The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1913-04-10
Passage of Cooperative Bills for the
Benefit of People in the Rural Com
munities Promises to be One of the
Big Features of Present Session.

are before the legislature on the sub
ject, and last but not least has come
| Governor McGovern S special message
and his presentation to the legislature
of the so-called marketing bill about
which so much is being said at the
present time. Just how far this mar
keting bill will get at this session no
one seems to know. There are many
people conversant with the agricultural
conditions in the state who seem to
think that this plan for state aid to CO.
operative associations is a subject which
will bear a vast amount Of investiga-
| ton. What is more, some Of this OPP
position, or at least willingness to give
more than the consideration of this
session to the subject before any legis-
lation is drafted comes from men who
are themselves farmers and are thus in
close touch with the needs of the rural
communities.
| This much seems an established fact
however, that the high cost Of living
and the high cost Of agricultural prod
ucts are subjects which must be legis-
lated on in the near future and that
something must be done to relieve the
people from the present stringency.
1 All I, +ha f1y,
ers life or all the high cost Of living
to the city men because of the high
price that agricultural products bring in
the market will be done away with by
legislation which has for its primary
idea state aid to cooperative associa-
tions is, however, doubted by many,
and some of the doubters are farmers
! themselves.
This cooperative association idea for
the disposal Of agricultural products is
another bill which has the endorse
ment of the legislative reference Ii
brary, and like the bill for the election
of county school boards has more or
less of an issue flavor about the sub
ject in regard to which Governor Me
Govern has seen fit to send a special
message to the legislature. AS mat
ter of fact, some of the legislative ref
erence bureau people have gone SO far
as to say that if the bill which has
for it's aim the help of the state auth
critics in the formation of agricultural
societies as we'll as in the settlement of
other agricultural questions does not
become a law it will be an issue the
next campaign and that opponents Of
the bill will find they have taken a
stand which is by no means approved
Of by the voters at large.
Tt is the belief of the heads of the
legislative reference library and I'M
doubtedly also of Governor McGovern,
that great amount of interest is being
taken throughout the state in this bill
to promote cooperative associations,
and that the farmers of the state are
| looking upon the measure as a bill
which will place them in an independ-
ent position and do much to secure for
them larger return for farm products.
It was the statement recently Of one Of
the heads of the legislative reference
library that if the Wisconsin legislature
did not pass the bill it would be made
an issue in the state and that it would
be an issue which would be a con-
trolling factor in the campaign.
AS matter Of fact the bill of the
| governor was by no means the first of
the bills which in a general way pro-
posed this assistance to the organiza-
tion Of cooperative associations to APP
pear before the legislature. Assembly
man Hahn had bill already before
the assembly committee on agriculture
when the message of the governor was
presented which in many salient fea-
lures was very like the bill Of the gov
ernor AS an illustration one marked
similarity of the bills was that the
Hahn bill as well as the bill of the
governor proposed an agricultural COM
mission which should have for one of
/ its duties the extension Of aid for the
organization of cooperative societies.
In fact, in some ways the Hahn bill
went further than the bill of the COVER
nor, for one of the features of the Hahn
| bill was the control it gave over the
| disposal of land to settlers and the
work which was mapped out for the
commission for the overseeing of trans
actions between owners of large tracts
of land and settlers for the protection
of settlers and the insurance that they
were placed on lands which would in
time make good farms.
The HahrSb bill, when it came up be-
fore the committee ON agriculture two