Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1912-02-05

among the farmers. With other classe
OF citizens he is not so much concerne,
He believes in cooperation NOT onI,
among the farmers, but between III
farmers and the government. He ba
been working and talking on this lin,
for years, and he explained his idea,
quite freely, the other day, to the cor
respondent Of this paper.
THE government" said Mr. Havs
is the biggest cooperative organiza
tion there is, or that ever was # i,
beginning now to cooperate with th,
lesser units like the state, county an(
school district, in order to do for thu
people what they cannot do alone an(
unaided.
"Still further down in the economic
scale, or in the body polite, is a Sc.
ries of volunteer cooperative units
self-formed for the purpose of gran
pling with the problems Of production
and distribution; cooperative cream.
cries, cheese factories. stores operatef
by farmers organizations, and so on.
we have cooperative law in bust.
ness Jurisprudence which has grown
up around the getting-together Of
business firms, but we have little such
jurisprudence. We need a set of laws
around cooperation, instead of deci-
sions.
Let the State Help.
THE farmer, alone and unaided," re-
sumed the assistant secretary, "cannot
sustain himself in competition with
an organized business. How can he
meet such organized business? Take
a creamery in Minnesota or Wisconsin,
for instance. Let us say that 100 farm.
ers have each a $4,000 farm plant.
They build a $4,000 creamery and
each one takes a $100 interest in it.
They have combined resources of ST.
100000, and they invest l per cent Of
1t in business. Now. the remaining 80
per cent Of the community wealth is
In the hands Of the individual farmer.
II, perhaps, loss occurs in the man
agement Of the creamery and 1t is sold
out to a company, the new manage
ment will exact toll of the farmers
lOT lne ue&C twenty years.
What is the remedy? Let the state
help sustain those creameries by Civ
ing instruction in the art Of butter
making and in business management.
It has already done so to some extent.
In Minnesota the state dairy commits
sion will test sample of butter
monthly, and tell the creamery sub
mitting 1t whether 1t is following the
best methods In making butter. Then
the government also sends inspectors
around to the creameries and they re-
port on conditions and give advice"
Successful Farmers Societies.
Some of the most marvellous exam
pies of cooperation are to be found in
the credit societies among the poorer
farmers of Europe. A group of the
small farmers will pool their credit;
that is, they sign an unlimited note to
bank, each pledging all of his prop
erty to the payment of the note. Up
to the amount Of this note the bank
will loan money at low rate Of inter-
est. When any member of the credit
association wants money, he applies to
the officers Of the association. They
appoint two or three members from
among his neighbors, as a committee,
which arranges with him for a given
sum to be loaned-not to live on--but
to be invested in productive project.
This committee is charged with keep
ing watch Of the borrower II the
project is not being carried on proper
.ly, the committee is expected to report
to the association officers, and pay
ment is demanded of the borrower.
Millions are loaned on this plan an
|nually, and the loss from bad payments
Is so small as to be trifling-a fraction
of per cent. As the officers of the
farmers association act without sal
ary, the interest rate Is very low. I'm
der this plan many peasants and young
men VINO would not be able to acquire
lands or even begin farming as renters,
are able to gain foothold.
Capital Necessary.
Farming is, as a rule, conducted
with too little capital. A goodly por-
tlon of farmers are renters. Anoth-
er portion are paying for farm and a
very small number Of men who are
actually going backward in business.
We have q banking system which is re-
sponslve to supplying capital at low
rate Of interest to manufacturing,
transportation and other lines of busi-
ness. But our banks are not so re-
sponsive as they should be to supply
ing money to the farmers, especially
to the beginner and renter This is
particularly true in the South, though
the painful situation following the civil
war is being considerably changed
and has improved much during the
past several years.
DR.. S. A. Knapp and his 500 helpers
have done much to inaugurate
change in financing the annual mar
ketlng of crops as well as working out
better methods Of plowing, planting
and cultlvatlng. Some modified form
of the European form of "raifeisen'
~. gorynara' credit hanks Is needed in