The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1917-11-23
IDAHO'S SUPERINTENDENT OF
FARM BUREAUS TALKS TO
BINGHAM COUNTY FARMERS
Urges Actual Cooperation

Urges Actual Cooperation
Ed. Howe of Potato Hill, Kan,
fame, holds that farmers are senti-
mental about organization, that prac-
tical, hard-headed corn growers and
stockmen who never theoriZe about
farming, easily and repeatedly fall
for theories about cooperative
marketing and other farm organiza-
ton enterprises. No doubt this
comes because farmers see the great
need for organization, and eagerly
accept every message brought to
them on this great problem. There
is no greater rural need today. But
it is also a fact that farmers will
have to stop theorizing about COOP
Grafton and get busy. They will have
to learn to be more patient, to
realize that the good things they
have been dreaming about cannot
come in day. Moreover, farmers
will have to wake up to the fact that
if they really want cooperation,
they themselves have certain big
duties to perform which they alone
can do.
The time is here for acting, for
less talk and more doing. What
Denmark and other foreign coun-
tries have accomplished in the way
of cooperative marketing and farm
organization is inspiring, but this
has not come by dreaming. 1t has
taken forty years of the hardest kind
of work, and the practical recon-
struction of the entire school sys-
tenn to put Denmark where she is
now. So farmers here must realize
that they will have to exert them
selves for the good things they have
heard about. They must put into
practice the principles learned, must
stop talking cooperation and actual
ly bring this nearer by learning to
work for it. They must also learn
to give up individual privileges and
some independence if they want to
put the operation in cooperation.
CottOnwOods Grow Fast
| Practical organization of farmers
and rural cooperation will come
slowly, as farmers educate and train
themselves to work together under
their own leaders, each giving up a
little for community good. Paying a
membership fee to some organiza-
ton. listening to fine words on the
needs of farmers, idly dreaming
about the good future of co-opera-
tive marketing, will not bring us the
realization of our hopes. We must
sacrifice individual needs and de-
sires to common good, really work
with the neighbors in solving COM
mon problems. This may mean CIV
ing up great deal of individual
preference, and will require that
farmers accent community standards
and community tasks, but when that
victory is won, we shall be on the
road to successful cooperation. By
placing trust in the local leaders, by
working with them to a common
end, by sharing responsibility, and
by really learning thus to know what
cooperation means, we shall ap-
proach the goal.
Farm Bureaus Point the Way
Farm bureaus everywhere are
really succeeding in putting these
result, are showing some worth
while accomplishments, Naturally,
the farm bureaus are gaining in
strength everywhere, for after all,
results are what we are looking for.
Farm bureau members are actually
accepting responsibilities and leader
ship and farmers are really working
together under this leadership to a
common end. What is more, the
farm bureaus are leading farmers to
look at the larger problems as they
may affect the whole community, and
not as they may affect the individual
alone. In other words, farmers are
learning to practice cooperation.
Gradually, then, organized commun-
ity effort is brought into action, and
with this development, results must
also come.
Hurry Up
The present great national emery
ency emphasizes more than ever the
need for efficient rural organization.
Conditions are abnormal and the
problems brought to us because Of
labor shortage, changing markets,
transportation difficulties, high
prices of supplies and the necessity
of increasing production and con-
serving food, of war time needs in
genera, make constant readjustments
necessary. Many farmers are COM
pletely changing their systems of
farming to meet existing demands.
Patriotic duty will necessitate many
more to change and it will be the
patriotic duty of ever farmer to
learn to meet all these demands
most efficiently Organized effort is
to count as never before in all mat
tiers of national concern. Since the
business of farming today occupies
role of greatest Importance to all
the world, this business must needs
be organized that the wants of the
nation and the worlds demands may
be met most effectively. Moreover
it may no longer be matter of
choice for the emergency conditions
will not only hasten but may actu-
ally force rural organization.
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