The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1914-04-17

new fruit country. There they have
a high-grade Of cherries, strawberries
and other small fruits. A small local
their stuff in Minneapolis. We asked
the manager why he did not sell in 9TH
er cities-Milwaukee, for example,
where the retailers should be willing I
to pay good prices for good fruit. His |
reply was that he had been utterly |
unable to find any Milwaukee retailer |
who would take his fruit because they |
said that they must deal only with
those who handled a full line of
fruits; that If they bought cherries
and strawberries of him they would
find themselves unable to buy the
other fruits which he did not handle,
such as bananas, peaches, pineapples
and the like. The same condition ex-
lists everywhere. The retailer will
not buy in small quantities nor will
they buy of those who cannot sell
them a full line of supplies. A repre-
sentative of the Society of Equity OF
Wisconsin went to Chicago to work
| up a trade directly with the retailers
! of that city but gave up the plan in de-
| spair. He concluded that either the
| cooperative marketing concerns must
| combine upon broad lines in order to
be able to protect the retailers who
bought of them or else the consumers
must combine and buy comparatively
of the producer. In short, the Ameri-
can farmer cannot, unaided, invade the
larger cities. Even the smaller coop
erative organizations find themselves
too weak to go into the city markets.
Federates to Invade Cities.
But here in Germany, and in fact
in many other countries, the farmer
does successfully invade the cities
large and small He does it through
the federated association of co-opera
tive societies which thrive everywhere
These organizations do tremendous
business. They are enormous con
Germs, capable of taking big contracts
and making good on them, fully able
to hold their own in competition witt
privately owned concerns. The Ger
man retailer knows that when he deal'
with such a concern or organization
he can get all that he wants wheneVe
. | he wants it.
We have just been investigating tn
, methods of one of these federated sal
societies, the United Pomeranial
: Diaries, concern which represent
thousands of farmers. We found tn
manager a most businesslike individs
al with an amazingly wide knowledg
!, of all matters connected with the maj
: keting of the products handled by hin
! He has at his tongues end the al
swer to all questions, whether the
have to do with the technicalities
:, the product itself or with the bushes
! methods of the concern. The retailer
do not hesitate to deal with this CO.
: Germ for they can rely upon it to su
= ply all of their needs, all of the tim
= It markets the butter and cheese cor
ing from over half million cows al
supplements this when necessary VII
le imported products. 1t is through ms
sr buttons such as this that the Germs
It. farmer invades the German city.
e Union Of Cooperative Concerns.
a 'This is an association of associ
ar TONS, the manager stated. IL Is
- connected with any Landschaften
e Reiffeson bank. Our associations
il formed solely to aid the farmer in ms
20 keting his produce. In fact, nearly
10 the shares are held by farmers
- have over twenty thousand separa
AZ members. There are 10 association
81 We are marketing our product throu
" ffty-six stores"
he This is cooperative concern in
Nv true sense of the word. All our CO
st Germs are operated upon the zone m
as one vote plan, as are all of the COT
ot erative societies in Germany. I
in small farmer has as much influence
! | the big man Everybody connect
in with us participates in our profits a
or is responsible if we have losses.
cir erybody votes, nobody votes more tn
y" once. We charge about three ]
rts cent. on the turnover to pay the
er. penses involved in marketing. WI
he is left goes to the members who
ity through us"
THE chief product ia butter, but