Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1915-04-02
WHY DO COOPERATIVE
ORGANIZATIONS FAIL?

SNS tSINS MI
Cooperative organizations
fail for many. reasons; one, be-
cause they are often not really
cooperative in their character,
but are in the nature of corpor-
ations, in which one man, or set
of men, gets an underhold and
finally strangles them.
Another reason is that our
people are not yet educated up
to a point where they will hold
together, if some opportunity
for special profit is offered. We
are sorry to notice in one of our
exchanges the failure of a very
prominent cooperative egg as
sociation. AS long as they
stuck together, the members as
a class received several cents a
dozen more for. their eggs than
they had been in the habit of
receiving, because they were al
ways furnished fresh and clean,
first-class in every way. AS
soon as the society was strong
enough to effect the profits of
the merchants. of the town, these
merchants began to offer higher
prices to enough of the farmers
to render the cooperative or
ganization ineffective. Just as
soon as they get the cooperative
enterprise out of business, they
will begin to exact, and are In
fact now exacting. the same
profits as before, and the quality
of eggs from that community
will decline.
This is the same plan that is
worked by some Of the central
lied creameries, for the purpose
of breaking up the cooperative
creameries in the state of Iowa.
If the creamery organization is
not very large or strong, and a
few men can be induced to leave
1t by being offered higher prices
for cream, or a higher test,
which is only another way of
cheating, sooner or later the or
ganization will fail. Its oper-
alton becomes more expensive
The fixed charges remain, but
the output is not so large;
hence is put up at a greater ex.
pense. .-.
Why Is this? Simply because
farmers have not got the get
rich-quick microbe out of theil
systems. This microbe Is wors,
than the germ Of hog cholera o.
of foot and mouth disease, be
cause It does not affect animals
but men, and affects them In til,
very vitals of their character
Whenever farmers get ready t,
stand together and be loyal I,
their association, that associa
ton well succeed, but until the,
are ready to do that, co-opera
tive associations will fail. u.
When anyone enters into al
organization, he is in duty boun,
to loyalty support 1t, even In tn,
face of temptations to immedi
ate temporary profit. Let u
learn that character is infinitel,
more important than gain. TIL,
way to get rich quick is to ge
rich slow by helping each othe
to get rich. This helps to bull,
up character. Disloyalty to
cooperative, organization, o
any other enterprise we hav,
agreed to support, but more es
pecially a cooperative enter
prise, Is destructive to character
Another way of breaking
down the cooperative enter
prise is to SOW discord amonI
brethren. That's an old, oil
story, Solomon, we remember
had something to say about tn
meanness of a man who SOW
discord among brethren, and h
might have added, helps to so,
II by listening to insinuation
against those with whom he
working. This is true i'm socii
life as well as in co-operatiy
enterprises.-Wallace' Farme