The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1914-01-30

"HEiG AlaS WV PG' etiNN ~
Duuglow, County Donegal ireland.
This is a story Of the grand uphill
fight for self-respecting, economic in
dependence which is being made by
a bunch of CHEEKY Irishmen in County
Donegal At the head of this fighting
group is Paddy Gallagher, an organ
izer and a promoter If there ever was
one But is a promoter, not of his
own fortunes, but the promoter Of
community welfare. This is also the
story Of what godsend a cooperative
organization can be TO a community
which has been, in an economic sense,
hard stricken by nature. Nature
seems to have exhausted herself in
the agricultural gifts she showered on
eastern and southern Ireland and to
have reached Dunglow, in County
Donegal. with nothing left in her gift
bag except a few little patches of cold,
unresponsivp soil which she scattered
here and there among the huge out
cropping rocks of the barren hillsides
rising between the wide stretches OF
desolate peet bogs.
In fact, we are here because Sir
Horace Plunkett has said that this
is the place Of ali others to visit, If
we Americans wish to see what CO
operation will do toward helping an
Irish community scratch a living out
of the rocky hills on the bleak north,
western coast of Ireland.
Who Paddy Is.
Paddy Gallagher was born forty
years ago in one of the poor one-room
cottages on a barren three-acre ten
ant hc,ding-a cottage that had the
wolf always at the door. When Paddy
was nine he was put out to work at
three pounds for six months work.
His father did not do this sort OF
thing because he wanted the little
half-starved shaver to work beyond
his strength. but because It was either
work for Paddy or starvation for still
younger and weaker children. After
that there was nothing for Paddy but
hard work, and low wages until he
was grown and had started a family
OF his own.
But his work had taken him into
other places, into Scotland and Eng
land. and he came back with the real
ization that life in bungalow was not
what 1t ought to be. Uneducated,
work-worn. without any outlook Of
promise for himself or his family
something brought Paddy Gallagher
the realization that he and his neigh
bors together might do what each sep.
arately could not do. So with the
assistance of the Irish Agricultural
Organization society, cooperation was
brought to bungalow
How 1t Started.
Gallagher, who had been studying
soils and manures, learned that aC-
cording to government analysis the
soil of his section needed certain def
mite chemical elements. He asked 10.
cal traders if they could give him any
guaranty of analysis of the manures
sold by them He was informed that
they never got such a thing, knew
nothing about it and could give no
guaranty. He wrote to the agricul-
tural department about it. They re
farred him to the Irish Agricultural
Wholesale society From them he
learned that this society at that time
dealt only with local cooperative
concerns.
So this farm boy, with surprising
persistence, gathered together the
small farmers and pointed out to them
the advantages to be gained as to
quality and price by purchasing guar.
anteed manures direct from the CO.
operative wholesale society. The re-
suit was that the farmers ordered a
2O-ton lot of fertilizer through a little
cooperative society in an adjoining
village They found that they saved
5000 on the manuTes and besides Sc
cured super-phosphate Of 80 per cent,
instead Of % per cent strength and
dissolved bone instead of worthless
compounds The battle for co-opera-
ton was already half won, for there
was no further question as to the ad-
vantages to be gained through CO.
operation.
The old methods of buying and sell
ing we're the cause of much poverty in
this district said Mr.. Gallagher.
"The traders have generally kept the
public houses They were gombeen
men-money lenders Poor farmers
here could not pay cash for what they
bought. They had to get goods on
credit. Once a farmer got into debt
TO these retail dealers he seldom got
free from the big mans clutches.
While he was in this state he was no
better than a slave He was charged
tremendous prices and had to pay big
interest. | myself have been charged
interest on what 1 bought on credit
at the rate of IA per cent per annum
My father had this sort of interest to
pay while he was bringing up his fam
fly. That is where the three pounds
went that 1t took me six months to
earn when I started to work.
What Cooperation ls Doing.
But Notwithstanding the smallness
OF the holdings. and the poor soil, con-