Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-07-29

butter States Of the United States and
Canada have competed. Yet Den
mark, with an area one-flfth Of that
of Minnesota, supplies 27.9 per cent of
all the butter consumed in the mar
kets Of the world.
Fifty years ago Danish farmers
were farther in the dumps than
American farmers have been in the
last Ave years. In. 1882 they began
organizing cooperative associations,
not only for their butter making, but
for credits and for marketing all kinds
of farm production.
Five years later they added hog
slaughter and bacon-cure plants. To-
day the cooperative organizations of
Denmark include more than nine
tenths of the farmers. More than SIS
per cent are active members of cream
cry and hog Strengthening associations.
In little Denmark there are now near
ly half as many cooperative associa-
lions as exist in all the United States.
Under the new law, passed by our
Congress and signed by the President
three weeks ago, it is not the purpose
of the Division of Cooperation TO
undertake the management or control
of co-operatives, but simply to gather
and disseminate information and USE
full data based on experience in CO.
operation.
There will be no effort to supply the
co.operatives with more data as to day
by-day world market conditions be-
yond what the Department Of Agri-
culture is already doing in that line
in cooperation with the International
Institute of Agriculture, with its head
quarters in Rome, Italy. 1t Is not q
news gathering effort, but research
Of principles.
The new Division of Cooperative
Marketing is under the direction Of
Chris l.. Christensen, who has had
several years of experience in the
Bureau of Agricultural Economics. 1t
is announced that the department,
through the new division, will now be
able to give the same attention to the
development of cooperative marketing
| as has been extended to problems of
production. Business technic and
marketing methods developed by CO.
operative enterprises will be analysed
| and studied, so that what is success
| full in one enterprise may he taught
| to similar associations elsewhere. and
what proves impracticable may be
| limited to the earliest experiments
| only, and other associations will be
| advised against the experiments.
The division will employ many high
| ~ qualified specialists and send them
all over the United States to observe
conditions and report valuable data
and to Europe to study cooperation
in it's most highly developed state
| This applies not merely to butter and
| cheese and fluid milk, but also to the
handling of grain. tobacco. cotton
fruits and vegetables, poultry and
eggs.
&, Eventually considerable development
is hoped for in collective buying oil
machinery and farm supplies Of al
| kinds.
In speech delivered recently ir
Minneapolis by the Secretary Of Agri
culture Mr. Jardine sketched the rapic
growth of cooperation in the United
States as follows:
I'm 1920 the Department of Agri
culture received reports from S,44s
active cooperative associations; ir
1925, 1856 active organizations were
heard from during the year-an in
crease of 1875. Reports OF failure.
! during the same period ranged from
| 1874 in 1888 per cent of all co
opera tives reporting that year--to 81
less than 3 per cent in 1928. There arr
! approximately 10000 cooperative
| marketing associations in the United
States at the present time. We
see definite progress in the attitude
| of the members toward their organi
cations. First of all, the producers
are beginning to think Of marketing
as something more than the transfer
of goods to q country buyer. They arr
beginning to follow the whole intri
cate. process by which their product.
are placed in the hands of the con
| sumers. Consequently, they are oh
| tanning appreciation of the consumers
needs, an understanding Of price fac
/ tors. and are at least taking the frs
steps to produce the kinds and quail
ties Of products which the market de
n1ands."
tconyrisht. 1919. ~ paA2 " emasnnl