The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1910-11-19
TO belong to the tillers-or at least the
owners--of the farms.
A Lack of Cohesion.

70 belong to the tillers-or at least the
owners--of the farms.
A Lack Of Cohesion.
And vet the farmers are not very
influential in this country. Al man
who has more to do with the American
farmer than any one / know, in the
way Of working for and teaching him
said to me: "The farmers of this
country are like dry sand in the hand
they lack cohesion They run out
and leave You empty handed after you
think you have grasped them" You
remember that the verse with which
we began contains the line, If all the
men were one man, what a great man
ne would be! The farmer can be ALL
powerful when he acts as one man
lie could then say to the Midget Mag
nate under the cover slide: You own
the railroads? Well. we'll build rail-
roads of our own, IL you don't do the
right thing. They did that with the
telephone lines in that Iowa county
whereof we spoke And if all the
farmers were one farmer he could
mine his own coal. and refine his own
oil, and operate his own packing
warehouses, and buy his merchandise
of all sorts in carloads and trainloads,
and run his own banks, and deliver
his fruits and eggs and everything he
grows in car lots to the ultimate con-
sumer-and the price of living might
be lower for us ALL
The other word for this team work
on the part of the farmers is CO.
operation through agricultural organi-
cation. The American farmer, like the
British farmer, moves slowly when he
moves at all. This resemblance in
dicates how very English we are, aft
er all has been said about the extent
to which the Anglo-Saxon blood has
bred out of us. We are utterly Eng
lish in the main characteristics of our
people. In all the great agricultural
nations except Great Britain and
North America, the farmers have
learned to a great degree to act as
one man through cooperation Did
we speak, just now of cooperation
farmers banks? Well I am giving
figures several years old here, and
they are far below the mark, Ger
many has 1884 of these banks. with
with six central banks and $4,000 mem
bers; Switzerland has many: Finland
has 81; Italy has LOO, with 476,000
mebers; Hungary has a large number;
Austria, has over 1000. These figures
show how the farmers of Europe are
moving in the direction of every man.
being his own Morgan. In several of
the nations the cooperative banks
have lifted the poorer tillers of the
soil from a condition of practical slav-
cry to the money -loaners into circum-
stances easy by comparison, and with
great benefits to the morals and social
life of the people.
1t has been suggested here that if
all the farmers were one farmer, they
might own their own packing houses.
The farmers Of Denmark do this
their cooperative porkpacking house
fought and defeated British bacon
trust formed to beat down the price
of their meats in England.
Cooperation in Europe.
Italy has $50 cooperative dairies
and creameries; Holland, 539; Hun
gary many; Austria, a large number;
Germany, 1852; France, a large NUM-.
Der: Belgium, many; Sweden. 430;
Norway. $50; Finland, 70; and little
Denmark (for that reason the richest
farming country, all things consider
ed in Europe) has b108 operative
creameries. We have a great many
in this country, too; but in some of
these European nations cooperative
dairying has been the means Of lift
ing the people from distress to com
fort
Denmark has cooperative organi-
cations for farm insurance, poultry
raising and marketing eggs and poul-
try. for buying farm necessaries. in
Guiding seeds. feeds, fertilizers, and
machinery, and for keeping bees and
selling honey. There are also many
cooperative breeding associations.
The farmers buy together and buy
cheap, and sell together and reach the
ultimate consumer-or pretty nearly
to him. The result is that nowhere
do the farmers get as much of the
consumers dollar as in Denmark; and
there can be no doubt that the results
of this system Of cooperation are
equally beneficial to the consumer and