Norwich bulletin., 1909-12-25
A FARMERS TALK TO FARMERS
An Illuminating Experence-Appies at the Preside and at the City Fruit Stand-A Rake e-off Somewhere The Advantages of Cooperation Among Farmers How It Paid One Neishborhood- 1.-The Brotherhood of Man Beats the Demon of Greed.

cases. Wherever these cases have been studied and their causes learned it has invariably come out that failure was due to the fact that some If not most of the members wouldn't really cooperate; that they wanted to use the organizations for their own private enrichment wholly regardless of the rights of their fellows. The idea Of cooperation which. too many people have is that of the monkey and the cat, where Mir Monk held Kitty by the back of her neck with one hand and with the other used her poor paw to pull his chestnuts out of the hot coals. That sort of ''co-operation" ceases as soon as the victim can get out of the exploiter's clutches. Real cooperation implies either a sincere willingness on the part of the co-operators to share equally in duties responsibilities and gains, or, at least ability to see that such equal sharing is wise business policy.
 Take, for illustration, last years ex- perience of little cooperative cream- cry out in Minnesota, in the side is- sue of selling eggs. The farmers who brought their milk or cream to the creamery found they were getting much better prices. relatively, for their butter than for their eggs. So they "got together on the ,egg question. For year they took all their eggs in to the creamery, twice a week in hot weather, once a week the rest of the time, Every egg when brought in was stamped with the name of the creamery and the personal number of the farmer who brought it. Then, twice week, the accumulated eggs were looked over, sorted as to size and color, put up in cartons of a dozen each, and shipped in cases bearing the creamery's label and it's guarantee that the eggs were strictly fresh. As a result the patrons of this creamery netted just ten cents a dozen more for their eggs during the year ending last June than the average price paid to farmers throughout the state. This, after paying all the expenses of sort ing and packing and selling, you un- derstand.
 In other words, it paid these farm CTS a mighty big profit to cooperate in the sale of guaranteed eggs-which are the only kind decent farmer wants to sell, anyway.
 Incidentally, it may be said that this little creamery, way up in the timber region, where farms are scattering and climate is harsh and markets are dis tant is saving it's patrons every year from twenty to twenty-five per cent. in the cost of their seed grain, their dairy feeds, their household supplies, even, as a local paper puts 1t, 'the dynamite to blow out their stumps," by purchasing all these in wholesale quantities at wholesale prices. Isn't system which results in giving the farmer largely increased prices for his products, and furnishing him his sup plies at largely reduced cost, a good thing for Mir. Farmer?
 suppose you'll be reading this of Christmas morning, or very soon thereafter. And, because this is the Christmas season, when, If ever, we all sense of good will which is that sea- sons distinctive characteristic, I am emboldened to say that the mere mat ter of your or my profit through CO., operation is really not half so import ant or so interesting as another good that comes through it. mean the gain that comes to the whole great world of us in the growth of our Hu- man Brotherhood. Some are inclined to shake doubting heads over the pros- poets of world federated in one great commonwealth of mutual helpfulness, as only dream of the poets. I am, inclined, the rather to see in it Vision of the Prophets-a Vision, not of some impossible paradise, but of a certain future in which men will re- gard the outcast demons of greed and selfishness which now mark our eco- homie stage with as much horror as we now regard the fiends of cruelty and ruthlessness which ruled the bar barous past. To me the chief value of cooperation is in it's tendency to bring that future evel little nearer realiza- tion. Everything is good which helps to keep men shoulder to helpful shoul- der-not fist to hostile fist. Every thing is good which, by ever so little, pushes the gray world forward towards that Golden Age which, believe me. lies in the future and not in the past. I think I see in every attempt at CO., operation, though it be only for purely material good. an embryo of that vast CT development of helpfulness and brotherhood which shall eventually bind the whole race into one republic of peace among men of good will
 And if that isn't a proper hope to feel and proper wish to express and a proper thing to argue for this Christ mas season, then I've misunderstood the season and it's spirit
 THE FARMER.