Evening star., 1924-02-08
IN TODAY'S SPOTLIGHT
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS

duction. thereby. entailinE I loss upon
the producer, the organized producers
of" that particular product can do
another. thing: : They may require
under their contracts with the fndi-
production sufficiently So. that the
portion OF tho product which goes
into export should be reduced to the
minimum. In other WordY, the farm
s, srs. would be doing throueh co-opsra-
tries have done through Corporations.
They would put their great business
on q business basis" 49,
Owing to the fact that farmers
Of what the consumer pays. the gov
nrror argued that the course of con-
troll OF selling price would not In
crease the cost Of living to the con-
sumer. He emphasized his belief
that the farmers can get relief only
government measures. He. there
fore. seemed to stop short Of sup
porting the Norris bill. which pro-
poses to wipe out the middlemen by
having the government become the
giant middleman for farm commod- :
as arbitrator OF rewards to pro-
ducers and also Of costs to consum-
ers. there will be neutrality. indeed,
as well as saving Of Unnecessary ex-
pense of distribution--aocord to
the supporters OF the Norris measure.
Ine plan or Coy Lowden becomes
absorbed only In tho interests of pro-
ducers. relying on their generosity
and justice not to oppress consum-
ers by repeating the undue rapacity
OF the famous poultry raiser who
slew the golden-egged goose.
+ X + f.
Whether the fate Of the middle
man is to be slaughtered by Cooper
ators or by lawmakers. his lot is not
a happy one. Cooperation has be-
come a great factor of production in
Europe. 1t fiourishes somewhat in
certain regions in our own country,
but mainly among our adopted
citizens. rather than among native
Americans. American farmers, like
American soldiers. want all to be Of
ftoers-captains Of their own fate
rather than to fall in line and keep
step with thtrty-inch PAGES. -
Tho cooperative movement is less
than 3eventy-five years old. 1t be-
gan in England in 1874. when a group
of twenty-eight weavers were starv-
Ing, owing to oppressive wages and
high cost of food. They began by
uniting their purchasing orders for
staples. buying in wholesale lots.
They sold to themselves, not at cost,
but at regular market prices. and
kept the profits III their joint treas
ury until the end Of the year, when,
all costs having been paid, dividends
were declared Now they own the
largest chain OF businesses in Eng
land, with bakeries and factories the
greatest in the world and with ships
ard fisheries.
These co-operatives do a business
exceeding a billion dollars a year
ume of business 26 per cent In 1890.
What might such as they not do in
the more populous United States?
Russia Ignorant. semi-bSrbarous,
as some of us conceive it-Russia
does a great cooperative business.
Fifteen years ago Russia had g, 5. 900
cooperative societies; now 10000
such. The co-operatives have opened
and financed cooperative university
at Moscow. Belgium. France. Ger
way. Finland. Switzerland. Hungary.
CzechosloSakia-all have gotten away
from middlemen's throttling grip. and
now do business largely through CO.
operation. Even Japan-the worlds
greatest imitator-has 5000 societies.
sumers and producers. Everywhere
it is consumers as we'll as producers
who are interested in cooperative
plans.
The United States has few con-
sumers' cooperative societies, but the
producers are busy. They have held
their second National Council of
Farmers COOPERATIVE Marketing Ass
sociations, and they are planning f3
abolish the middlemen-and to tell
the unorganixed consumers that they
are generous and will not keep an
the $4,000, ,006, 900 a year which the
middlemen are now getting.
Icooyvieht 1914 by Pnul v Colltns1