The Bingham County news. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1918-1930, 1923-05-25
AARON SAPIRO TO ORGANIZE
SPUD GROWERS IN NEAR FUTURE

SPUD GROWERS IN NEAR FUTURE
Arrangements are being made tc
organize the Idaho Potato Growers
on the same basis as the Maine POta-
to Growers, association. Mr.. Aaron
Sapiro, the famous cooperative mar
keting attorney will come to Idaho
some time in June to assist in organ
izing this association. He will prob
ably meet with the farmers Of Bing-
ham County. Every potato grower
should watch for the date Of the
meeting and attend without fail. The
American Magazine writes of Mr.. Sa-
piro as follows:
Aaron Sapiro is lawyer with
more than million clients composed
OF about one-tenth Of all the people in
the United States who make their liv-
ing from the land. Since most Of the
half million are heads Of families, 1t
is safe to say that Sapiro is the legal
guardian of the livelihood Of between
two and three million human beings.
"This sounds like an extraordinary
statement, but it is even more extra
ordinary when you consider that two
or three years ago this thirty-eight
year old attorney was almost I'M
known to the public, save on the Pa
cific coast, where he was recognized
as the genius of a new cooperative
movement among farmers and fruit
growers.
"Since that time he has organized
and become counsel for groups OF
farmers, whose memberships tap ev-
cry state in the union, and who raise
and sell every conceivable product,
from milk to maple syrup, from po-
tatoes to prunes, from berries to SUI
gar cane. Seventeen states have
changed old laws or enacted new
ones to make these enterprises posi-
ble.F
Cotton is the greatest single sta
pie crop in the United State. In two
years more than one hundred an0
fifty thousand cotton farmers in nine
Southern states have signed contracts
to deliver their entire crop for the
next five or seven years to associa-
lions that Sapiro has organized. In a
normal year the cotton raised by the
growers is worth two hundred mil
lion dollars, which, incidentally,
makes theirs one of the very largest
business enterprises in the Uniteo
States.
LESS than two years ago Sapiro's
first cooperative tobacco contrac,
was signed. Today he is the moving
spirit of five such organizations, haN-
ing more than two hundred thousand
members, and raising and selling
more than two-thirds of the Amer,-
can tobacco crop. And these are only
two of some three score organizations
that the dynamic Westerner has
wound up and set going.
"To this half million followers, Sa-
piro is a Moses leading them from
the wilderness to the promised land.
His "six fundamental principles or
successful cooperation" which are de-
signed to put farming on strictly
business basis of group production
and group marketing afe=today being
quoted so generally that mt. least half
Of; their protagonists have, forgotten
who worked them out in the first
place" fsl' "a , 9,., -.-, +.
Sapiro did not originate coopera-
man. in the country and Idaho Pota-
TOT growers. are indeed. fortunate In
SECURING his services; His counsel ano
SERVICE is, in demand from, Maine to
California, In every state in the In.
ibn and In Canada. I'm Abilene, Tex
ts, twenty-five farmers followed Sa-
Bi62Y more, than . mile through the
ftrsGts trying to find a meeting place
IIiG enough to hold them When ar
Eangemsnts were finally made, to -uas
ne First Baptist church. the biggest
fWlding II town., the crowd rushed
there pell nell for several blocks, so
anxiouS was everyone to get a seat.
Once the farmers were jammed into
the church they stuck there to the
last man for three hours while Sa-
piro was expounding his gospel Of CO
operative marketing"
Sapiro di dnot originate coopera-
tive marketing but those organiza-
lions outlined under his guidance
have been very successful. while the
formed before his plans !,
were outlined were unsuccessful. ~
out Of every 20 being entire failures.