Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1914-02-20
BY MATTHEW S. DUDosoN.


Omagh we came upon shrewd faced
lrishman who was very ready to talk
about cooperation. He was evidently
a man of some intelligence and, judg-
ing from his manner and address,
man of some experience and success
in business. So we engaged him in
conversation about cooperation and
its effects.
81 am against it," he said There
is no sense in it." And he gave US in
forcible and picturesque language the
story of how he had been personally
injured in his business by co-opera-
tion. 1t developed that he had been a
buyer of farm produce-a commission
merchant in small way. Now there
is no money in it," he said, "since the
margin between what the city man
pays and what the farmer receives is
cut down. The farmer sells through
the cooperative organization directly
to the city merchant" Reluctantly he
admitted that maybe it was better for
the farmer and better for the city con-
sumner who had little with which to
buy food. But it's hard on US COM
mission men. It's putting US on the
rocks. l am not buying butter at all
any more. The cooperative creamery
here has run me out"
We asked him If cooperative butter
making did not make the work of the
farmers wife and daughter easier
o1rroa r daa, Io coid ahp1 lif
tie good it is doing them. They don't
have to skim the milk and churn and
mold and salt the butter now and so
they go galavanting over the roads on
their bicycles. They don't stay home
at all any more. They're worse about
gadding than city women" and he
shook his head with misgivings.
So, if it be true, as our Irish friend
in his self pity proclaimed, that CO.
operative butter making and butter
marketing is going to make it cost the
consumer less and net the farmer
more, we suggest that both maker and
eater will be for it, the ex-commission
merchant to the contrary notwith-
standing. They will both in city and
country be interested in seeing coop
Grafton accomplished. Certainly the
country woman who feels the burden
of butter making will welcome pro-
cess by which she is to get an oppor-
tunity to see something besides the
top of the cook stove and the inside of
the big churn. And we do not believe
that the ordinary American farmer
will object to cooperation even if it
| does give his wife and daughter time
to get out upon the road in buggy or
on bicycles.
The omagh Creamery.
When we learned that the Omagh
Cooperative Creamery system of mar
keting was cutting down the margin
of price between farmer and consumer
was both raising the price to the
/ farmer and lowering the price to the
! consumer, we concluded that it was a
concern worth considering. Even the
accusation that made it possible for
| the farmers wife and daughter to get
out on their bicycles occasionally did
not unduly prejudice us against it. The
Omagh creamery is capitalized by con
tributions from 600 members who in
vested from five dollars, up to $3.50
each But the voting is not by shares
1t is on the one man one vote plan
1.-THE five-dollar man votes just as often
and as forcibly as the s250-dollar man
The members voting thus elect a
board of directors. These in turn have
the best man they can get as manager
But he must be more than a butter
maker. He must be a good business
man and an expert in marketing. Nc
matter how much money is made, il
must all go back to the members il
proportion to the butter fat delivered
to the creamery after dividend moi
exceeding five per cent. is paid to the
stockholders. Five per cent. is the
limit of profit to shareholders. This il
the rule in all cooperative enterprises
in Ireland. 1t is organized primarily
that profits may go to the man who
brings in the cream. 1t is not ranked
as particularly fine investment fol
the shareholder
Differs From American Creameries.
We find the mechanical processes o.
butter making much the same as those
in the best up-to-date American butter
factories We do find, however, tha
this cooperative association has haC
an output that is of more uniform ex
cellence than that of the American
factory. Here each member seems tC
realize more fully than does the Amer
ican farmer that the utmost vigilance
must be exercised in keeping the mill
and cream fresh and free from all i'm
purities, that keeping up the quality o
the butter is as much his business a!
the butter-maker's. Therefore b,
breeds and feeds and cares for his
cows and handles his milk on scientifi,
lines suggested by cooperative instruc
tors and inspectors. The farmer il
saving his own interests, of course, fo
falling off of quality and reputation
means a falling off in the price oh
: tanned for butter. The creamery test
/ sic which could not be denied. Hi
first master, Spohr, a German violin
ist, was not much impressed by hi