Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-06-24
a. Timely Idea that Betokens
Prosberitu to Millions

PTOSpeT7ty 60 JY7iHOnS
TT WAS at a dinner of Industrial and
financial leaders, as related by the New
York World, in whose city the interest
ing scene was enacted, that MT Aaron
Sapiro, counsel for the cooperative farmers.
OF the cotton belt, as we'll as for those of
California, was asked to explain why the
growers thus organized for selling their out
put had prospered, while so many others
faced distressful losses if not ruin. Seated
across the table was Judge Gilbert e. Gary,
head of the largest steel industry in the
world; and it was he whom Mr.. Sapiro adj
dressed in making answer. III
california growers" said he, 'have made
money because they have studied the meth
DDS of the Steel corporation and have ap-
piled its system of marketing to farm prod
ucts. The same thing can be done and will
be done by the farmers in every part of the
country. It has been their habit to dump
crop Wherever it was grown and as soon as
Z 1t was grown thus creating gigantic over
supply in small market towns, and then to
wait for dealers and SPECTATORS to come and
take it away at the prices likely to prevail
I in glutted market. We noticed that the
Steel corporation never broke it's own prices
by dumping steel rails anywhere and then
hoping somebody would come along and take
them over at a cut rate. The Steel cor
poration keeps track of who wants steel
rails and where they are wanted. It ships
It delivers rails, not whree they are made,
for nobody wants them there, but where
they are to be used. It puts dwon rails, not
at; the point of production, but at the point
or consumption. 1t tends not only to the
making of rails but also to the merchandise
ing of them. And that makes all the differ
ence to the Steel corporation between pros.
perity and bankruptcy
The history of civilization is history Of
ideas-and of ideas which, in retrospect,
seem astonishingly simple. Had it never oc-
Cured to anyone to apply the methods of
efficient industry and efficient merchandise
to- the problems of California farmers. they
would be no better off today than hundreds
OF thousands in other regions who at best
have only cancelled bills or mortgages to
show for years hard labor. The handicaps
or the Cal1fornians, before they took up CO.
operative marketing, were peculiarly diff.
cult. Their chief harvests, unlike cotton,
were perlshable; and they were situated,
unlike growers in Georgia and the Southeast.
at vast distances from the great markets,
which fact added heavily to their freight
costs. Moreover, the quality of certain of
their products was not naturally as good as
that of sections with which they had to
compete. Yet in the season Of 192O.21,
while third of the apples grown in New
YORK went to waste under the trees, Califor-
ma APPLES sold with vim in that far east
ern state at three times the New York prices.
Inc instance is one among multitudes bear
Ing witness to- the worth of the better
marketing idea as applied to agricultural
products. The beginnings of the California
experiment were confused and oft-times
marked by failure and disbursement. II
was only some fifteen years ago that the way
began TO clear; and much more recently as
sir; Saplro points OUT that its precise aim
ana technique became apparent. 1.-THE aim
% every agriculturist, we know now, should
ne TO get his goods to market, and when
there is no market in sight, it is up to him
10 Ilnd or create one. The only way to do
tnat, we know now, is to pool the whole
output and build up business organization
to sell it,
when Judge Gary ventured to remark
and rather surprisingly, in view of his place
IN the greatest of industrial combinations-
that he feared the pooling Of crops might,
lead TO monopoly in foodstuffs Mr. Sapiro
replied that "a monopoly in foodstuffs would
Do Impossible since unduly high prices would
ruin the pooling organization by giving in
dependent farmers an opportunity to under
sell; topheavy prices on agricultural prod
ucts have .lways led to overproduction suf-
ficfent to smash any syndicate" Moreover.
1t should be borne in mind that the co-opera-
tive associations, like that of the Georgia
cotton farmers or the California fruit grow
ers. are not for the purpose of holding prod
ucts, but for the purpose of selling them.
They are in no wise speculative or adven-
furious. They harbor no ambition to over
ride or evade the law of supply and demand
They have no secret formula or magical rite
for making their members rich. And they
eschew politics as they would the plague.
They are simply availing themselves of the
principle of group efficiency and are bring
ing to bear upon their own marketing prob
lens the experience and counsel of the bust
ness and Industrial world. Acting merely
as an individual, the average farmer, wheth-
er his crop be raisins or tobacco or cotton
or whatnot, is exceedingly limited as regards
both range and facilities for selling. But
what if he is Joined with hundreds or thou
sands of others, all n=Ting the same inter-
est to serve? Then he has behind him the
strength of an organization which can en-
ploy the best of talent to survey the whole
field, statewide, nationwide, or worldwide,
within which his product can be sold; an or
ganization which can establish standards and
grades, which can advertise and win new
business; which can sell its commodity
where and when the demand exists, instead of
dumping it at special seasons on markets
oversupplied; and which, Furthermore, can
command the credits and other financial
aids essential to such large-scale, economical