Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-03-03
COOPERATIVE MARKETING
Principle is Economically Sound and
of Advantage to Producer.
ASSOCIATION BRINGS HIGHER PRICES

Oklahoma Organization Has 35,oo'
Members and Still Growins-Pro
sress Being Made in Arizona, Miss
issippi and Texas-lnteresting lnfor'
nation on Subject Engaging Attent
tion of York County Farmers.
(Ralph Smith in Atlanta Journal.)
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, February
25:-Seeing is believing, it's said, and
l have seen enough with my own eyes
and heard enough with my own ears In
this fair city to strongly encourage the
belief that the cooperative marketing
of cotton is economically sound in
principle and financially advantageous
to the cotton producer in practice.
got an eye full and an ear full in
the spacious sample rooms of the Okla
homa Cotton Growers association, No
SIS Main street, under circumstances
that were most convincing. The Incl
dent about to be recited mitigates the
error of perpetrating an anti-climax in
a series Of articles about cooperative
marketing in the west.
The Oklahoma Cotton Growers as
sociation is a cooperative organiza-
tion-a selling organization, if you
please. 1t Is under no obligation to its
$4,000 members to sell their hold-over
cotton, but as a matter Of accommo-
dation it has handled a considerable
quantity of old cotton, and handled ii
satisfactorily.
e. Seeing is Believing.
Some days ago certain members of
the association, living in the vicinity
of McCloud, Okla, decided to dispose
of about 200 bales of old cotton-the
residue of their 1919-20 crop. Street
buyers at McCloud were willing enough
to buy the cotton. They offered 10
cents, IL cents and 16 cents a pound
for the lot, depending upon the grade
the grading to be done and the grade
arbitrarily fixed by, the buyers.
The prices were so ridiculously low
that the McCloud farmers declined to
sell. They requested the Oklahoma
Cotton association to sell the lot for
them Samples of the cotton were
pulled and forwarded to headquarters
in Oklahoma City, where they were
graded and c.assed according to grade
and staple, by the best cotton classers
In the state.
Tho, representative of an exporter,
and prospective buyer, entered the
associations sample rooms while l was
engaged in conversation with Walter
G. Sparks, general sales manager Of
the association.
The buyer liked the cotton, and he
bought the entire lot on the strength
Of the samples submitted for his ex-
animation. But he paid a premium for
the two hundred bales above what had
been offered by the street buyers. For
one lot he paid IS 1-2 cents, for another
Is "a cents, and for the third, 13 1-2
cents a pound.
In word, Sales Manager Sparks, in
my presence, sold for the McCloud
members of the cooperative associa-
tion, 200 bales of cotton at premium
of from 2 1-2 to "a cents a pound
above the best figure the members
could have obtained had they sold their
cotton under the old method
The incident Is only one of hundreds
that have happened in Oklahoma City.
Such occurrences are not rare and this
| ho q f,.,, h.
crop Of cotton. Barring only the big
bull movement in September and Octo-
ber, when street buyers were bidding
and buying recklessly, the cotton sold
through the cooperative association
has commanded a steady premium over
cotton sold to stem winders and f. o.
b. men" in Oklahoma.
NJ" ton Is made Of the incident. not
because Of the premium received for
the old cotton, but because seeing is
believing" and 1 personally witnessed
a transaction that confirmed in part
some of the things that, 1 had heard
previously.
If my readers will bear with me in
patience throughout the series of arti-
cles on cooperative marketing in the
west, countless incidents no Jess con-
vincing than the one just mentioned
will be recited. Moreover, every fact
that l have been able to obtain that
relates to the cotton cooperative
movement in Oklahoma will be pres
ented with the utmost frankness.
System Not Perfect.
1t is both pertinent and important
right here to state that while the CO.
operative marketing of cotton has
made rapid strides and satisfactory
progress, the system is not wholly per-
feet and its perfection in the last
analysis depends almost as much upon
a CO. coordination Of interests that should
be mutual as it does upon cooperation
among the farmers themselves. BY
this is meant a readjustment or rear
rangement of country credits that will
enable the farmers to liquidate their
obligations over q period Of months
| instead of having all farm paper bear
| the same date Of maturity-usually
October l.
1t is also pertinent and important at
IL.