Evening star., 1921-05-15
Cooperative Marketing Plans
Made to Appear Menace
by Farmers Demands.

way. If the plans of its projectors
are carried out-and these plans
have the backing of the organized
farmers of America-the national
association for the cooperative
warehousing and marketing OF
grain will be a giant among pig
mics 1t would dwarf the steel
trust. the coal trust. the packers
trust and. with all legal restraints
removed. would have a stranSle
hold upon the nation.
It Is declared openly by those ac-
tive in organizing the grain associa-
ton that. once it is in full operation,
"the price Of grain will be fixed by
representatives OF the producers. not
by traders in Liverpool or gamblers
in the Chicago wheat pit"
That "the price Of grain will be
fixed" has an ominous Sound. II
the growers have the power abso-
lutely to fix the price of grain.
will they have the self-restraint to
fix it at a reasonable price? Grain
growers are human. no better or
no worse, probably. than the av-
erage run Of citizens. With so
powerful an association removed
from all legal restrictions. the
Representatives of the producers"
would be subjected to a terrible
temptation. 1t would be a simple
matter to levy and collect an ex-
ira tax Of billion dollars or more
each year from the bread eaters
of the nation.
Cooperative marketing. with all
legal restraints against monopoly
and restraint of trade removed,
could mean nothing else but the
distribution. No other system,
operating under regulatory law,
could meet such unfair competi-
ton. So we would have a system
Of direct marketing by producers,
not because such a system had
demonstrated its economic supe-
riority, but because of legal ia
voritism.
And when the other systems Of
distribution were put out of busi-
ness producers either would have
to market through the co-opera-
tive associations. whether they
willed or no, or find their own ulti-
mate consumers. 1t would amount
to the "closed shop" in the indus
try of agricultural production.
X X x X
No such life-and death power as
this over the nations dinner ta-
BILE ever was contemplated by
those who conceived the idea OF
cooperative marketing. Cooper
ative marketing associations have
been highly successful and bene-
fetal to producers without WELD
ing or asking any such power.
They have succeeded because they
eliminated unnecessary costs and
corrected abuses in distribution.
and they have won their way in
fair competition.
For such cooperative market
ing systems as these the farmers
can have unlimited public sympa-
thy and support. The public will
not complain if. in fair competi-
ton. cooperation outdistances and
displaces all other systems of dis
tribution. 1t is as true Of distribu-
ton systems as of other commercial
and industrial processes that they
can claim the right to exist only
by demonstrated efficiency. It is
charged, and the charge generally
is believed, that our present meth
DDS Of distribution are cumber-
some and unnecessarily expensive.
If the farmers can devise a better
system they will be public bene-
factors. But it doesn't promise
much in the way OF betterments-
for any one except the farmers
If success of their program de-
pends upon their being freed from
the legitimate restrictions i'm
posed upon competing systems
Copyright. 1921. by The Washington Star }