Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1911-08-16

The system Of cooperation which
has been worked out By the most
progressive Of the farmers elevator
companies tnsures to the farmers ev-
cry cent that their grain is worth. The
manager buys as close to the markets
as he can with safety. At the close Of
the year any accumulated profits are
divided among the members of the as
ISOLATION in proportion to the business
they have done. The aggregate saving
that has come to farmers through these
cooperative associations can hardly
be estimated.
This saving has enabled the farmers
to build better homes and improve
their farms. II has brought them to-
gether and developed a community
spirit Cooperation has been extended
to other things. The elevator COM
panies usually handle coal, -four, lum-
Der, etc. They are coming to handle
wagons and farm machinery.
Cooperative ereameries have been
organized throughout all the dairy dis
tricts of the country. These have been
tralized plants, and the competition
has compelled the centralizers TO keep
prices up. Even then the cooperative
creameries handle most of the cream
from their territory. A typical CO.
operative creamery in eastern Iowa
may be taken as an example of the
value of these creameries to the farm
ers. This creamery saves about $4,000
each year to its patrons
The fruit growers Of Michigan and
California have been very successful
In cooperative marketing. The condi
lions which led up to this were much
the same as those in the grain belt be-
fore cooperation came TO the rescue.
In the live stock industry co-opera-
ton is a comparatively new thing. but
already it is accomplishing results.
Two years ago the wOolgrowers If
Wyoming formed cooperative wool
storage company. Large warehouses
were built to hold the product, and
instead Of all being dumped on the
market at once it was sold gradually,
and the usual break In the market
was avoided. BY this means more
than a million dollars was saved to
the Wyoming woolgrowers In one year.
The Corn Belt Meat Producers as
ISOLATION has in mind the establish
ment of cooperative packing house.
This is a practical way of bringing the
beef trust to terms and viii be a
thousand times more effective than all
the meat boycotts ever devised.
In many more ways cooperation is
helping the farmer to market his prod
ucts. Cooperation has never failed
except when IT has tried to limit pro-
duction and force up prices artifcially,
as has been the case at times in the
tobacco and cotton districts Of the
south. But this is not true co-opera-
ton. 1t is monopoly, and it is better
that it should fail True cooperation
seeks rather to increase production
than to limit it. 1t makes its profits
by cutting down the expense of mar
keting rather than by raising prices
above their normal level Natural
conditions of supply and demand, il
not interfered with by trusts and COM
binatiOns, can be depended upon to
regulate prices so that they viii be
fair to both producer and consumer.
Cooperation is also solving the mon
ey problem for farmers. Pennsylvania
has a number of successful cooperative
banks. In the middle west many such
institutions are doing a successful bust
ness. These banks are safe, for they
are usually backed by all the assets of
the farmer stockholders. They are run
on business principles.
One other great problem confronts
the farmers in this country which CO.
operation has solved in Germany. That
is the problem of landownershtp. 4
permanent, prosperous agriculture is
possible only where the majority of
the farmers own the Land they cult
vate. The proportion of tenant farm
ers in the United States is steadily In
creasing. From 25 per cent in 1880 1t
increased to SO per cent in 1900. The
1910 census viii show in all probable
ity that nearly half the farms in the