The Greeley tribune., 1912-04-18
nav,D LUBIN's COOPERATIVE
RANKING PLAN

farmers WnlCu HAS AltA"~sS"
attention of the United states gov
ernment. Is scheduled to appear oe-
iore many commercial bodies 10 eA-
plain his plan to benefit the farmers
and reduce the cost OF nvihs 70
an address in Denver, while al
ready Governor Shafroth mas oP
nointed Senator Anpmons ana Dr.
gnrv as two members from this
state to attend conference on the
subject called by MIR. Luoin.
MIR. Lubin, who is the American
delegate to the International lnsti-
tute Of Agriculture. summarizes MS
IDEAS as follows:
"Jnder the present system. when
man with a commercial business
wants money he goes to bank ana
upon a statement OF his business ana
his rating, which is published. he 10
able to obtain money simply upon
his signature. and this money he
can use to increase his profits and
for other business uses. In other
words the dollar becomes dynamic,
and he can use it to juggle, and SO
it supplies his pressing needs.
"Now what about the farmer?
When he goes to the bank and wants
money he cannot get 1t. for he mas
no rating in Dun's or Bradstreet 8.
for other business suses. In other
The banker says to him: We don
do business that way. You must
go to the savings bank which Will
take a mortgage as security. so
each dollar the farmer receives Is
dead dollar, and he must mortgage
his farm lands. his crops and his
equipment though his assets may be
as valuable as many commercia!
houses He remains simply a unit
houses He remains simply unit
well, there is remedy. In
Germany the first cooperative BANK
ing system for farmers was begun
under Frederick the Great. There
are now three systems in that coun-
try. and in a year they have done
business amounting to about $5.-
900 100000. Take the Rai6etsen
system. The owners of a tract of
land organize and clearly define the
boundaries Of their property. There
may be 500 farm owners In the
tract. This group, as individuals,
no matter how good the securities
they have to offer, are too insight
ficant to be dealt with. 1t Is only
when they join into one group into
one corporation, and centralize that
they become formidable. SO the
cooperative association of tract
owners form their committee ana
turn their combined cooperative Sc
curities into one general security
into one negotiable bOnd-and with
- k@ fAOr nj
money at 3 to An per cent. Given
these syndicated cooperative rural
groups, and the farmer would soon
attract capital. capital from Its prin-
cipal sources. and between each set
Of groups this capital could estab-
lish one of its banks.
Under such a system it Is not
necessary for the banker to con-
slider as an asset the character OF
the individual members. or OF the
rural cooperative syndicate as a
whole; he would only look to the
value OF the security offered by that
syndicate. The moral character OF
the individual would. however, have
to be considered by the rural CO.
Operative syndicate in laying out
the line of credit for each OF its
members. The money loaned goes
to the committee who distributes II
to the farmer. Incidently, there
would be no more mortgagtng OF
crops, and the producer would han
die his own produce.
There is talk now ~ potato
trust Well, under the system l
have outlined, such trust would be
impossible, for the farmer. like q
business man, would be emancipated
. and have an elastic currency.
How will this affect the present
high cost OF living? Well, instead
of the farmer being gouged down tc
sell an article at cents to have
the seller pass 1t on to us at 15
cents, he would be able to control
his produce and sell 1t to the public
at, say, 8 cents, an increase over
present profit to him. and a de-
crease in the cost to us. Control
ling his goods. he could see that
they get to market at fair price. y
denver Times,