The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1915-04-15
Cooperation
Among Growers
OF Florida
MICHIGAN EDITOR, WRITING
FROM THIS COUNTY, DIS
CUSSES MANY THINGS,
PAYING COMPLIMENT
TO CITRUS EXCHANGE

tE. W. Barber in Jackson, Mich,
Patriot. writing from Crooked
Lake,
Cooperation in marketing and dis
tributing products is getting a
broader and firmer grip each year
upon the fruit growers of Florida.
Just as a few intelligent work.
ingmen in England, nearly sixty
years ago, were forced to organize a
cooperative society for buying and
selling at the lowest possible cost
the food they must get to save them
selves and their families from hun
ger and misery, so the Florida fruit
growers. to save their groves from
becoming worthless, found il neces-
sary to enter into a combination for
marketing and selling the fruit up
on which many depend for the sup
port of their families and the edu-
cation of their children.
The benefits of the cooperative
, society organized by a few English
workingmen became SO apparent in
short time, after passing the stage
OF popular doubt and ridicule that il
has grown until it includes a large
| percentage of the workingmen OF
Great Britain. They ask no aid, not
even permission to organize, from
the government. but formed vol
untary association for their own
welfare. have become a great bust
ness combination, eliminating CON-
petition, and have achieved remark.
able success.
In place of the individualism and
competition, collectivism and CO.
operation are the ruling motives
Benefits are for all. Competition
means the wealth of a nation in the
hands of few; cooperation a fail
distribution of the products of labor
Early in this country so strong wa.
individual independence that it wa.
the rule of action among men in
everything. even in the family, ant
the wife had no legal propert,
property rights separate from the
husband. Having its origin in saw
agery. the man with the most cum
ming brain and powerful muscle Be-
came leader and chief. With thi,
start society developed along t h,
line Of individual prQwess and tn,
survival of the fittest.
Selflshness was the supreme fac
tor. First the individual, then tn,
family. next the tribe, finally tn.
state and national all stages mer
seeing. starving. struggling, grasp
ing, even legislating and fighting Il
get an advantage over others-tt
live on each other instead of fol-
each other. Civilization has not ye
passed beyond this stage. Bushes.
is slowly passing beyond it, in spit,
OF the hostility of politicians and tn,
repressive action of government II
takes the form of large enterprises
profit sharing, stock owning, better
wages, and bringing labor and cap
ital together for the welfare of al
concerned.
National selfishness is now delug
ing the world with blood. To gair
ascendancy in the markets of thu
world is the ambition of the people
of every nation. Even patriotism
is an enlarged form of selfishness
as it is confined to national bound
airy lines. No nation has yet reach
ed hte standard proclaimed b,
Thomas Paine: The world is m,
country, and to do good my relig
ion." There is no such thing OF
earth as a Christian nation. Their,
are Christian men and women, bu
there are not enough of them in an.
nation to shape it's politics or con
troll its destiny.
Under the spirit and practice O
competition; getting the most an,
giving the least, driving the weak
est to the wall-which is the antith
esis of cooperation, the larges
share of the things of this world
absorbed by the strongest, the Gun
ningist. the sharpest the shrewdest
the most grapsing and self-seekin
members of the social organization
> twas difficult matter for tn
men of this country to form a gener
al government, so powerful was tn
, individualistic sentiment. The mos
critical period of American histor
was between the close of the revolu
tionary war and the adoption of tn
: federal constitution. Absolute nee
, essity. self-protection, forced tn
men of the town to organize tn
, state, and finally a similar necessit
, led each state to surrender enoug
| of its cherished autonomy to estab
! lish nation. Later a civil war
war between the states-overthrey
forever the baneful doctrine tina
each state had RIGHT to seced
from the Union. The cooperation
z CT foe In fA1n