Evening star., 1922-12-17
BY AARON SAPIRO.

BY AARON SAPIRO.
Your American farmer is organiz-
j., ing for business, and the accent IS on
the business"
am using the word in its literal
sense. meaning trade. commerce. Ihe
more popular Inference that he is or
Eanizing ito get things done aiso
!. applies. but 1t applies without any
intimation of threat, menace or raoi-
cal measures of any sort.
Your American farmer is organic
ing for business because he has found
out that his methods of doing busl-
ness as they have peen conducted
heretofore are the real cause of his
!, troubles today far beyond any politi-
cal discrimination that he may think
has existed against him.
Purely Economic Move.
The cooperative marketing move
ment among American farmers today
Is purely economic, without any po-
litical aspects whatsoever. and there
in lies a distinction which the gen.
eral public is considering this govern
inent should bear in mind.
leaders do not sympathiZe with thu
sounder political aspirations of the
farmers that they do not feel graft
fied by every new strength which he
acquires in the government OF TINS
country and that they do not look
with q certain friendly favor upor
tho general type of farm organtza-
tion which is quasi-political as well
as educational in its activities
would be folly. Cooperative market
ing associations owe much to the
help of such organizations as the
farm bureau. the Farmers Union and
others in the education OF farmers to
the need for cooperative marketing
Further, they have found. as ar
Indispensable factor in their presen
success. the education of the bankine
interests of this country by the Wal
Finance Corporation. credit agency
of the United States government. tt
the fact that the cooperative mar.
keting associations are safe ant
sound from a financial standpoint
and are fully entitled to the vas1
credits which they require in theil
operations.
But the point is that government
aid and the support of other farm
organizations have no part in thu
permanent aims and operations of the
co-operatives, once tEey are set up
They are designed to function com
pletely within our social structure az
It exists today and without REQUIRING
any radical change. except in the
present speculative system OF ois'
tributing farm products.
To stop Dumping.
The whole idea of modern cooper
'ative marketing is to stop the dump
ing" and substitute therefor the
merchandising" of farm products.
Every man knows, or should know
that the former receives. on the aver
ege, a smaller percentage OF the con
aumer's dollar than the producer In
any other line of American industry
He works harder and longer hours
than anybody else, and yet his stand
ard of living today, except In certain
marked communities where co-opera-
tive marketing his for some time
been successfully applied. is a gen
Grafton behind that of his city breth-
rem.
the great crash in values began IN
the fall of 1919. whereas the otheI
sommodtss less as sraduaIy Ivie and deee otheI
businesses were able to adjust them
selves to a process OF dehation COW
ering many months. the prices or
farm products crashed far below the
levels indicated by the law OF suppl!
and demand almost imm mediately. anc
the average American farmer founo
himself practically ruined overnight
All this Is due to one Fundamental!
difference between the farmer ano
other producers. Other industries
are organized through the factory
system for group production and even
more highly organized by the combl'
nation Of many factories. in many IN
stances. into great mergers OF one
sort or another for group selling.
No Group Production.
Tho farmer has never been. and, be-
cause Of the inherent nature or ms can.
ing. which scatters him in millions OIL
face Of the land. never will be. organ, /,
ICED for group production. And. until
the coming of cooperative marketing
which is the only thing that makes pos
sible organization for group selling
without organization for group produc-
tion. he has never been organized for
group selling.
The result Of the situation has been
as follows: That, whereas other indus
, tries. through a few gigantic sell, selling ns
graduaily. throughout the year. under
expert merchandising and financing
guidance, to the markets OF the world
as those markets will absorb them. the
has heretofore sold the entire fruits of
his years labor within seventy days on
the average, after harvest. each of the
individual millions Of farmers. knowing
nothing about market conditions. know
inx nothing about salesmanship. dump
ing his product in competition with
each one of his fellow farmers, in that
one brief time without regard to the
ABSORPTION powers of the markets Of the
world.
Sneculatiye interests acquire this
farm produce for what they choose to
give for 1t and then deliver it to the
Consumers Of the world more or less
eradually after deducting as many prof
its in innumerable turnovers as can be
That IL what is the matter with the
economic condition OF the american
Sorner TODAY, and that-this dumping
process-is what cooperative marketing
Is designed to stop.