Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-01-17
Co-oberat;ve Cotton Market;no

a year in Georgia is the steady ca ,I' p roy
ress of plans toward efficient market
lag of farm products Amid number Of
helpful movements two are especially not
able-that projected by The Journal and
the Country Bankers association to provide
adequate markets for food crops and that
now developing under the name of the Geor-
gia Cotton Growers Cooperative associa-
tion. These two endeavors, like others Of
their kind and character, are in no wise con-
flicting; rather they are complemental one
to another, and make up in their total &C
tivity and purpose one Of the highly har-
monious as well as significant chapters of
the States economic history.
Watchful Georglans all know that neither
for food crops nor for cotton are present IA
cilities and methods Of marketing what they
should be in the interest of the grower and
of the common veal. AS for food crops, there
is but the meagerest and crudest connec-
ton between producers and centers of de-
mand, and but scant attention to such i'm
pOrtant processes as grading, packing. stand
ardizing, and other aids to effective selling.
AS for cotton, we have only to observe that
when a basic commodity of which the world
stands in need and of which there is an
under rather than over-supply sells at
less than production cost, there evidently is
defect, and grave one, in the marketing
system so far as the grower is concerned
How may these deficiencies, which yawn be-
tween the Commonwealth and its rightful
measure of prosperity, be bridged? Assured
psly,~not without general and generous COOP
eration, no matter what particular plan be
devised for a particular problem. This is
the guiding principle of those especially in
terested in markets for food crops, and is the
very heart of the notable institution through
which they purpose to serve the State-the
Georgia Farm Markets Federation. So, too,
is it the great motive and function of the
Co&fa iUn
citation
This Association proposes simply to apply
to the market needs of the cotton producer
those principles and methods which have
proved effectual in other fields of agricultural
selling. The peach growers of Georgia by
acting as business unit and in accordance
with sound business practice now dispose Of
their cror at far better and surer profits
and more satisfactorily to consumers than
when each grower stood for himself alone
and when standardized service, along with
standardized prices was lacking. What the
citrus growers of Florida, the raisin growers
of California, and sundry other groups OF
producers on the Pacific slope have accom-
plished by these same means is OF national
note. Indeed, cooperative marketing, far
from being untrieC or novel, has proved
quite feasible in divers lands and times and
for a wide variety of products. Why, then,
thoughtful observers have asked should it's
abundant lessons and it's rich opportunities
not be put to use for the benefit of that vast
realm of economic and human interests COM
prised in the South's production of cotton?
The answer is being constructively work
ed out in thirteen States of this region, in
six of which there already have been formed
cotton growers cooperative associations rep
resenting upwards of one hundred thousand
members and approximately two million
bales-a beginning most suspicious! In
Georgia the business of organization is pro-
ceeding under competent direction. That it
will mean new freedom and new prosperity
to the Commonwealth is the confident pre-
diction Of those who have studied it's prospect
most closely and whose hearts are in it's
cause.