Middletown transcript., 1909-05-01
VALUE OF COOPERATION

United Effort Among Farmers Doing
Good Getting Rid Of the Middleman
Cooperation among farmers began
years ago, but it has only recently be-
gun to spread with telling effect. Now
IL applies to creameries. turnpikes. tele-
phone systems, slaughter houses, fruit
and vegetable shipping, grain elevators
and dozen other activities which have
hitherto belonged to the middIemen.
Perhaps the most striking example of
what cooperation among farmers will do
for them is that shown by the co-opera.
tive society formed BY the truckmen Of
she Eastern Shore of Virginia. says Fred
eric ]. Haskin. This society handles the
season's crops on the same basis as inde-
pendent commission men. When last
years selling season was over and the
profits for the year reckoned up, it was
found that il bad netted $50. .0OO, 600.
These profits were then distributed pro
rata among the farmers who were mem
bers of the society.
Already in other communities farmers
are duplicating tbe success of the farmers
in the buying Of machinery, fertilizers
and the like. Il is becoming frequent
experience Of fertilizer agents to be asked
by group Of farmers to give them their
lowest bids on 90 many carloads Of ferti
lizers, and the agents usually do some
pretty lively hustIing TO get the business.
OF course, the elimination of all middle
men will never come, but it ID Interesting
TO specuIate how much the farmer would
save did be sell everything direct to the
consumer and buy everything direct from
the manufacturer. Secretary Wilson gives
the glowing information that the farms
Of the United States furnished 81, ,4l2, 600,
600 worth Of produce during the year
1907. Accounting one-half Of this as
having been sold off Of the farm, and that
there was 10 per cent. Of profit between
the farmer and she consumer, the middle
men must have made nearly $400, ,000,-
900 possibly $1,000, ,OOO, ,OOO-out Of the
transaction.
Good roads have been built by cooper
alton among farmers, and, perhaps, no
sort Of cooperation hiss paid them better
returns than this. These roads are gem
orally built by stock companies, made up
of farmers along the road to be improved.
A striking instance is that of the Har.
risonburg and Rawley Springs turnpike,
in Virginia. Its IL miles long, extend
ing through rich farming community.
Its first cost was not over 81 900 a mile.
The annual toll collections amount to
about 81, 900, of which the bulk goes to
the upkeep and improvement of the road.
Where the farmers used to haul 70
bushels Of wheat to market with four
horse team they now haul 120 bushels.
Where they made one trip q day they
now can make two. They do their haul
ing when the ground is too wet for farm
operations, where there we're formerly
under the necessity Of doing their hauling
during good weather. This has brought
an. increase OF about 100000 in farm
values. Land contiguous to this road
sells for at least SIS an acre more than
land abutting on ordinary country roads.
As yet all the cooperation among farm.
ers is IN small way and among limited
number. Though they are she most
numerous class Of peoplein the country,
adding more to the national wealth than
any other class, possessing larger share
of this national wealth than any other
class, farmers are yet the poorest organ
lied Of any people in the United States.
Printers say what wages they want and
usually get them. Lawyers fix their fees,
doctors maintain their scale Of charges,
merchants establish their prices, but
farmers must sell what they have to sell
at prices fixed by others, and buy what
they have to boy under similar condl-
tions.
Organized, the farmers Of the country
possess enough ready money to put up q
price.strike which would make the great
coal strike of 1902 look small indeed.
With the strong helping the weak they
could maintain an indefinite strike for
higher prices for their produce and lower
prices for their machinery. Did they
assess the individual farmer half as much |
in proportion to his wealth as the coal
miners. the printers. the bricklayegs OF
the carpenters are individually assessed |
TO maintain their scale wages, they conld
raise fund which would be intellectually
greater than the big coal strike fund OF
1902 Il has long been the dream of
many to unite the farmers Of the country
as other classes are united, but they de.
clare it to be dream. HE development
Of che cooperative principle, according
to those who are studying the trend Of
the times, will be along neighborhood
and not along national lines. In spite Of
the fact that the farmer fixes neither the
price Of what be sells nor Of what be
buys, he il yet about the most prosperous
individual 10 the country.
Dynamite Not 50 Dangerous
fn II