The Tucumcari news and Tucumcari times. [volume] (Tucumcari, N.M.) 1907-1921, 1914-06-18

mittee be appointed. The officers fool.
ishly and arbitrarily refused to con.
cede even an audit unless they them.
selves selected the committee. Then
these smaller storekeepers demanded
that the one man vote principle be
applied so that for the future they
might protect their own interests.
This also was denied them. The only
course possible seemed TO be a separa.
ton and the smaller stockholders
withdrew. the larger stockholders
buying out those who did not care TO
stay In the ncern While this socie.
~ did not fail from a financial stand.
point, its record Is OF course TO be
cited as that OF n cooperative oncer
which did not succeed in the best
sense OF the term.
The small s.areholders OF this SO.
ciety later formed another co.opera.
live society. organizing and admins.
tering II, you may be sure. upon a
purely cooperative basis, adopting the
n man vote plan. and providing that
no dividends be declared upon shares
but that all the profits 20 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. "A originally or.
ganized and managed by the farmers
It was a success. all the profits were
distributed back to the producers as
an additional price upon the grain de-.
livered and the farmers Loyalty sup.
Ported II. Later. however. the shares
OF stock became conferred In q few
business men who were not grain
growers. These men held a major.
lily OF the stock and were in full
control. They began squeezing down
the prices TO the producer until they
were paying him nc more than the
privately owned elevator companies
paid.
The trustful farmers continued 10
deliver their grain for a time and the
business men In control received a
forty per cent dividend. Al the end
OF the year.. however. the farmers real.
lied that they were being imposed
upon and the next year abandoned tho
project. and hauled their grain else.
where. A a result this cooperative
effort which had been at first an ex.
ceedingly profitable venture became
8 o absolute a failure that II was with
d~ifficulty that the shareholders dis.
posed OF their building and equipment.
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.
ton called 10 the fact that co.opera.
ton has received one black eye. Years
& the government, anxious to aid In
the marketing OF grain, devoted a
considerable amount OF money to the
erection OF elevators or corn houses"
~loaninF the money TO local co,opera-
tive concerns whose organization Il
fostered and supervising tho erection
In each case OF Il rather Imposing
81 ANAAA'. ~ NpAlu b'fll NldN Allt
government generously tempted the
promoters TO u"nreasoning 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 lone on a
costly scale. The s~torchouses were
too big. They were not carefully To-
Gated, Into these concerns crept, also
a desire TO speculate, to corner the
grain supply. to do in Germany what
Letter was reported TO have done in
A~merica,-to capture tho 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
heard that there were great corners
In the United States. and by buying
and storing grain men had made enor-
nous fortunes. There was to be gold
for everyone who wanted II. A careful
study OF tho situation has revealed the
Rbsurdity OF the situation. Those who
controlled the warehouses could not
control to exceed one-twentieth OF the
supply OF grain grown in Germany
alone.