Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-02-10
SAP|RO ADDRESSES
NUT GROWERS At
MEET IN ALBANY
BY EDWIN CAMP
ID EDVIAN Nfa4HI
staff Correspondent of The JOurn

ALBANY, Ga, Feb. 9.-Introduced
by Major R. E. L. Spence as the mas
ter wizard mind of the cooperative
marketing movement, and as a man
who has done more for the American
farmer than any other man, Aaron
Sapiro today brought the gospel of
economic salvation to south Georgia.
Mr.. Sapiro waived fine language,
he ignored the frills of rhetoric. He
talked horse sense to large and in
spring crowd of plain Georgia farm
er folk, and he drove the message
home.
The meeting here was called by
Commissioner of Agriculture j. J.
Brown and was held under the au-
spices of his department. The main
purpose was to form an association
to market peanuts profitably by pool
selling.
The civic leaders of Albany extend
ed a beautiful hospitality to the
throng that invaded their beautiful
city.
What Is Pool Selling
In his address, Mr.. Sapiro dealt
broadly and thoroughly with the
principles of cooperative marketing
He briefly told the history through
two or three centuries of co-opera-
tive selling. He told of the failures
that had often marked the expert
ments in the past because of incor-
rect principle.
What is the purpose of co-opera-
tive marketing?" he asked. "It is
to prevent dumping a crop on the
market at harvest time, thus break
ing the price, and to substitute for
it merchandising the crop by selling
in an intelligent, gradual and order
ly manner.
when this is done, the producer
will get fair prices. 1t can be done
in agricultural products only by CO.
operative marketing"
Mr.. Sapiro then tersely and EN-.
phatically outlined the calamity that
hefell the peanut growers of Georgia |
last fall.
Farmers Can Keep Profits
He showed that with a short cot
ton crop and dearth of seed for
crushing, with protective tariff on
peanuts and it's products, and with
an increased American demand, the |
peanut growers rushed to market |
with their crop and dumped it, |
breaking the price to sixty dollars a |
ton. This he said was done because
the growers had no knowledge of |
trade conditions. They had no idea |
of the demand and they bid against |
each other in selling, themselves
breaking a price which should have
been much higher.
'It is the farmer who breaks the
price of his own product by Cutting
the market. 1t is the business man |
who buys the product that has been /
dumped and sells it with reference
to trade conditions that makes the
profits the farmer ought to get" Mr..
Sapiro declared.
''The farmer can get this profit
for himself by forming a business
concern to sell his products in
business-like way. That is what the |
co-operatives can do. They are mer-
chandising institutions. The farm
er has never merchandise his wares
except through them.
Successes Pointed Out
Mr.. Sapiro then told in detail of
the success that has marked the
California co-operatives in handling
eggs, prunes, raisins, walnuts, cit
rus fruits and other products. He
told the essential principles of pool
selling after organizing on commod- |
lty bases. He discussed the essen
tai OF grading( assuring the trade of |
uniform quality, the building of con-
hdence in the product handled and |
sales methods for increasing con-
sumption. He sketched the financial
requirements and the financial re.
turns. He told how bankers and |
business men, skeptical at first now
are the strongest prospects of the
co-operatives, because they have
seen the associations make a whole
state happy and prosperous.
Albany's handsome new civic au-
dltorlum was unable to seat the
farmers and business men who gath
cred to he3r the message brought by
Mr.. Sapiro, Mr.. Depercier and the
distinguished Georgians who spoke.
Many of the farmers, some of them
farmers that were from more than a
hundred miles. They were here from
McRae and from Selma, from Flor
ida and from counties just south of
Macon.
Major r. E. L. Spence, of Albany,
one Of the leading lawyers and pub
lie men of south Georgia, presided
and introduced the Rev. Mr.. Turner,
of the Baptist church, who offered .
prayer.
Praised by SOule and Brown
DIR. A. M. SOule, president of the
State College Of Agriculture, fol
cooperative marketing the full re-
Of Cn1