Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1916-09-19

(For some time there has been To-
cal agitation for a fruit canning fac
tory in Dallas, and because OF the
success of community cooperation
along this line in the Puyallup-Sum-
mer district Of Washington, The OBJ
server is reproducing an article from
the August Outlook. The Observer
is anxious that every one Of its read
ers have the benefit of the article and
il urges all to take time to read and
consider it. Ed.
Seventeen years ago, roughly, a
young bank clerk in Tacoma, Wash
ington, got the craving to go back to
the soil A bank clerk S wages are
small, and his advancement usually
waits on death. Banking did not
seem to offer much to this young man.
On the other hand, the land present
ed a promising prospect. On every
hand opportunity seemed to beckon'
Crystal streams flowed through the
nearby bottom lands. The black,
virgin soil was so rich that vegetation
sprang up overnight. One had only to
tickle the earth with hoe and it
burst into smile of golden fruits
and berries. The prospect was too al
Turing to be resisted. The young man
gave up his bank position, bought a
few acres in a modern Eden called
Puyallup, some eight miles from Ia
coma, and became, like most of his
neighbors, fruit and berry raiser.
Nature lived up to her promises.
The earth brought forth abundantly.
The harvest never failed. But, to his
surprise, the young agriculturist could
hardly make living. His salary as a
bank clerk was munifcence compared
to his returns as farmer. He raised
excellent products, but he could get
nothing for them. A crate Of berries
the principal crop-brought on an
average less than seventy-fve cents.
That price hardly paid for the crate
and the labor involved in production.
And what was true of the younk bank
clerk was true of all the berry -raisers
in the valley. They were people hum
cry in the midst of plenty.
Today those same people are happy
and prosperous. Their returns from
their labors have more than doubled.
The same acreage that once barely
supported them now furnishes abund-
ance. They have beautiful little
homes, the very picture of comfort
and contertment A decade has
changed them from a community in
want to village of abundance. Co.
operation and William HI. Paulhamus
did it.
Mr.. Paulhamus was the bank clerk.
His business training and his famil-
iarity with figures enabled him to put
his finger on the weak spot in his
agricultural venture. He found that
everybody in the valley was cutting
everybody else's throat. Each man
was ready to undersell his neighbor.
Taking advantage of this situation,
the fruit-buyers had beaten prices
down to the lowest possible level Yet
this situation profted the consumer
not at all. He was being gouged, and
the middleman was battening on the
rich harvest. Mr.. Paulhamus called
together the leading berry-raisers of
Puyallup and the neighboring town
of Sumner, and pointed these things
ont. "In union there is strength, "
said he. "Also there is good iv-
ing. Let us get together.
They all got together, and in June,
1902, the Puyallup and Sumner Fruit
Growers Association was incorpor-
ated under the laws of the state of
Washington. This association was
peculiar. 1t was intended more as a
tie that binds than as corporation
to engage in business. To that end
the capital stock of the association
was limited to 1000 shares of one
dollar each. One share entitled the
holder to the full privileges of mem
bership. Fifteen shares was the max
imum number that one person might
hold. And the owner of fifteen shares
had no advantage over the holder of
one share, because only one vote was
allowed each shareholder, irrespective
Of the size of his holdings. Practi-
sally every fruit and berry raiser in
The two villages joined the society.
At the end of the year 1911 there
we're 1900 members, who held l,9S5
shares of stock, an average holding
If approximately one and one-half
,hares each. BY the end of 1915 there
we're 1,S00 members.
1t mattered not whether the pro
iucer had ten acres of land or a city
OF. If he raised berries or fruit, he
vas welcomed into the society. Thus
he man who earned his living by ag-
icalture and the housewife who rails
a a few berries in her back yard to
ell we're equally desired as members.
n this connection il is interesting to
.