Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1914-02-11

operative Creamery.
Walking along a country road near
Omagh we came upon a shrewd faced
Irishman who was very ready to talk
about cooperation. He was evidently
man of some Intelligence and, judy
ing from his manner and address, q
man of some experience and success
In business. So we engaged him in
conversation about cooperation and
its effects.
II am against it," he said. There
is no sense in it," And he gave us in
forcible and picturesque language the
story of how he had been personally
injured In his business by co-opera-
ton. It developed that he had been q
buyer of farm produce-a commission
merchant in small way. "Now there
is no money in it," he said, Since the
margin between what the city man
pays and what the farmer receives is
cut down. The farmer sells through
the cooperative organization directly
to the city merchant" Reluctantly he
admitted that maybe it was better for
the farmer and better for the city con-
sumer who had little with which to
buy food. "But it's hard on us COM
mission men. It's putting us on the
rocks. I am not buying butter at all
any more. The cooperative creamery
here has run me out"
We asked him if cooperative butter
making did not make the work of the
farmers wife and daughter easier.
"Of course it does," he said. "And lit
tie good it is doing them. They don't
have to skim the milk and churn and
mold and salt the butter now and so
they 60 galavanting over the roads on
their bicycles. They don't stay homo
at all any more. They're worse about
gadding than city women" and he
shook his head with misgivings.
So, II 1t be true, as our Irish friend
I'm his self pity proclaimed, that CO.
operative butter making and butter
marketing is going to make it cost the
consumer less and net the farmer
more, we suggest that both maker and
eater will be for it, the ex-commission
merchant to the contrary notwith-
standing. They will both in city and
country be interested in seeing COOP
GRAFTON accomplished. Certainly the
country woman who feels the burden
OF butter making will welcome pro-
cess by which she is to get an oppor-
tunity to see something besides the
top of the cook stove and the inside of
the big churn. And we do not believe
that the ordinary American farmer
will object to cooperation even If it
does give his wife and daughter time
to get out upon the road in buggy or
ON bicycles.
4; Tho omagh Creamery.
When we learned that the Omagh
Cooperative Creamery system of mar
keting was cutting down the margin
Of price between farmer and consumer
was both raising the price to the
farmer and lowering the price to the
consumer, we concluded that it was a
concern worth considering. Even the
accusation that made it possible for
the farmers wife and daughter to get
out on their bicycles occasionally did
not unduly prejVdice us against it. The
Omagh creamery is capitalized by con-
tributions from 600 members who in
vested from five dollars. up to $3.50
each. But the voting is not by shares.
1t Is on the one man one vote plan.
The five-dollar man votes Just as often
and as forcibly as the $250-dollar man.
The members voting thus elect q
board Of directors. These In turn have
the best man they can get as manager.
But he must be more than a butter
maker. He must be q good business
man and an expert In marketing. No
matter how much money is made, It
must all go back to the members In
proportion to the butter fat delivered
% the creamery after 4 dividend net
exceeding five per cent. is paid to tho
stockholders. Five per cent. is the
limit Of profit to shareholders. This 10
the rule in all cooperative enterprises
in Ireland. It 10 organized primarily
that profits may 90 to the man who
brings in the cream. It is not ranked
as particularly fine investment tor
the shareholder
Differs From American creamerlee.
We find the mechanical processes of
butter making much the same as those
In the best up-to-date American butter
factories. We do find, however, that
this cooperative association has had
an output that Is of more uniform ex-
cellence than that Of the American
factory. Here each member seems to
realize more fully than does the Amer
lean farmer that the utmost vigilance
must be exercised in keeping the milk
and cream fresh and free from Ill I'M
purities, that keeping up the quality Of
the butter is az much his business a.
the butter-maker's. Therefore he
breeds and feeds and cares for hig
cows and handles his milk on scientific
lines suggested By cooperative instruo-
tors and inspectors. Tho farmer Il
saving his own interests, OF course, for
: falling OF Of quality and reputation
means 9 falling Of II the prizes OBJ