Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1914-03-18
Coo erative ]. Farm a:
Products Marketin
Hon. Il II Done in Europe and May Be Done
sSssSs III America to the Profit OF Both
*s88 Farmer and Consumer
sSs 8 sy MATTHEW S. DupeEoN.
Farmer. and COf1Stl
81 MATTHEW S. pUpeEoh

"a Ri BY MATTHEW
Observation-Disclosures $1,000 <.
5...... 4. SAVING RUR
Dublin, ireland. Poverty and dis
2tressyand ssqualor3 and hunger is still.
present In the slums OF some OF the
larger cities OF Ireland. But over the
richer rural parts Of Ireland has come.
Intelligent organized industry and en-
thusiastic energy which make it as.
q rich and prosperous 90 the richest
+ portions OF the great middle west in
America. Rural Ireland is unQuestion,'
ably asregenerate Ireland. The process
of Regeneration is progressing. Pros
perity ID scroviding out poverty and In
$vading even those regions which have
y heretofore been considered the natural
strongholds Of poverty. Il if.s
How Prosperity Came TO ireland. a&
X II There are ~ several ontributtng
causes for this changed condition. The
land tenure laws have done wonders.
4; Under old cond itions the slightest In
dication Of prosperity upon the part
sof the tenant, II 1t were only q new cap
or the wife q clean apron. meant q
raise iii rent. It was to the advant-
\ age Of the tenant farmer to seem more
miserable than he was. The system
\ put 8 premium on squalor and ragged
!. ness and slovenly farming. No one
I could safely whitewash his cottage or
plant 4 tree OF, cultivate q flower. Now
II all Ii changed. N Three hundred thou
sand farmer tenants iare now purchas:.S3
I Ing their holdings under; a benefcent
1 law, which permits the purchase Of the
land without the advance payment Of
! = cent The only litigation upon the
purchaser Is that he pay annually i2%
per cent. upon the value Of the little
farm a. interest and less than one-half
per cent as an installment upon the
principal. Under this law the entire
tenant class are acquiring their homes
4 BY. the annual payment of sums aggre-
eating considerably less than the for
mers rent. al II " a55; Il 4,
plunkett Teaches Cooperation.
3ss5s8s There can be no doubt that rural
ireland ID making business success Of
farming. But it lie not doing its bust
( ness II q busine way because OF
any spontaneous impulse on the part
OF the Irish farmer. It Is rather Be.
cause businesslike ;;Irishmen vent
about organizing the business. pro
cedure OF rural enterprises In q most
business like way. The lead OF these
business.like Irishmen Is ! Sir Horace
& Plunkett. To him Ireland owes more
than Il Will ever realize. From the
drst his propaganda was educational:
His proposition was that the Irish
farmer must be taught the efficacy Of
combination In industries. He did not
I believe In subsidies or subventions.
I Nor did he believe that relief would
I como through Liquidation or through
state aid IN any form. AS Father Fin
Lay. professor Of econimics In the Ma
tionalS University Of Dublin, says: "The
farmers best resources he held to be
themselves, and In their own intelli-
Ssnce, self.relianceB and mutual trust,
and these resources It was his pur-i
pose to develop. '' g. a5{s \. 81.
III Encounters Difficulties. g3 ,s7 Y
There seemed to be most excellent
: reasons Why he could not succeed. The
Irish people were dispirited and dis
couraged. They were suspicious and
afraid Of all new movements. Sir
!. Horace Plunkett himself belonged to
4 the despised landlord class, with which
the people had been long in constant
/ conflict hi ;s5s5,z !,
As Father Ffnlay says: In religion
4 he was d Protestant and his appeal
would be to al people pred minantly
Catholic In a country where religious
antagonisms 2prevade every sphere Of
social life. In politics 80 far as he
was poll he was a Unionist,
and those whom he proposed to inf1u.,
ence were Nationalist by q vast ma
tority, keenly suspicious of any policy
which threatened to divert the mind
OF the nation from the political aims
on which 1t was passionately bent"
a It is not surprising. therefore. that it
was only after more than a year Of
strenuous efforts and after more than
fifty public meetings had been held,
than in 1889 body Of Limerick farm
ers finally consented to establish q CO
operative creamery. It was again over
4 a year before second one followed
suit. BY the end of 1891, however.
seventeen creameries were at work,
and at the end Of 1898 thirty had been
& organized. Thereafter the cooperative
societies were organized more rapidly.
Now cooperation and good business
method prevail throughout Ireland.
There are $50 cooperative so
cieties upon the island. With an ag-
gregate paid up share capital of about
Z million dollars their annual turnover
Il twelve million dollars.
IN 1894 the cooperative movement
has become 30 great that there was
need Of central society to carry on
the work which had heretofore been
done by volunteer propagandists.
The /. A. O. 8.
There was needed an organization
which should help rural communities
organize their marketing and business
processes, be central federation OF
all existing societies, and become a
supervisor and auditor Of their busi-
ness methods. Such society Is the
Irish Agricultural society. AT It's
head has been and is Sir Horace
Plunkett, who has been the John the
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Puzzle In Electricity.
It n amazing what q tremendous
electric shock q man may receive and
yet not be killed. No less amazing
10 it how small q shock will kill. 1t
MI depends upon the circumstances OF
he shock. To kill, the shock must
-. las>axf ,alIaIaDS