer so
stupid as not to know that the trust
could promptly meet that reduction,
and 90 far enough below it to drive
the farmers concern" out of busi-
ness in less than a year ? And then
where would be the farmers invest
ment ? Besides it seems strange that
farmers should be asked to furnish
the money to make machines in order
to buy them ten per cent. below the
price charged for machines made
with other peoples money.
One reason given in the article re-
ferred to, which seems to have been
written in all seriousness, why the
chief of this scheme should be trusted
with such an enterprise is, that he is
"more than six feet high and weighs
200 pounds" Another is that he was
once man of splendid business quail
ifcations, but went broke, because he
had placed too much confidence in
some one else. But the article we
are discussing declares his friends
contend that it is but a question of
time unit he again resumes the
proud position he once occupied in
the industrial world" We should
not at the rate of $4,000 a county
from the farmers of Ohio.
Now, it Is not at all pleasant 10 Ls
to speak thus of any business enter
prise. We prefer al all times to en-.
courage and build up. But our first
is to the farmers who are cur patrons
>and supporters, and we feel it to be
our sacred duty to speak to them this
word of warning, not only in regard
to this Ohio enterprise, but as to al
other concerns that ask the farmers
to buy stock in enterprises which al
best, can RESULT in very little benef,
to themselves, but which most likely
will prove sink holes for the capita
invested Up toDate Farming.