Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1909-10-22
WHAT COOPERATION MEANS
Some Of Underlying Principles Are
Equal Vote, Minimum interest
and Profit to Workers.


dation Of more radical change In our
business system than any rate legis.
lation or antitrust act, writes N. o.
Nelson in Southern Cultiyator. He rec.
ommends the cooperative plan to the
farmers.
Mr.. Roosevelt and the commission
are eminently right and there is rea-
son to believe that they know what
they are talking about They may
not know how far the start has been
made and what systematic efforts are
being made to extend Il Neither may
1t be known to them that the coop.
Grafton plan adapts itself as well to
the wage Garner and manufacturing
as to farmers and farming.
Mr.. Roosevelt's message about FAR.
mers' cooperation harmonizes with
his arguments In his last annual mes
sage that the wage Garner should own
share in the machinery he works
with and should share In the profits
Of the work he does.
Cooperation Is already a national
factor in several countries, 1t is we'll
introduced in nearly all the CONNER.
cial nations. 1t Is established as q
world movement. and Is spreading
with increasing momentum. Twenty
years ago there were a little over a
million co-operators In Great Britain
doing a business Of say two hundred
millions year. There are now two
and a half million members and FIVE
hundred million businesses Of which
about seventy million is of their own
Twenty years ago, cooperation had
barely begun in Denmark. Accord.
Ing to Cabinet Minister HogsborO,
who is himself a leader In the move.
ment, four-ffths Of the Danes are
now co-operators. Cooperation has
changed Denmark from a country Of
poor peasants on poor land to a coun-
try OF prosperous farmers on rich
land. The COW, acting through the
cooperative creamery, has done 1t,
and the pig and the hen have done
their large part, also through the co.
operative societies.
Ireland caught the spirit from
England and there are now 1900 CO.
operative cfearneries, credit societies,
poultry and egg societies, bacon fac.
tories, supply associations, stores
and home industries, not only making
many times more income, but they
have brought the warning factions in
politics and religion together on the
vital subject Of making a better liv.
Ing and being better neighbors.
Further confederation of Mr.. Roose.
velt's report is the record here at
home. The orange growers of Cali.
fornia have for a dozen years had a
cooperative association for packing,
shipping and selling their fruit with
annual sales of over $4,000, 900. Ware
houses and statesmen are maintained
in all the chief eastern cities. There
are hundreds Of farmers cooperative
elevators In the grain states Of the
middle west. Cooperative creameries
have changed Minnesota from wheat
state which impoverishes the land, to
a dairy state, which enriches it. 1t
made $S0,O00,OO0 worth of butter last
year, most Of 1t in cooperative cream
cries. Wisconsin is a close second
and Iowa third.
In the south, no start has yet been
made except in truck shipping and re-
Gently some creameries. The Farm.
ers' Union had Its inception in coop
erative buying of feed and fertilizer
and cooperative selling of potatoes,
but 1t soon got switched to holding
cotton to force up the price. A sys.
tematic propaganda has been started
to Organize the southern farmers into
cooperative gins. creameries, supply
associations and credit societies. The
first completed association is cream
cry in Virginia, but several others are
in process Of formation.
The underlying principles Of coop
Grafton are an equal vote and respon.
sibility, minimum interest on capital,
profit to the customers or the work
ers, buying and selling for cash and at
market prices; no discrimination as
to membership.
In forming any cooperative associ.
alton, there must be a sufficient mum.
Der, they must understand and want
cooperation, they must agree to use
the association exclusively, they must
have a competent manager and sup.
port him and they must make 1t open
to all, including those who may not
choose join the association but will
patronize It, these receiving half
the benefits.
Cooperation is not a revolutionary,
but 1t is a radical change from the
capitalist trade system. 1t is an in.
dustrial democracy. by the people, for
the people, of the people.