River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1923-07-19
Does One Failure
Insure Another
BY N. R. Peabody

by ~. Il. PEABODY
A common objection to joining the
Farm Bureau is, Its no use. All
other farm organizations have failed.
This will too"
There are two things the matter
with this argument. The first Is
that no farm organization has been
complete failure. The second is
that even if hundred organizations
have failed that does not prove that
another cannot succeed.
Every farm organization has done
some good. Most Of them have done
more good than even the members
know. Any man may know what
benefit (if any he las reviewed
from any farm organization but not
one in thousand knows all the good
any one organization may have done
for all the other farmers in the
United States. Whoever does not
know this has no right to say the
organization has failed.
1t is easy and does not call Tor
much brains to criticize and find
fault. For this reason it is common
and popular pastime. Almost any
loafer on the sidewalk can tell just
where and how the President of the
United States has failed to do what
he should have done. TIE combined
brains of all of them probably
would not do passably good job OF
heading National Government.
The failures of farm organizations
of the past have, apparently, been
due as often to the lack OF loyalty
and cooperation on the part of the
members as to lack of ability or to
caookedness on the part OF the
officers.
A large part of the failure of CO.
operative ventures has been due to
a combination of lack of interest and
lack of support. 1t is very easy to
put a cooperative grain-elevator out
of business by offering very slightly
higher price than the cooperative
elevator can pay. Of course the diff
ference in price is usually made up
many times over by paying a much
lower price after the cooperative
elevator has been closed. In any
such case the failure is due to lack
of loyalty and good sense.
1t seems easy to get the average
farmer to throw away future dollars
for present pennies.
A few occasional crop failures do
not keep farmers from planting more
crops another year. Why should the
failure of one farm organization be
made an excuse for refusing to join
another?
If the farmers car fails to run
right, he does not junk the car and
refuse to buy another. He fixes 1T
UP, Cor has some one else DO it, and
keeps right on using it. He should
do the same with his organization.
If it is not running right, fix it up SO
it will run right. Then he should
keep right on using it.
Any man who ever did anything
worth while has made mistakes. But
he does not lay down and quit but
keeps right on trying. He takes his
lesson out of the mistake and throws
the rest away.
SO it should be with any farm or
ganization. The members should see
to it that each mistake or failure
is made means of improvement thru
learning and applying the lesson the
failure of the other teachers.
Even if the past organizations
have failed, that is no good reason
to refuse to join another. The r.o-
per thing is to join another better
organization and stand by it loyalty.
1t can be done. Men in other
lines have made success of organiza-
tion. Farmers can do the same. If
they do not it is because they will not
and not because they can not.