White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1925-11-13
COOPERATIVE MARKETING
FARMERS SALVATION

The most significant board develop
ment in American business today is
that of the cooperative marketing
of agricultural products. This is i'm
portant, not alone because of the large
number of producers directly con-
nectod with cooperative organiza-
tons, but also through the relation
of more stabilized agriculture to
general business prosperity. Co.
operative marketing does not of itself,
assure farm prosperity. but it has
led to that result with a number of
commodities, and it is reasonable to
assume that many other farm pro-
ducers can, and will, adapt the basic
principle of cooperation to serve the
needs of their particular industry.
Cooperation in agriculture has be-
come too large and too permanent to
be considered other than as funda-
mental factor of modern business re-
lations. A government survey in 1924
names 10,160 cooperative marketing
groups, transacting an annual bust
ness of well over two billion dollars.
Ten years ago about one-third as
many groups existed, doing less than
one-seventh of the volume of business
which is today handled on co-opera-
tive basis.
Cooperation represents the effort
of the farmer to keep step with mod
elm business methods employed by
other large industries. big business"
mergers" combines" and the like
are the inevitable accompaniment of
the "agc of machinery" in which we
are living. 1t is only through big
business" that quantity production,
national distribution and national ad-
vertising can accomplish the results
of which they are capable.
The farmer has both bought his
supplies and sold his products as an
individual dealing with highly organ
lied businesses. The farmer has been
called free and independent, becauGc
he made his living from the soil and
conducted his business as an individ-
ualist. AS matter of fact, because he
acted alone, his business relations
have been entirely dependent" rather
than independent"
It has been well said that coop
Grafton is born of adversely, and in
some instances it dies of prosperity.
It is instructive for people to band to-
gether when danger threatens. Per-
sonal ambitions and petty jealousies
arc laid aside in times of peril when
each must strive for the common
good. The perils of business are no
%N sr &c
ture, and the ship of cooperative
marketing is usually launched in
stormy weather rather than in fair.
Cooperative marketing would not
have cause to exist were the prevail
ing systems Of marketing satisfactory
and equitable to the producer. Trace
each cooperative movement to it's
source and you will find it's origin in
discomfort and dissatisfaction. In
practically every industry it has been
a measure of last resort.
California is famous for its CO.
operative marketing organizations. 1t
is referred to as the home of the CO.
operative movement in the United
States. Citrus fruits, deciduous fresh
fruits, nuts, dried fruits of all kinds,
as well as dairy products and many
of the staple farm crops, have ap-
piled this system of marketing to the
solution of their sales problem. They
have not met uniform success. Each
organization has had its difficulties.
Some more than others. 1t is no
more possible to run the affairs of
a cooperative marketing organization
to the satisfaction of every one con-
cerned than it is to please all the
people in the administration of state
or local government. Any co-opera-
tive organization which ignores the
human problem within its member
ship is destined to destruction. The
successful co-operatives have been
built from the grower up rather than
from the management down, and
their success rests on grower con-
fdcnce. A cooperative marketing or
ganization is semi-public utility, and
thus has more and different business
problems than "a private business.
Temporary setbacks to the movement
in particular industries should not be
charged against, The cooperative
principle, which is sound, but should
be taken as an, indication of faulty
impossible economic conditions.
A period of prosperity largely in
duced by cooperative marketing has
led to over-expansion in certain in
dustrics. A cooperative, to the extent
that it is successful, attracts new
members and there is consequent
expansion of acreage with the re.
suit that the marketing problems are
always abreast of it. A cooperative