The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1923-05-10


/ Marketing a speculative marketing
system existed, controlled by brok-
4 ers. spectators and gamblers, and
! also adversely influenced by bad
roads and the necessity OF paying
I the merchant who furnished the
K years run TO produce the crop.
The result of this system of
marketing is to be seen all around
us. Notice the number of run
/ down farms. bad fences, poor and
unpainted homes, located on bad
roads, throughout the country. All
men of business ability know how
useless it is to talk about good
schools. good roads, good churches,
or any other public Improvement,
to a man whose pOcketbook Is flat
who is wondering how he will
pay his grocery bill. And as for
luxuries such as magazines, music
and books in farm homes, it is
distressing TO find how mentally
hungry most of our rural boys and
girls have been brought up.
Cooperative Marketing Best
Interest of the Farmer.
Cooperative Marketing takes all
but the PrOvidential gamble out of
farming. The greatest single eff
fort being made in behalf of the
farmer is the cooperative marketing
movement, which is designed for
the best interest of the farmer and
the community generally. Selling
| direct from the warehouse to the
manufactures or consumer, with
no middle will greatly enhance
the farmers pocketbook. He and
his family will have more money
to spend, the various shops in the
community benefitting thereby
even the washer woman will have
more clothes to wash and iron and
/ therefore an increased income.
In communities where farmers
are prosperous you find good roads,
telephones, painted houses, good
schools and modern churches, and
post office through which passes
many and various magazines in
stead of mail order catalogues only.
There is ample proof that Co
operative Marketing benefits the
community generally. Reports in
dicate that the business men of
every community are backing the
farmers association, and this is
substantial proof in itself, but | can
give numbers of illustrations.
In North Carolina, one year of
cooperative cotton and tobacco
marketing proved beyond Il doubt
| that not only the farmers gain
but the entire neighborhO0d, and
merchants there are advertising the
| fact that they are behind the CO.
| operative marketing movement, be-
cause they see that prosperous
farmers increase their business.
Farmers are the biggest con-
sumers as well as the biggest pro-
ducers Grandfather. of course, did
not live largely from foodstuffs
produced on the farm, but, we have
come a long way since grandfather
I traded his coonskin head piece for
il motoring cap, though no way
| has been found of picking break
| fast food, ready boxed, from stalks,
or clothing, ready tailored, from
the backs of sheep. These things
the farmer buys from the tailor
and the grocer of the community,
when his profits Justify such pur-
chaSes.
Farmers Become Business Men.
1t is said that the town of Syea,
Minn.. is the finest example of CO.
operative community effort in Am
erica. They have operated thus
far, without one single failure,
twelve forms of cooperation. In
other words, the Syea farmers have
become business men. AS a result.
they are developing a high degree
of culture and that satisfying social
! life without which mere money is
valueless.
1t is beyond question that it
was cooperative marketing that
saved California from feeling the
hard times" in 1920-21, and /
believe the entire country would
have been saved the violent de-
preston if the Cooperative Market
ing Associations throughout the
country had been as well establish
| ed as they were in California, and
! the benefit to certain communities
incalculable The farmer of the
future must cooperate with his
fellows if he desires strength to
! withstand financial storms, and to
secure the maximum returns from
! his lab0rs.
i The cooperation that should ex-
ist between farmers and other citi-
zens of a community is well ex-
i pressed in the fable of the farmer
and his three contentious sons.
calling his sons to him, he handed
them a. bundle of firewood, securely
/ tied together, and told each to try
/ his best to break the bundle into
i two piecesth strength of neither
/ was sufficient to break the bundle
until the sticks were separated.
The old man said, sSee boys, how
important it is to keep together, =
and so it is with the different In
terests of today.
Il When bad men combine. the good
& must associate; else they will fall.
! one by one, in a contemplate strug-
gle, and the community as well