The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1914-06-05

cited as that of a cooperative concern
which did not succeed in the best
sense Of the term.
The small shareholders OF this so
ciety later formed another co-opera
tive society, organizing and admins.
tering it, you may be sure, upon a
purely cooperative basis, adopting the
one man vote plan, and providing that
no dividends be declared upon shares
but that all the profits go to those who
grew the fruit in proportion TO the
amount furnished to thhe company by
each.
Greed Causes Another Failure.
The experience of a Minnesota CO.
operative warehouse elevator was
somewhat different. AS originally or
ganized and managed by the farmers
it was a success, all the profits we're
distributed back to the producers as
an additional price upon the grain de-
livered and the farmers Loyalty sup
ported it. Later, however, the shares
of stock became centered in a few
business men who were not grain
/ growers. These men held a major
ity of the stock and we're in full
cOntrc. They began squeezing down
the prices to the producer until they
were paying him no more than the
privately owned elevator companies
paid.
The trustful farmers continued to
deliver their grain for a time and the
business men in control received a
forty per cent dividend, At the end
of the year, however, the farmers real
! lied that they were being imposed
upon and the next year abandoned the
project, and hauled their grain else
| where. AS a result this cooperative
effort which had been at first an ex-
ceedingly profitable venture became
so absolute a failure that it was with
dtHculty that the shareholders dis
posed of their building and equipment.
What Unfair Competition viii Do.
In another section Of the Northwest
the farmers a short time ago were re-
ceiving from four to eight cents below
the Minneapolis market for all grain
delivered Moreover they could get
no more for the finest grain than for
the low grade The grain was han
died by a line of fifteen or twenty pri-
vately owned warehouses operated by
a company which had practically a
monopoly Of the grain buying business
over a considerable extent of territory
The farmers at one shipping point be-
came dissatisfied, organized a cooper
ative company, got together a little
capital, and built an elevator. Immed-
lately the old company offered those
delivering grain at that one point
Minneapolis prices for their grain
while at other shipping points the
prices remained the same. Prices
were repeatedly advanced until they
were so high that it was evident that
the privately owned elevator COM
panies were taking a loss, recouping
themselves, however, by continuing
to pay unreasonably low prices at the
other shipping points at which were
owned by them. The farmers had
NhAOlC Ch AllNO ~ NbhIl CiIl " Lul ulbh
their product exclusively in the CO.
operative warehouse. Each individual
member exercised his right to sell his
grain to the rival concern. The Co
operative warehouse was deserted, the
company had no business, and soon
disbanded The sequel was, however,
that as soon as the cooperative con-
cern failed the privately owned eleva-
tors again dropped the price paid at
that point for grain and the farmers
were again at their mercy.
European Failures.
There have been failures in Euro
pean cooperation also. You cannot
talk cooperation in Germany long
with anyone familiar with the general
situation without having your atten-
tion called to the fact that co-opera-
tion has received one black eye. Years
ago the government, anxious to aid in
the marketing Of grain, devoted
considerable amount of money to the |
erection Of elevators or corn houses"
loaning the money to local co-opera-
tive concerns whose organization 1t |
fostered and supervising the erection
in each case of a rather imposing
structure. 1t would seem that the |
government generously tempted the
promoters to unreasoning extrava-
gance How could you expect our
people to calculate closely when they
had this heap Of unearned money
forced upon them?" one man re-
marked. Everything was done on a
costly scale. The storehouses were /
too big. They were not carefully To-
Gated Into these concerns crept, also
desire to speculate, to corner the
grain supply, to do in Germany what
Letter was reported to have done in !
America,-to capture the grain mar
ket
Everyone persuaded himself, II Is |
said, that he was going to grow rich |
by appropriating by degrees the
wealth thus TO be gained. They had |