Evening star., 1922-12-17

est OF Its member farmers, and tor
nothing else. 1t bears slight resem
blance to ary other form of Amer
lean business organization and has
nothing to do with consumer CO.
operation. or cooperative buying
which is cat of an entirely different
color.
No more ridiculous idea can be con-
ceived than that the highest type OF
cooperative marketing organization
as 1t exists today has sprung full
hedged. within the past two or three
years, from the brain of any one maI
or group of men. 1t is the fruit of q
long and infinitely varied experience
and the evolution of a successful form
has been gradual.
Cooperation very close to our new
est type. while practiced on a lesser
scale. has been practiced in various
countries IN Europe for the past halt
century. Cooperation of a less eff
cient character has been gradually
growing among American farmers TOT
1ully that period of time.
For centuries the farmers of the
world have been organizing, in one
way or another. with the end in view
ol acquiring for themselves middle
! mems profits" This is only part
aim of modern cooperative market
| ing, whose fundamental purpose OF
eliminating the dumping process has
only been understood and evolved
| more, We now recognize the useful
ness of the distributive, as distin-
| Suished from the speculative, middle
man. Therefore past efforts have
been mostly inefficient. but they have
| tended in the right direction.
To Make Farmer Master.
! Here is a process designed to trans
! form the farmer from the slave and
! the Scape-goat to the mercha ndising
\ ma nf rot Of
Furthermore. it is a process which
] has attained it's ends wherever it has
been consistently applied.
| A dozen years ago, Fresno, Calf.
! town which one might call the capl-
| tai of two of the biggest cooperative
| marketing associations in that state
was down and out. Travelling sales
! men had quit making" the place be-
cause the credit of its merchants was
not any good. The little city, like
| most of which don't realize it, was
! absolutely dependent upon the well
| fare of the surrounding agricultural
| population. and the surrounding agrl-
| cultural population was dead broke.
Today, your last census will tel
you. Fresno. Calf, is the riches,
place. for it's size, of any town in the
United States. OF the fifty richest
| agricultural counties in America. ter
! are in California. The first two are
! in California, and five of the first ter
/ are in California. And California Is
the land of specially crops. between
1000 and 5000 miles from it's princi-
pal market. with irrigation problems
| the competition of japanese farm
| labor, and other limitations that dc
| not apply to many of the other ricf
| agricultural sections of the unlteC
| States. California stands first II
| rural roads, first in rural schools ano
| first in the salaries paid to rura
| school teachers and rural ministers.
| Cooperative marketing did this-dlc
| it practically all.
Took Many Years.
Now. such a development as this Is
| the fruit of many years of correct co.
operation, but sometimes the effect OF
proper cooperative marketing Is
almost instantly apparent.
Down in the white Burley tobacco
districts of Kentucky. Ohio and Indiana
where Judge Robert Bingham. with the
help of other far-seeing leaders. organ
lied the tobacco farmers almost over
night into the Burley Tobacco Growers
Association. which sold about IS pei
cent of the entire Burley tobacco croI
in the, first year Of its operation, there
are families of Kentucky tobacco 1arm
mers that have bought shoes for tht
| feet of their children this fall for the
! first time in three years.
/ 1t does not always work anything like
| that. You don't usually control croI
| to that extent in the first year of opera.
tion. You have the mortgage difficulty
| to overcome, vast numbers of more oil
| less ignorant farmers to educate to {
| loyal support of their organization. The
American Cotton Growers Exchange
represents this year. the second OF 1t:
| operation, only between one-fourth anC
| one fifth of the American cotton crop.
| and it can't get hold of all of that be.
cause so much Of it is under mortgage
| but it is functioning efficiently and the
cotton cooperative movement is run
ming forward by leaps and bounds. The
new wheat movemet is not even this
far advanced.
Some Not So Successful.
The great majority of specially croI
organizations, in the localities where
they have been set up, are meeting
with genuine success at the outset, bu1
every once in while there are hideous
blunders of a costly nature. I know
one speciality crop organization in the
east, properly organized and controlling
nearly half of the product. which almost
came a cropper in the first year of Its
organization through trying to handle
business before it was prepared to, then
being horribly mishandled by a grossly
incompetent manager. and. in addition.
being tricked into huge losses by a
speculative group which formerly con-
trolled the industry. Fortunately. how
|
the past, are rare today and recovery is
prompt The organization in question
is on its feet again and doing busi-
ness this year. And all over the
country new organizations are spring
ing up almost every day.
They mean, as immediate results
for the farmer, better prices. steadier
prices, opportunity for greater pro-
duction, direct sale from producer to
consumer. the elimination of specula-
tive waste. and cheaper money.
Now, let us talk a little about the
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