The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1913-04-18
What the farmers Are Accomplishing
Continued from Page One

how to induce the farmers to Coop
crate? Farmers are conservative;
ORGANIZED, corporate. cooperative
methods are not so familiar to
them as to town folk.
So the government stepped IN to
HELM the Australian farmers. 1t
set corps of practical people to go
around showing the farmers how to
form cooperative dairying associa-
tions; how to Incorporate. chip IN "
the capital, establish selling agen-
cies in common. and, in short, do
their own business with the con-
sumer. and save the middlemer's
charges.
The Australian experiment succe-
ded, lust as did the Rockwell one.
The farmers learned; they tried;
they succeeded.
Last summer. when Congess pas
sed the annual appropriation bill
for the Department of Agriculture.
the measure included this provision:
"The Secretary is directed to Sc
cure reports relative to systems OF
marketing farm products. co-opera-
tive or otherwise. and shall make
such recommendations relative to
further Investigations of these
questions, and the dissemination of
such information, as he shall deem
necessary"
More writing of history by men
who didn't know they were doing
it! For that little proviso has cal
led forth from the Department of
Agriculture a repor printed few
weeks ago. which gives wonder
fully Illuminating view of American
systems of cooperative marketing
and their results. 1t tells the story
of great industries built up because
cooperation was their basis. 1t
pictures cooperative agricultural
marketing. all the way from pota-
toes in Maine to prunes in Califor-
MIA. 1t glimpses Us Edens in the
desert, made by irrigation, and de-
voted to the production of crops
that would never have been possible
but for the high development of CO.
operative methods in getting spec
allied products to market. With
that report as basis and a justifi-
cation, we are now on the verge of
taking the next step. The govern
ment is getting ready to adopt the
Australian plan of teaching the
farmer how to organize, how to be-
come his own middleman, how to
increase his profits while ultimately
cheapening his products to the con-
sumner. how to eliminate waste. and,
at the end, how to make the vast
contribution which only he can make
to the work of reducing the cost of
living.
But the great immediate purpose
Of the department experts is to help
the farmers in oganizing to per-
form for themselves marketing SER
vices that have heretofore been per
formed by others. While great pro-
gress has been made-far greater
than most people would imagine
in community marketing, yet the
plan has reached to only a small
fraction of the agricultural pro-
ducers. The authorities have long
been anxious to enter upon this
wide field; the beginning is now to
be made.
For this is no plunging of the
country into Utopian experiment.
1t isn't merry little proposal to
try out a bit of socialism on the
farm dog. The dog has tried the
medicine and found it excellent.
There is no more absorbing story of
business evolution. no more drama
tic tale of the warfare for mastery
OF the marketplace. than this of the
rise OF agricultural cooperation.
Everybody. for instance. knows
California fruit-knbws that he can
buy it. fresh and inviting in almost
any market at any season of the