The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1923-09-19
SapirO Talks
to Farmers
CALIFORNIA DENOUNCES PRICE
FIXING IN STATE FAIR
TALK.

"The more you lean on the govern
ment the lower prices will go, but the
more you lean on yourselves the more
chances you will get for return on
your investment" is the message re-
ceived by more than $500 farmers who
heard Aaron Sapiro, California "evan-
gelist" of the cooperative marketing
movement, who denounced price fixing
and urged cooperation by farmers at
the Minnesota State Fair. He spoke
at the Farm Bureau federation rally
IN the spacious Livestock building.
"All the tariffs in the world, the
Federal Loan banks and the other gov
ernment help are useless unless you
organize yourselves on business prin-
ciples," he said. "The business of
farming won't solve itself You can't
sit back and let somebody else do the
work. If you do, you're doomed.
Get advice from the government,
but you go yourselves and do the work.
Don't for minute let your own prob
lens be taken out of your hands. If
you will only give US cooperative
marketing, know it will stop the
competition of the cheap wheat of
India with the fine wheat of Minnesota
and the Northwest"
Mr.. Sapiro began his speech with a
tribute to the State Fair, but said that
it was an indication of the productive
power of the farmers of the state only,
and did not indicate the distributing
weakness of the state. He argued for
cooperation, which makes the farmer
the merchandizer himself in the
worlds market of the goods he pro-
duces. He criticized the Minnesota
Cooperative Creameries association
and the Central Cooperative Commits
sion association at South st. Paul as
not completely cooperative.
"You have stuck to the consumers
branch of cooperation for 60 years,
and all you have done thereby was to
stop little petty larceny" he said.
"You have built big machine. Your
creameries, for instance, had brilliant
leadership, and you were taught to
manufacture comparatively, but you
let each creamery sell by itself. You
have tried to correct this deficiency
by your Minnesota Cooperative
Creameries association and yet that
has not struck the right marketing
plan. Potatoes were organized in lit
tie marketing locals that forgot to
grade the product. All that the South
st. Paul cooperation is is an overhead
commission house that fools you into
thinking that you have real co-opera-
tion.
eyes, you have got cooperative
spirit, cooperative royalty, but no CO.
operative knowledge.
"What do you aim to do? You must
adhere to your aim steadfastly if you
succeed.
'The aim is to see if you can intro
duce profit into farming by stopping
dumping, all individual selling, and
introduce standard product into the
market
''Take the cotton industry. One mill
lion families are engaged in this in
dustry. The average return to each
of these families is only $500 a year.
The South is a whole generation be-
hind the North, yet it has one of the
greatest crops on earth to SELL Each
producer has been in the habit of
throwing his crop upon the market at
the same time that every other man
did, without knowing the production
quantities of India, Japan and other
nations.
'It isn't the speculator that breaks
the market, it is the dumping grower.
'In short the cotton crop dumped
enriches every other hand that touches
it except that of the man whose sweat
is on that cotton.
"What is true of cotton is equally
true of wheat, potatoes, prunes, beans,
walnuts, peas and alfalfa. All these
commodities and every other can be
organized to sell from one central
merchandising office. We don't change
the channel of trade, but we just put
that channel in the hands of the grow
ers instead of the spectators and
dealers.
"This, and not politics, is the only
thing that will aid you. You yelled
for Townley and got 81 wheat. You
yelled for farmer on the federal re-
serve board and got 81 wheat. The
more you lean on the government to
help you the lower prices will go.
Liverpool sets the price of wheat.
The liverpool group of nine men have
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