The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-03-09

be present from various parts of tho
country to tell their story.
Start Already Made.
Some start toward farmers Cooper
alton has already been made In the
South. Among the successmuI South
ern enterprises of this kind are the
Eastern Shore OF 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-opera-
tive selling of apples, located at Staun-
/ ton, the birthplace of the PRESIDENT
the Cooperative Dairy Association Of
CataWba county, n c, and the Far
mers Cooperative and Educative So
ciety, which runs q store in Woodford
county, Ky.
These enterprises will be discussed
at the. conference, respectively by A.
I j. McMath. Clarence w. Moomaw, w.
J. Shuford and Frank NJ. Mckee, all
of whom have had hand in their de-
yelopment. The talks will deal with
cooperation In ali its aspects; with
methods of organization and conduct,
as we'll as with the economic, ethi-
/ cal and social aspects of the move
ment.
Every address will be very short
and intensely practical in character.
7 There will be no oratory nor gener-
allied statements Ways, means and
results are the phases to ne stressed:
/ The conference will deal with the big
problem of how the farmer can make
more money in just as husinesslike
l manner as the same problem would
i be handled by the directors or q
great corporation.
/ DR.. Coulter who will himself take
I part in the conferences and speak. Jig
most optimistic about the result of
z ,Fx,-a f4tzf yaf
+ a few of these cooperative agencies
( going in representative sections OF the
I SOUTH he declared yesterday. the
! benefits of this form of organization
will speedily become so apparent to
other farmers that they win all want
i to come in, and in very short time,
I parativeIy speaking, the whole
farm industry of the South will be
/ banded together not merely To talk
/ hut To do better business, produce
more, market better. etc.
I DR. Coulter Optimistic.
"Cow-testing associations have been
/ organized in various places in Europe
as well as in this country, and by
wedding out lazy cows and by better
/ feeding the average amount of milk
! per cow has been doubled. Corn
clubs have doubled the yield OF corn.
The same results can be attained IN
any branch of agriculture.
I'm other sections of the country
IL has been demonstrated that well
organized marketing association Will
add from ten to twelve per cent to
the price which farmers get for their
produce even when 1t is marketed
I through middiemen. Suppose that
similar organizations of the South
would sell In the same conservative
manner even sos they would add not
less than two hundred and fifty mil
lions of dollars (s25o.0o0. 00ol an
nually to the farmers income. This
is the result 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
salers. and sell at regular prices; no
cutthroat competition with other mcT-
charts being attempted
The profits are returned TO tne
I stockholders who run the store co.
! operatively in the form OF dividends
on the basis of business done Thl1
virtually amounts TO a rebate on the
goods which the c6-operators bny AZ
the store Southern farmers now buy
goods amounting to two billion dollars
$4,000. o0o, 000l year IL they all
Z bought comparatively. they woui0
effect a saving of not less than three
hundred million dollars t3o0.ooo.0Ool
a year even when no allowances -
made for increased CONSUMPTION la
s &c inads farmers probably borrow
ooS oo lse y sMq IN nl some FORM
I This money is loaned them generally
in the form of advances of gooas Ine
Ssnas of the oa o an sssss d
cent for the use or the money. tHey
loan it to the middiemen st an average
of 10 per cent, and frequently the mid
dIemen In turn nut it out among tnAS
farmers at about 20 per cent.
I Under an improved credit system.
much OF this advance In interest rates
| can be saved to the southern Iarmst.
Cooperative hanks could be crganizsos
similar In operation 70 eo-e ~ shniv
farmer stockholders, III the form OF al
yidends. the profits made by iendin4
these same farmers money al preVaia-
The Credit system.
1 This scheme has been worked Suc-
cessfuiiy already in this country The
type of credit system to be outlined at
the coming conference is the so-calisn
/ "Reiffeisen" plan, which originated ID
Germany, Under this PLAN. the farmers
I of given community club their sur
plus money together and make short
tern, loans to each other AZ rate
which will pay the association bank
interest plus cost or managemenf
"For the large landhoider the Land
This plan was devised in Prussia a.
result of the wars OF Frederick thes
Great, which stripped the great LANDED
4 proprietors of everything they had hut
their real estate. "
! "a number of the proprietors iumped
their lands and bonded them, each
member OF the syndicate being jointly
and severally responsible for the total
Indebtedness. These bonds. being 500
II cured by an underlying lien on TIM BEST
security in the world--Mother EARTH
had n ready sale, even though they
bore a low rate Of interest.
Then each proprietor borrowed. ac-s
cording to his needs. from the common
cash reservoir thus created. at rats
4 which took care of ths bond Interest
and amortization, so that, at the end
or a generation. they had their lands
free and clear. with all improves
ments ss
pledged at the banks. the interest
charges would have been so high that
4 the proprtetors would have been f0rxs.
closed long ago, or else would SttAS
be encountered with debt. Bath the
Reifeisen and the Landsehaften syN-A
TENS of credit have been In suecessfuts
operation for period amply ionRs
enough To prove their practicAhitiky3a
: the former for the last fifty Years. The
/ latter since the eighteenth century
II would Help Materially.
Thus liz only these last three Co.,
operative ystens--InarkettnEsAb buy tNmH
<continued ~ Third Paxk.1