Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1925-07-02


Agriculture have constantly urged larger produc-
tion They have assumed, and naturally think,
that the more wheat and corn we raise the fewer
hungry mouths there will be and that the more
cotton we produce the fewer people will be obliged
to go naked but half clothed For whatever
economists may say to surplus we know that
there really has never been too much of food or
too much of clothing for a needy world. And of
course it follows that the larger the production
per unit the cheaper will the product be. But
when large production is used to drive prices down
as to make large production less profitable than
small production, large production will not
tinue, and the world will therefore have to pay
more for the necessaries of life This therefore is
the consumers problem as well as the producers
1t has been shown again and again that compe-
tition when it goes the extent of forcing prices
below the cost of production in the end is as dis
astrous to the consumer to the producer him.
self. The decentralization of an industry which in
evitably follows results in increased cost of
production which the consumers finally must meet.
Organization is most powerful factor in hui
man progress. The economist as long ago as Adam
Smith found in organization the key to Industrial
growth. Organization means the difference be-
tween the mob and highly organized progressive
society.
In the modern world the farmer alone has been
the last to realize the value of organization for its
own sake And therefore it happens that when the
pose they soon find that there other benefits
derived in addition to the that their spe-
cial aim. A finer community life widening of
sympathies with their neighbors and associates,
broadening of their outlook upon the world,
sense of the dignity and worth of their calling, an
elevation of the ablest and worthiest among them
to places of leadership among the by-prod-
ucts of farmers organizations.
Agriculture has emerged from its primitive
state IT must therefore conform to those prac-
tees which have been found necessary to the
success Of other great industries. In all other
fields of commerce, unrestricted, free and open
competition in the marketing of products has been
gradually disappearing.
Agriculture, therefore, finds itself with its mil
lions of members freely competing among them
selves while it is obliged to sell its products in
highly organized industrial and commercial world
Now If the farmers are to put themselves upon
terms of equality with the great industries of the
country they too, must organize. 1t is not desir-
able that they should initiate the great industries
adopt the corporate form of organization and op-
crate their farms through corporate management
II would weaken our whole social structure if
our millions of farmers to surrender their in
dyidualism in this way. Nor is it necessary. While
much improved efficiency in production is still pos
sible the farmers have made and are making con-
slant progress in this respect. The problems which
press hardest upon him today are concerned with
the marketing of his products at a price which
will enable him to live and to go producing He
must find some way to restore the proper relation
shin between the prices he receives for his prod
nets and the prices he pays for other commodi-
ties.
Those who oppose the principle seem to think
that in some sort of way the cooperative associa-
lions are seeking to avoid the operation Of the law
of supply and demand. Quite the reverse is true.
Those who advocate this form Of marketing are
seeking only to create conditions by which that
law will operate fully as between the seller and
the buyer of farm products. At present it does
not
Farmers cooperative marketing associations,
however, are making real progress Some have
failed Doubtless others still will fail. The NOR
tality among them, however, has been greater
than among new business organizations of any
other kind of which know We have been gath
ering large fund of experience which will enable
not only those already organized, but ones yet
to be- to avoid largely the errors of the past They
are destined day to occupy the entire field for
there is no other way out Just when that happy
day shall come no man can tell. 1t depends large
ly upon the farmers themselves.
This is not the problem of agriculture alone It
is the problem of all. Because there can be no en-
during prosperity unless all the principal indus
tries which go to make up the commercial world
keeping step with one another shall march
abreast.