Evening star., 1921-04-10

payments. they are coming to the
conclusion that the way to coop
crate is TO cooperate. And whe n
they have arrived fully at that
conclusion the chief difficulty in
their way will have been over
come. In the past the farmer has
been an extremist in the matter of
indfviduaiism. and a lot of coop
erafive undertakings have come TO
grief because the participants SIM
ply could not or would not coop
crate. But necessity. the mother
Of other things beside invention is
overcoming the farmers inherent
disposition TO so il alone.
Some of the programs under
consideration. and upon the work
ing out of which real progress is
being made. are almost staggering
in their magnitude. For example,
there is the proposal for co-opera-
tive marketing of the great grain
crops-a venture with turnover
figures running into the billions
of dollars. This isn't any idle
dream. 1t is a hard. matter-of-
fact business proposal upon which
real money is being staked. And
il is backed by the leading organ
iZations of farmers in the country.
such as the National Grange. the
American Farm Bureau Fedora
hn
tional Farmers Union, the Farm
ers' Equity Cooperative Exchang-
cs and the grain dealers associa-
tions. The projectors raised
fund of $a0,000 for preliminary
expenses and are going forward
with their plans.
1t is expected that the organ
ization will begin to function in
the handling of the harvest of
1922. and that within two years
thereafter the bulk of grain crops
will be marketed through its
agency. The Undertaking is in the
hands of men who know the grain
business inside out, from the time
the seed is planted in the ground
until the product is delivered to
the ultimate consumer. and they
are on record as asserting that the
only thing needed to make sue
cess absolutely sure is general
willingness on the part of grain
growers to cooperate.
Potato growers, cotton planters.
live stock growers and others are
watching the grain cooperation
venture closely and planning un-
dertakings of their own along sim
liar lines. If there are any laws
on the statute books which would
interfere with the full success of
such concerns a concentrated drive
will be made for their repeal. And
it has been repeatedly demonstrate
ed that Congress is ready to jump
through a hoop at any time il
thinks the agricultural vote would
be edited by such a performance.
So the farmers have no need to
hold back for fear they will run
contrary to the law.
Proposals that the Chicago Board
of Trade and other grain exchanges
shall be abolished do not seem to
interest the proponents of cooper
ative selling in the least. They
concede, in fact, that even under
the scheme Of cooperative selling
the grain exchanges may be use
full, though they will not in any
sense be necessary. They will not
be able to do the farmers any
harm, for the process would work
out that the managers Of the CO.
operative selling association would
fix the prices of grain. not the
gamblers in the wheat pit.
- ~
Naturally, the query arises: What
is the consumer going to get out
of it? The answer Of the farmers
is that that is up to the consumer.
II the consumer gets nothing
more. the farmers say. he at least
will get assurance of a continued
food supply, and they think that is
pretty good-sized slice for the
consumer under present conditions.
But they argue that the con-
sumer can get a good deal more
out Of it if he will. The farmer
tells the consumer. in short. to go
and do likewise. 1t is the inten-
ton of the farmers to dispense
with the services of a good many
middlemen and to take for them
selves the profits those middlemen
new reap. They say it is up to
city dwellers to organize for CO.
operative buying, thus eliminating
some more middlemen. whose pres
ent profits could go to the con-
sumer.
Cooperative selling associations
composed of producers doing busi-
ness with cooperative buying as
sociations composed Of consumers
is the ideal held out. 1t is not con-
tended that this idea could be
fully Misunderstanding not for
many, many years-but there are
hard-headed business men who
think the time now is ripe to
travel q long way along that
road. And whatever direction is
travelled is bound to operate both
to make production more certainly
profitable and to reduce the cost
Of living.
copyright. 1921, by The Washington Star.)
p. Nature.