The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1913-03-05
co OPERA TIVE PLAN
OF CREDIT TO BE up

lstS ~SSaS utS uUue
town Of Lakeheld. Mimi, have sue
cessfully managed cooperative
store, creamery grain elevator and
bank.
4 a. o. Nelson, will describe the op-
erations OF similar enterprises upon
farm communities, and 7. l.. aecker,
OF the same state, will give the his
tory Of the cooperative creameries in
Minnesota. Many Others will be pres.
,ent from various parts of the counfT,
to tell their story.
Some start towards farmers CO.
Operation has already been made in
the South. Among the successful
southern enterprises of this kind are
the Eastern shore Virginia produce
Exchange, which is a growers agency
for marketing sweet and Irish pota-
toes, berries, cabbage and onions;
the Virginia Fruit Growers Selling
and Purchasing Agency, for the CO.
Operative selling Of apples, located at
iStaunton, the birthplace OF the pres
ident. the Cooperative Dalrying AS
sociation, of Catawba county, N. o.;
and the Farmers Cooperative and
Educatiye Society, which runs a
store in Woodford county, KY.
These enterprises win be discussed
at the conference, respectively, by A.
! J. McMath, Clarence w. Moomaw, w.
~. shuford and Frank NJ, Mckee, all
lof whom have had a hand in their de-
velopment. The talks VIM deal with
cooperation in all Its aspects. with
methods OF organization. and con-
duct, as well as with the economic,
ethical and social aspects of the
movement.
Every address will be very short
and intensely practical in character.
There viii be no oratory or general
lied statements. Ways, means and
results are the phases to be stressed.
The conference will deal with the big
problem of how the farmer can make
more money in Just as business-like
"a msaner as the same problem would
be handled by the directors of a
great corporation.
Dr.. Coulter, who win himself take
part in the conference and speak, is
most optimistic about the result OF
the conference. IF we can just get
a few OF these cooperative agencies
going in representative sections Of
the south he declared. the bene-
tits Of this form of organization will
speedily become SO APPARENT to other
farmers tnat they viii all want TO
come, IN, and in very short time,
comparatively speaking, the whole
farm industry Of the South will be
banded together not merely to talk,
but to de better business, produce
more, market better, etc.
'1cow-testing associations have
been organized ia various places in
Europe as well as in this country,
and by wedding out lazy COWS and by
better feedingg the average amount
of milk per COW has been doubled.
Corn clubs have doubled the yield OF
corn. The same results can be at
tanned in any branch of agriculture.
in other sections Of the country,
it has been demonstrated that a weli
organized marketing association viii
add from ten to twelve per cent to
the price farmers get for their pro-
duce, even when it is marketed
through middlemen. Suppose that
similar organizations of the South
would sell in the same conservative
manner; even so they would add not
less than $25o,oOO,OOO annually to
the farmers income. This is the re-
suit of system.
Elsewhere cooperative stores pay
dividends of from ten to twenty per
cent to their stockholders. These
stores at present buy their goods like
any Others from jobbers and whole
callers, and sell at regular prices; no
cutthroat competition with other
merchants being attempted.
THE profits are returned to the
stockholders who run the store CO.
operatively in the form of dividends
on the basis of business dc.1e. This
virtually amounts to rebate on the
goods which the co-operators buy at
the store. Southern farmers now buy
goods amounting to So, 900, 900, 900
a year. If they all bought co-opera-
lively they would effect saving OF
,not less than $SOO,O00,OOO year,
even when no allowance is made for
increased consumption.