St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1915-12-29
Vermonfs Needs And Opportunities
Excerpts From Address OF T. N. Vail Before Vermont
State Grange-The Opportunities OF Improved Agri-
culture, Of Cooperation OF Good Roads And Of
Practical Education

mum result. 1t is not hard work tina
counts, it is efficient work.
you need not buy Oregon apples
if you will treat your apple trees as
you do well bred colts or calves and
poultry. Keep the insects off of them
Give them good beds of earth to grow
in and plenty of feed to mature then
and pick and pack your fruit as care
fully as you do your eggs. 1t is fan
more delicate. When you do this you
can sell your apples on the Pacific
slope instead of buying apples from
Oregon.
Every mans wealth is in his ability
to labor. If you want to prosper ano
have plenty, turn your labor into
wealth by increasing the value of your
property. Each of you must have g
piece of ground that would make q
nice field if the boulders were taken
off or buried. if the bubbles were
plowed down, and it was drained. The
produce in one year will pay for your
work and tiles and dynamite, and your
farm will be more valuable to keep
or to sell. If you look around you
will find many ways of turning your
labor into wealth.
Whether you do much or little work
do it thoroughly so far as you do it al
all, more time is wasted in doing a
poor job, and it is not so profitable
Don't undertake to do so much that
you cannot do it when it should be
done. If you want to enjoy your leis-
ure time and not be worried about
something neglected, drive your work
and don't let it drive you. There are
few men who cannot, and do not, do a
good job so long as their necessity is
greater than their inclination to take
it easy, but how many stop doing,
when they get enough to satisfy their
immediate necessities. If this salts
fies them all right, but they have no
right to complain and be dissatisfied
when they see the fellow, who doesn't
stop doing, get more than they have,
nor have they any right to think that
the man who works while he is taking
it easy should divide with him.
Cooperation.
by intelligent, practical co-opera-
ton much can be done to bring about
and secure better markets for our pro-
duction.
1.-The same conditions which have
created our social and economic or
ganization, have also created large
systems, or organizations, of indus
trial enterprise engaged in transporta-
ton, intercommunication, public SER
vice, manufacture and all sorts of con-
struction operative, and large organ
ization of 'middlemen' engaged in
trade and commerce, in wholesale and
retail, collection and distribution of
products, engaged in getting the goods
of the producer into the hands of the
consumer.
This great organization is neces-
sary to both the producer and consum-
er, and is supported by the margin be-
tween the price received by the pro-
Queer and the price paid by the con-
sumner.
Transportation, distribution, mer-
chandising. are absolute necessities in
the modern world. The producers
and consumers are too far separated
from each other, are too scattered
over large areas to deal directly with
each other and each producer or man
ufacturer supplies only a very small
part of each consumers want
NO farmer could agree to furnish
a number of families with so many
quarts of milk, so many fresh eggs,
etc., each day or week in the year.
much less be ready to furnish an ex-
ira amount on short notice. 1t re-
quireS the cooperation of the middle
man, the merchant and trader 1t is
an organization for prosperity that in
the large will never be done away
with.
There is, however, a large field in
which cooperation in buying and SELL
ing will benefit the whole community
Where many producers in the same
section are engaged in one class or
kind of production, as milk, fruit, veg
etables, berries, they can cooperate
as between themselves and the distri-
butors, they can systematic and regu-
late the packing and inspection. They
can get nearer to the ultimate consum-
er by eliminating all except the abso-
lutely necessary middleman. By the
enforcement of the proper rules they
can make it impossible for some pro-
ducers to spoil the reputation of the
products of the section by improper
methods and the selling of inferior
products under superior brands. Where
there is large consumption of COM
modities, like feed or fertilizer, and
the amount of that consumption is
known in advance, they can cooperate
and buy at the wholesale price. Many
other ways cOmmOn-sense thought will
point out to you. This cooperation
should not be opposed by the local
merchants. Anything that tends to
the greater property of the local pro-
Queer increases the business of the
local merchant
Through the Grange an effective
cooperation could be arranged. Where
necessary there could be auxiliary or
CARNATIONS like fruit growers, berry
growers, potato growers association,
but the greater part of cooperative
work could be done through or under
the auspices of the Grange.
Keep your Grange out of politics
or partisanship, except so far as pure
ly agricultural or economic questions
are concerned, and when you act, act
as one man. The power of the Grange
used with intelligence and as unit
for proper ends, would be the greatest
power in this country
THE great force and power exercis-
ed by any union organization is by act