The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1914-06-04
BY w. F. GWINN.
HE marketing Of farm products
is public service. Corpora
tions engaged in it are pub

tlouS euSdScu III ~ o&c PuU-
lie service corporations.
The question of public service and the
treatment of the corporations that sell
is one of the liveliest issues before the
American people today. Public opin-
ion is sharply divided. Some hold that
efficiency and economy in public ser
vice is best echeved through private
ownership and operation of the public
utilities under public regulation.
Believers in this theory oppose pub
lie ownership on the ground that public
ownership means political operation
and that usually means inefficiency,
extravaganza and graft. So far as
tried in this country, public ownership
has been characterized in too many in
stances by those very features, whether
in the case of street railways or farm
ers organizations.
The history Of rural cooperation is
strewn with wrecks caused by these
same conditions.
On the other hand, believers in the
public ownership theory have many
very sound arguments to advance and
for illustrations can point to the older
civilizations Of Europe, where, to an
important extent, the individual has
become merged into the social cosmos.
Personally, believe that the form of
the corporation whether privately or
publicly owned or operated, is relatively
unimportant. What really counts is
the personal character, responsibility
and efficiency of the men who admin
lister its affairs. go
1t happens that the Northwest Fruit
Exchange is the exponent Of the private
ownership theory 1t was organized in
1910 by group of men who saw the
dire need Of the industry for modern
marketing facilities, some time before
there was any general public recogni
tion of that need, and what is more,
provided the capital to supply the nee
essary men and equipment.
Spectators Are Amazed
When the exchange was organized
the orchard industry was in the grip Of
the land spectators. l remember with
what amusement and amazement we re-
garded the frantic protests Of this gen
try whenever we dared tell an un-
favorable truth about the market.
The exchange for three years was the
only service organization the industry
possessed. Its very existence served to
stimulate the inception and growth of
the correlative theory of public owner +
ship, so that the organization recently |
Of cooperative sales agancy, was alb
solutely foreordained and is wholly de-
sirable from the standpoint Of the in
dustrial welfare.
The Northwest Fruit Exchange in
troduced into the Northwest in 1910,
the system Of f. o. b. sales, and for sew
sral years advocated that principle in
the face Of rather general opposition.
II is therefore all the more gratifing
that its Judgment has been vindicated
BY the adoption Of the same system by
the cooperative agencies which have
followed it into the field. Also, the ex-
change was the first to emphasize the
absolute necessity Of wide distribution
and was the first to make this possible
by dividing the country into sales zones
and establishing in each . resident
salesman.
Officer Goes Abroad. i
This same system Of marketing has
since been adopted by practically all of
tho important sales agencies which have
followed tho exchange into the field.
The exchange was the first fruit or
ganization in the Northwest to send
one Of Its officers to Europe to make
. personal study Of the field, and was
the first to establish an office Of its