The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1922-10-26
Aaron Sapiro.

1T has been observed by readers
of the paper that Mr.. Aaron Sapiro,
one of the men who has put business
into farming, is circulating about the
state assisting in the opening of coun-
ty fairs and attending cooperative
marketing meetings. 1t is understood
that Mr.. Sapiro will to some extent
back the cooperative associations in
the undertaking to keep the member
ship strictly within the bounds of
contract. Succeeding in that, he
will have rendered q great service
to the pocketbook of the contracting
farmer. If cooperative marketing is
to succeed, all farmers who have
signed up with the association must
stand by their bargain, for, in plac-
ing their cotton or tobacco on the
market independently of the plans of
the organization, they are but nulli-
flying to that extent the good that
might have been expected to accrue
from organized marketing. This sys-
tenn was originated in California,
where it has made the fruit growers
rich. 1t could have never succeeded
if the fruit growers had not stood
as man to their bargain-and it
was Sapiro who formed the fruit
growers into the strongest business
organization of farmers in the world.
What has been done in the case Of
the fruit growers can be done in the
case of the tobacco and cotton grow
erS, and for success to the movement
in North Carolina, Sapiro is the main
hope. The commercial and industrial
world has conceded to the agricul-
tural world that in Sapiro it has "the
most inspiring organizer of coopera-
tive farm enterprises and the best
informed man on both their legal
powers and their economic possibili-
ties" for Sapiro is lawyer and a
Jew. He has organized 80 associa-
tions in various branches of agricul-
ture-and all of his organizations are
operating successfully.
"It might be noted in passing that
the three strongest allies developed
for the farmers in recent years are
Jews. They are Bernard M. Baruch,
Eugene P. Meyer, Jr., and Aaron
Sapiro. Perhaps Sapiro would not
have been particularly known outside
the bounds of California if he had
not been discovered by Judge Rob-
ert Worth Bingham, the distinguish
ed owner and editor of The Louisville
Courier Journal, who brought Sapiro
to Kentucky and placed million dol
lars back of him in the work of or
ganizing the Burley tobacco growers
into a cooperative selling association.
The tobacco growers in Kentucky are
now fixing the price their product
must 60 at. They are in control of
the market, and only this week the
R. J. Reynolds Company, of Win
ston-Salem, made a bulk purchase of
100000 pounds from the Burley
Tobacco Growers Association, at a
price fixed by the association. 1t
was the largest sale of hurley tobac-
co to a single manufacturer in the
history of the industry, and it clean
ed out the stocks in the hands of the
producers within the organization.
They have disposed of their crops at
from 10 to Is cents pound more
than they could have got if there had
been no cooperative marketing asso-
citation!
eve were starting out, however,
to speak in detail of Sapiro, and We
are quoting from an intimate story
contributed to The Worlds Work, for
October, by Ichn K. Barnes. Sapiro
is a gratoate of the University Law
School of California, class of 1911.
Wucu lc dilU Ills UIOIucT SIdIICI IiC
praitice of law in San Francisco, they
decided that they would take no GRIM
inal cases for money and no divorce
or personal cases or bankruptcies.
They sought some field in which they
could do constructive law work.
Knowing that law follows organiza-
tion and that all industries are we'll
organized except the farming indus
try, they took up farming law. To-
day at the age of 3s Mr.. Sapiro is
attorney for more than so cooperative
marketing associations, and some of
the dairy and fruit and vegetable
groups handling in totals uore than
s400,00O,000 worth of products annu-
ally. While his brother keeps office
in San Francisco, he travels about
the country serving these various as
sociations and helping other farmers