Imperial Valley press., 1915-03-09

mot to underestimate the cost of run
ming store or commercial agency, and
not to overestimate the saving which
this can effect. The cooperative So
ciety, of&cogrse, does away with the
necessity of the stores making
profit, but somebody must manage the
store and that somebody must be paid
for his time. His salary, therefore,
corresponds in way to the ordinary
stores profit, and it is not always
possible to secure a good man for less
than he would be able to make in busi-
ness for himself. There are, however,
several methods of purchasing farm
supplies comparatively which will be
found to be of advantage. The SIM
plest is the joint order, in which
group of farmers can buy given ar
ticle in large quantities, thereby eff
fecting a considerable saving in the
expense of handling and commissions.
Sometimes when this method is adopt
ed warehouse is added, which is
owned or rented comparatively, and
in which the goods are stored until the
associated purchasers need them.
If these two methods have been
tried and found successful, ii may be
desirable to carry them out to their
logical development and conduct a CO.
operative store which renders the same
service to its customers that a private
enterprise would. This. however, in
evitably leads to complications and
should only be undertaken after some
experience with simpler methods of
ro.operation. sa5t sea
With the committee on farm finance
and accounting, the first duty is to
ascertain what farm enterprises can
safely be financed. This is only pos
sible when accurate accounts are kept
and carefully analyzed. After this
has been done, the next step is to Sc
cure, the most favorable terms for
financing proper and sound enter
prises This is frequently not diff
cult if the committee has thoroughly
mastered the subject and is able to
put it clearly before local bankers
Where the local bankers are unwilling
to finance genuinely productive enter
prises at a, reasonable rate of inter-
est, the committee must consider other
ways of securing capital One of the
simplest plans for accomplishing this
is a credit union orseo-operative credit +
association = The essential features
Of this plan are that group of farm
ers' organize themselves to receive de-
posits and make loans. BY keeping
the expenses down to minimum, it
has been possible in some cases for
such associations to pay interest on de-
posits that is within one per cent of
the interest it charges on loans. i
The committee on communication
and transportation should deal pri-
marilv with the roads and telephones.
The keynote of the work should be
organized self-help, not appeals to get
government help.
Just as the five business commit
tees are to grapple with the funda-
mental problems of producing and
selling in their various forms, the five
social committees should direct their
efforts to the improvement of living
conditions in the country.
To increase the farmers income is
not the only thing needed to make ru-
raj life what it should be. As a mat
ter of fact. says this article, it is the
prosperous farmer who is more in
clined to move to town than his less
fortunate neighbor. Having accumu-
lated competence, he wishes to en-
joy it, and there are five principal
reasons which lead him to believe that
he can do this better in the city: First,
there are usually better facilities for
educating his children; second, the
sanitary conditions are frequently
much better in towns. and the time
does not seem to be far distant when
the cities will be actually more health
ful than the country Again, house
hold conveniences such as hot and cold
water, heating and lighting systems,
etc. are more abundant in the towns
and add greatly to the comfort of
living. Finally, there is more oppor-
tunity for recreation in the city, and
frequently, strange as it may appear,
more to appeal to the sense of beauty
that is inherent in practically every
man.
Co=oneratinn ON the nart of rural