Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1921-06-14

by magic; it was done by the growers
1t was big fundamental thing tha
the growers saw from the bottom up
of a couple of middlemen. They be
gan to study the problem indie
pendently from the ground up
They began to recognize that the
agricultural industry didn't depend
on the middIemen, but did de
pend on the fellows who haG
their entire investment in that partic
ular industry, in the ground from
which the product grows and in the
labor that makes it grow. That is the
fundamental thing. These men start
ed to study from the ground up. They
realized the only wise thing is to view
it from the standpoint of the COM
modify and not from the standpoint of
any one mans vineyard, and, from
the standpoint of the commodity, to
work out a merchandising policy. You
cannot do that unless you are the big
| gest factor in the handling of that
commodity in the district where you
have to sell it. That is the big thing
these growers found out.
A World Movement.
| This movement is not merely a
raisin movement. 1t is really world
movement. Only, America happens
to be backward in it. The best type
of the movement in the world, outside
Of California, is in Denmark, where
| they have brought it to Il high state
of perfection for dairy products and
| egg products. You will likewise find it
| in Northern Germany, in France, in
the Piedmont district Of Italy. You
will also find it in sections of Ireland.
In America it has not spread widely
! because we have been headed in the
wrong direction. In America the
movement has spread well only on the
Pacific Coast. In California alone they
are doing over a 100000 business
, year through these purely co-opera.
| tive, marketing associations. In Cali
fornia we have associations covering
every type of Observation-Disclosures
pears, oranges, grape fruit, lemons,
and so on, among the perishables.
Then there are the semi-perishables,
as potatoes and eggs.
Then the relatively non-perishable;
the dried fruits, raisins, prunes, and so
on.
Then the on-perishables, almonds,
walnuts, all types of beans, including
limas, alfalfa, bottled honey, and
things of that type. We don't merely
cover one commodity or one type of
organization. California experience
covers a long term of years, and all
kinds. 1t is a perfect laboratory in
which men can learn a good deal about
this movement. 1t has not developed
in a day. 1t has not developed with
out lot of failures; it has not devel-
oped without a lot of errors. But you
learn from failures and you learn from
errors. They have just about reached
the point now where some of these
associations have done more in two
years than the old associations accom-
plished in ten, or twelve, or fifteen
years, because they learned how from
the experience of these earlier asso-
Citations.
I say that developed in California,
because in California it developed
more or less independently. Whereas
in the Middle West they started to
develop what they thought was CO.
operative organization, and some men
have even suggested that type in Ken
lucky as a possible cooperative asso-
citation for tobacco. I therefore am
going back at this time to explain the
difference between cooperative mar
keting developed from a farmers
standpoint and marketing developed
from another standpoint
An Important Distinction.
There are two kinds of cooperative
organizations today in the world that
are worth real attention. One is the
so-called cooperative marketing move
ment, which is a producers movement.
The other is a cooperative selling
movement, which is consumers
movement.
The consumers movement developed
first in highway in England, and is
known there as the Rochdaie move
ment. The Rochdale movement as we
have it today is a very huge thing
They have over 1900 stores in Eng
land. The basic factor there is that
England is not producer Of prod
ucts. Their problem is manufacture
ing and consuming problem. They de-
veloped from the consumers stand
point They had to have stores, had
to have capital. had to let everybody
buy, had to have patronage. dividends
and all that sort of thing. It was a
normal and right development for
movement. Then it began
to go Intolnanufacturing This society
has developed. and instead of buying |
everything now. It tries TO nnanufac-