White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1926-12-31

has enabled manufacturers to supply
consumers with what they want when
they want 1t. 1t seems to be that in
this matter agriculture must follow
the example of industry 1t must
have a similar large-scale develop
ment of its business organization,
managed by competent executives.
There are 100000 farmers, each rep
resenting a unit of agricultural bust
ness. 1t is therefore not easy to or
ness operations. But the start that
ganize agriculture for effective bust
has been made in that direction indi.
Gates that 1t can be done.
Natural limits to the extent to
which cooperative marketing can be
centralized are set by the fact that
each basic agricultural product pre-
sents problems of it's own. 1t is obvi
ously impracticable to have wheat
growers, cotton growers, fruit grow.
ers, and livestock raisers all in the
same organization. So far as / can
see now, there ought to be separate
organizations for each leading COM
modify. But there ought not to be
too many competing organizations,
each striving to handle the same prod
uct When crop is handled by sew
eral hundred small concerns, whether
they are cooperative or private, there
is bound to be confusion, price cutting
when supplies are heavy, market gluts
and other conditions that result in
heavy losses for which the producer
must pay.
What we need, in short, is organi-
cation. both local and regional. Our
cooperative marketing agencie 8
should be organized on the broadcast
scale compatible with effective deal
ing with the special problems pre-
sented by the different branches of
agriculture. There are about 1000
farmers elevators in the United
States, and no fewer than nine wheat
pools. These elevators and pools,
however, do not conduct any common
policy. AS result they have probab
ly little more bargaining power than
have individual wheat growers. But
If they were federated, our wheat
growers organizations would be in a
position to exercise a very consider
able influence on market conditions
1t is not necessary for a cooperative
association to handle the whole of a
crop in order to have some say as to
its price. 1t Is often enough to con-
troll merely the surplus beyond what
is required for current consumption.
Farmers can unquestionably exer-
else effective bargaining power
through commodity organizations rep
resenting a majority of the producers
of the crops handled by the organi.
cations. In that way they can pre-
vent disastrous ups and downs in
prices, cause steady flow of prod
ucts to the best markets, and exert
some influence on production. 1t is
important that farmers organizations
should not confine their work merely
to regulating the flow OF agricultural
products to market. They should
seek to adjust production as we'll as
marketing to consumption require
ments Effective agricultural cooper
alton begins at seeding and planting
time, and in the case of many crops
ends only when the product is turned
over to the professor or to the con
sumer When farmers business or
CARNATIONS take this broad view of
their functions they can make real
contribution to the stability and prog
ress Of agriculture.
Freight Rates.
Transportation charges, although
not overhead in the proper sense of
that term, nevertheless are often
burdensome, uncomfortable factor in
farm business. Farm commodity
prices especially in areas distant from
markets, are seriously depressed by
high freight rates. 1t is my convlc.
ton, often stated, that we must have
substantial establishments in freight
rates. There have been no freight
rate reductions Of Importance on agrI.
cultural commodities in the last year.
The Department of Agricultures in.
dex OF freight rates indicates that
they are still So per cent higher than
before the war. 1t is instructive to
compare this figure with the index
for farm commodity prices, which in
September stood at only "a per cent
above the pre-war level.
What rail transportation charges
sometimes mean to the farmer can
be realized from an illustration or
two. 1t costs 1854 cents to ship
bushel Of wheat from Wichita, Kans..
to the Gulf of Mexico. It costs PTS
cents bushel on the average to ship
wheat from the spring-wheat area to
the Atlantic seaboard. These freight
costs are large relatively as we'll as