Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-07-29
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

The Department of Agriculture Is
preparing to cooperate with the co.
operators on the farms of America.
This il in compliance with the law
passed at the recent session of Con-
gress, and is the first real step in
that direction ever taken by the Gov
eminent. ander full governmental au-
thority and by means of a specific ap-
preparation.
Heretofore the department has
sought, more or less, to gather data
OF use in encouraging farm co.opera-
ton, but the cost has been taken out
of what might be called the Secre-
tary's Contingent fund" and was
necessarily very limited. Now there
is available specific fund Of $780,
900. which will establish a real di-
vision of farm cooperation.
OF what direct concern is farm CO.
operation to city people? The ulti-
mate consumer il interested in the
general prosperity of farmers, but
whether that should lead him to en-
courage farm cooperation which is
aimed at the elimination Of the mid
die man." who is usually a denizen
of the city, may cause the casual OBJ
server to hesitate in determining.
city business?" they ask.
The aim of &C. operation is not mere
ly to save the costs of the middle man.
but to create conditions under which
production may prosper where such
prosperity has been impossible with
isolated efforts, either In production
or marketing. For without prospect
ty, production ceases and the law of
supply and demand" becomes of
deadly effect upon cost to the con-
sumner.
The most conspicuous example Of
the value of cooperation is found in
the manufacture of butter. Time
was when every farm wife made but
ter in her kitchen, and, with a few
dozen eggs, drove to town to trade
it at the store" for sugar or dress
goods. She received in trade perhaps
10 or Is cents a. pound, after all her
toll in ripening the cream on the
back of her stove with full flavor Of
cooking vegetables and then churn-
ing it in the dash churn. And that
was all the stuff was usually worth.
Today the creamery pays for the
fresh, sweet cream the same price
Der pound that it receives for the
Finished product'-the butter-and 1t
receives s gross profit, out of which
TO nav its running expenses. only the
difference between the weight of the
cream and the weight of the resultant
butter--the difference being the
"overrun" Of wafer and salt-chiefiy
water--which should amount to
about Is per cent. So the housewife
gets her far better pay with no work
whatever, thanks to the cooperative
creamery.
In 1853 some farmers in Camp
bell Hale, n. Y, organized the first
cooperative creamery In the United
States. Today there exist 1.400 CO.
operative creameries, owned by 20O,-
600 dairy farmers, and producing
annually $35, 900 900 worth of butter.
There are, in addition. 500 cheese
factories producing every variety Of
cheese, to the value of $20,000,OO0 a
year. There are cooperative grain
and cotton and tobacco associations.
and, all told, the cooperation OF
farmers now produce goods to the
value of $4,000, 900. 600 a year.
There are also bargaining associa.
tions" which. with no capital, fix by
contract the prices at which the mem
bers agree to sell their products,
whether grain or livestock.
Thus the great production and
business interests of America are not
alone the steel trust, the automobile
factories and the railroad interests,
but also the farm cooperative con-
Germs. Yet cooperation IL said to be
only in its infancy.
Il y 4
What cooperation may accomplish
for our farmers il well demonstrated
by It's results In Denmark. where 1t is
more highly developed than anywhere
else in the world.
1t 10 OF record in the international
dairy expositions that the finest but
ter In the world 10 made in Minnesota.
The creameries Of that state have
won more thar 30 per cent Of the
butter prizes that have been awarded,
in annual contests, where the best