The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1914-04-09

down on similar lines, and no one con-
cern. eooperative or otherwise, will
ever control ell or even nearly al OF
the fruit. Furthermore, IL would be
tremendously against your interests II
any one concern, cooperative or other
wise were 10 control II all, or nearly
all. Human nature, you know, Is
human nature whether found IN the
ranks Of pure cooperation or outside
them. And monopoly tends 10 abuses,
to inertia, to extrayaganee. to eorrup-
tiun. This is true when one political
party controls the government maehin-
cry for too long and 1t is true Of any
other human institution. Competition
is needed by every man 10 sharpen his
faculties; 10 bring the best cut of him.
These things being fundamentally true,
it Is up 10 you to study the whole ques-
tioH and decide for yourself in which
mehod Of marketing you can rely most
advantageOusly 10 yourself. IL you
want money, you would better study
the Exchanges record for four years.
want to warn you against the soph
istTy Of supposlng that cooperation and
organization is a panacea for all mar
kCt ills. We have noticed Of late the
growing use Of the expression Re
member 1912 - much as the express
sion. Remember the Maine, was
used in 1898. II is all very well to re-
ember 1912. and take what steps we
can to guard against a repetition OF
these conditions. But it is equally well
not to fool ourselves IN the belief that
cooperation alone will prevent them.
AS matter of fact, there will be lean
yeaTs-yery lean year5-as well as fat
years, IN the future as in the past.
Cooperation is not responsible for this
year S good prices, nor will it prevent
some future years very bad prices.
Unless you realize the truth Of this and
build your business accordingly you
will be greatly embarrassed later on.
The California Fruit Growers kX-
change so often quoted as the ne plus
ultra of cooperation, has rot been able
to avert this years market disaster
many scores Of cars Of oranges from
California have returned red ink to the
growers and many more have sold for
less than cost of production, despite
the fact that huge sums of money have
been spent and are being spent in
newspaper and magazine space to ad
vertise the fruit. Another point we'll
worth the attention of thoughtful men,
IN connection with the Exchange sys-
TEN, is that growers are bound to the
Exchange by simple contract ties, and
not by complicated financial chains,
which SO often tie the members to CO.
operative agencies, growers notes,
sinking fund scrip, equities in proper
ties. obscure contracts, ETC., are none
of them used by this Exchange to tie
its members to it. The relation is
voluntary one, and one easily and
quickly to be severed if desired. The
tact that Exchange members stay on.
year after year, voluntarily and gladly,
IS eloquent testimony of the value of
the service. This is an important
point, for there are many illustrations
IN different parts of the country of
growers tied SO tight to their organiza-
tiOn that the management is able to
hold them year after year, always dis
satisfied and always against their real
wish. The Portland Evening Telegram
of Wednesday last, has the following
leading editorial:
"a point which nearly everybody
overlooked is this: 1t doesn't matter
how perfect your scheme of govern.
ment may be; in its administration it
is only as efficient as the men who ad-
minister it. If we don't get results it
is because the public officials that we
| have are placing too much emphasis on
changing cur plan of government and
| too little on the character and quality
of the men who are called in to admin
lister our public affairs. -
There is the meat of the cocoanut.
1t doesn't so much matter about the
form of your marketing organization
it matters great deal about the char
acter and quality of the men who ad-
minister its affairs. You cannot be
too careful of that.
4 The Exchange doesn't want to me-
nopoliZe the fruit marketing business,
and doesn't even want to market ma
jority of it, or anything like major
lty. 1t isn't seeking business in dis
tricts that it doesn't believe are able
to compete and to survive. 1t wants
to handle only the cream of the crop,
and the cream, you know, is always
just little on the top. The Exchange
is known to the trade and to the north
west as the Fancy Fruit Exchange and
only admits to membership organiza-
tions of growers of first class fruits,
grown in the few really first class dis
tricts. The Wenatchee valley stands
high in the list of the best. If you are
a grower of high class fiut you are in
vited to study the Exchange and its
record very carefully. Take the com
parative tables above; take also your
own returns, average them out, com
pare them with Exchange returns, and
figure out the difference; the total
money difference to you, Then see
whether you can afford to be without
Exchange service. 1t is simply a mat
ter of business.
The Exchange stands on its record Of
service and results.