The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1922-12-20
FIFTH ARTICLE
BY AARON SAPIRO

Here, then, is a process designed to
transform the farmer from the slave
and the scape-goat to the merchan-
dising master OF the markets of tho
world. Furthermore, 1t is a process
which has attained its ends wherever
it has been consistently applied.
dozen years ago, Fresno, Cal, a
town which one might call the cap
ital of two OF the biggest co-opera-
tive marketing associations In that
state, was down and out Travelling
statesmen had quit making" the
place because the credit of it's mer-
chants was not any good. The little
city. like many moderate zsized COM
munities. most Of which don't realize
1t, was absolutely dependent upon the
welfare of the surrounding agricu1-
tural population, and the surrounding
agricultural population was dead
broke
Today, your last census will tell
you, Fresno, Cal, is the richest
place for it's size of any town in the
United States. OF the SO richest agri-
cultural counties in America. 4 are
In California. The first two Sfe in
California, and five of the first ten
the land of speciality crops between
two and three thousand miles from
its principal market, with irrigation
problems, the competition of Japanese
farm labor. and other limitations
that do not apply to many Of the
other rich agricultural sections of the
United States. California stands first
in rural roads, and first in salaries
paid to rural school teachers and
rural ministers.
Cooperative mark citing did this
did it practically all.
Quickly Apparent
Now such 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 hurley tobacco
districts of Kentucky, Ohio and In
diana where Judge Robert Bingham,
with the help of other far-seeing
leaders, organized the tobacco farm
ers almost overnight into the Burnley
Tobacco Growers association, which
sold about 70 per cent of the entire
hurley tobacco crop in the first year
of its operation, there are families OF
Kentucky tobacco farmers that have
bought shoes for the 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
crop to that extent in the first
year of operation. You have the
mortgage difficulty to overcome, vast
numbers of more or less ignoran.
farmers to educate to loyal sup
port of their organization. The
American Cotton Growers Exchange
represents this year, the second of
Its operation, only between one
fourth and one-fifth of the American
cotton crops and it can't get hold of
all of that because SO much of 1t is
under mortgage. but 1t is function
ing efficiently and the cotton CO.
operative movement is running for
ward by leaps and bounds. The new
wheat movement Is not even this far
advanced.
The great majority of specially
crop organizations, inx the localities
where they have been set up, are
meeting with genuine success at the
outset: but every once in while
there are hideous plumbers OF a cost
ly nature. / know one speciality crop
organization in the east, properly or
ganized and controlling nearly half
of the product, which almost came a
cropper In the 1lrSt year OF It's or
ganization through trying to handle
business before 1t 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 controlled the industry. For
tunately, however. these tumbles,
very frequent in the past, are rare
today and recovery is prompt. The
organization in question is on its
feet again and doing business this
year. And all over the country new
organizations are springing up almost
every day.
They mean, as immediate results
for the farmer, better prices, stead
Ter prices, opportunity for greater
production, direct sale from pro-
open season for your husbands. Now,