Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1920-03-12

naturally called the prune association
everything, for the growers had re-
lied on them for the last 90 years.
They were learning how to rely on
themselves and the men they hired.
Never again did they sell prunes at
four cents a pound, They did not
command the highest price but fair
price much higher than it used to be.
This association has not destroyed
speculation yet. but it will as soon
as it can get all the growers to sign
contracts.
! (Here Mr.. Sapiro showed an ad-
vertisement of prunes in packages) {.
me cooperative plan gives prunes to
the public almost clean enough to
serve. The association has devoted
almost $4,000 for advertising dur
ing the last year. They advertise
prune jam, prune jelly, pitted prunes
and other prune combinations to use
the by-products. Nothing is dumped.
How did they do it? They bound
/ themselves together comparatively,
then engaged the shrewdest man in
California to sell for them. He has
been brilliant success. The associa-
ton does not care about the cost,
because collectively their funds are
huge, they can afford it, AS a re-
suit they have helped the consumer,
by keeping the price at a fair level,
encouraged production and standard
lied buying and selling
They made the price on prunes in
June, at the same time spectators
were offering 19 and IA cents to
force the prices up. The association
had all data for prunes in Europe
and Australia and kept the price as
reasonable as possible In spite of
the spectators it was set at II cents
q pound. OF course this was below
the top price but many growers out
side the association received seven
cents some eight cents, some 10
cents. The majority received seven
cents. They sold S0,0OO,O00 pounds
of prunes.
Cooperative marketing has played
fair and is making a wonderful sue
cess. 1t has been in existence sew
eral years and has established ample
credit between California and New
York, and interest rates from banks
at five per cent Prune growing has
been made prosperous. Wherever
cooperative groups have acted the
growers have prospered, wherever
they have not the growers have not
prospered.
This community prosperity can be
applied here to you as wheat and
grain men, and plan worked out
for the wheat growers of the North.
west
Summary
Prunes are not like wheat. Prune
prices are controlled by California
for 80 per cent of the worlds prunes
are produced there. The prune
situation was easier than the wheat
situation will be. The wheat price
is made at Liverpool based on the
crops of Argentina, India, Australia
etc. The Chicago board of trade
speculates on the Liverpool prices
Another difference from prunes is
that wheat is ripening somewhere in
the world every day. The harvest
season in India is in March and
April; in Australia it is in April; in
Texas of America, in June; and in
Argentina sometime in January and
February. This condition makes
prices fluctuate. Wheat is a product
raised under different world condi-
tions, the price depends on what you
know of the worlds conditions
Your Spectator dealer has men all
over the world and gets the informa-
tion he needs. You take his word
for it, you have to. When the
truth finally comes out, he has
gained.
At a hearing last year in the
house of representatives the commit
tee called in experts on the wheat
situation. Everyone was represent
ed except the farmer. The dealer,
the Spectator and the miller were
all there Two hundred pages re-
cording the proceedings came out.
This gave the statistics as given by
different men who had been investi-
eating wheat conditions. One man
quoted Australia as having 100000
900 bushels of wheat, another quot
ed it from the Department of Agri-
culture as having 45,0O0,OOO.
Pickle said 25O,O00,OOO, Barnes
something else. In that one day
they presented four different state
ments as to the number of bushels