Show tf Q ft r JAM I x oo FARM OPERA CO-OPERA OPERATIVE CO-OPERATIVE SELLING By GLENN G. G HAYES 0 1114 W Union Voloa How Organization Benefits Cotton Growers Grower A CLOUDLESS September morning A The cotton fields lay still and white drenched In heavy dew The thin white haze that had wrapped the valley in the darkness slowly rose to tobe tobe tobe be dissolved In sunshine Across the fields came snatches of ot song ong a bit of conversation the lilting note of a whistler It was pick cotton Ing ng season In Louisiana A eyed blue-eyed little girl with long black braids of hair tied tlell together with a shoestring looked up tip from her half filled bag of ot cotton She was listening From across the theall all valley l came the slow even tongs of ot a school bell For three years she sho had tad listened to the tong tong tong- long tong tong-tong tong of ot the tho bell but bell but school wasn't for tor the poor whites there was the cotton Shed She'd had her ter Most four tour years rears of It That was moren moron most the tho kids got got so so she consoled herself and turned again to her her picking She he Is 19 only one of or a million children that Hint King Cotton has hus cheated out of ot nn education out out of the tho Joys of ot child- child thou On two million cotton plantations planta planta- Inns hugs hoy and girls black and white are the slaves of or cotton Dixie Is the home of tr more than more than half halt of ot all the worlds world cotton Its average crop of ot bales Is double the amount grown n In the remainder of the globe Yet Vet despite this supremacy In n world production tion the South has kept poor Cotton Is 19 king but his throne is being undermined by the poverty of ot his Ills king king- torn dom For sixty years the Southern states have led with the highest percentage Of ot illiteracy in the United Stat States s with the lowest percentage of landowners The standard Of ot living among the cotton cotton cot cot- ton growers Is the lowest of any class ss of f farmers For two hundred years yeara the the South has hos been trying to to raise Itself o out t of or Its poverty Its Illiteracy The effort has been wasted Discovering the tho Defect In 1020 1920 began th the dawn dawn of at a new day A Agricultural leathers leaders declared red that all nil that was wrong in the cotton states was their system of ot marketing By Dy changing their marketing methods the whole South could be put on a higher economic plane Up to this time the marketing to the producer meant merely hauling the baled product product product prod prod- from the Ule gin to the merchant with the crop mortgage or to the public square where buyers offered cash That was marketing marketing dumping dumping de Three-fourths Three of ot the cotton is grown by the tenants and small landowners who are always a year behind when It comes to money matters They live on credit extended by their town home-town merchants who take a lien Hen on the crop cropas as s security At marketing time If It Itco co cotton tou prices are low the producer Is simply out of ot luck hick lie cant can't afford to hold bold his crop for tor better prices for tor his debtors nr are demanding t. And nd very likely If it he be did hold It prices wouldn't Improve Improve Improve Im Im- prove for tor prices e on cotton exchanges are ore largely manipulated by speculators and traders These small growers know nothing about the grades grodES or classifications classifications clas clas- of cotton They leave that thatto thatto to the Judgment of ot the b buyers anI and buyers buers are not always honest The whole system of marketing Is made to benefit the buyer Before the Civil ChU war the outstanding ing lag feature In the marketing of cotton w was was s the English 1 factorage system The factor Invariably In required the cont con coa- tnt of the entire crop for tor the sale lole of which he charged a com commis commis- mis sion slon The planters planter's basis of ot credit was usually fixed d on on an nn advance of so many ninny thousand dollars so many lUany hales bales of cotton were required required re re- re- re to be shipped A penalty commission commission com com- mission was charged for tor every bale short of or the contract number The system had bad reaching far results It established one of the most vicious circle possible to any Industry It was a n business of ot unusual hazards for tor both the factor and ami the planter Rut But the planting end was fundamentally unsound It couldn't have e stood up many more years ears If there had been no Civil CI war Another result was the concentration tion In a few tew Important cities and to towns tons to ns of practically all of the fluid wealth of the thel growing cotton youth South The Interior country which was practically ly the sole source of this wealth was In Ip a state of hopeless economic dependence on these urban centers ThIs Tills condition was not relieved until after the mortgage loan companies went Into operation o about thirty years ears later What Brought Broucht the Change Chang 1 For or two and a half decades following follow follow- ing lag 1881 1855 there were some very definite changes for tor the better in cotton marketing mar mar- Local factors factor still did a large part of the business but under a modi- modi Oed fled system Local buyers buers established themselves in every small town Local banks were organized local compresses com corn presses and warehouses were built The market had met the producer half halt way Next Nut came rame country buying The planter could sell sen his crop at his own gin platform This was a change In Inthe Inthe n the mt method thod of ot marketing but the SYI- SYI system ten tem Itself remained almost the same The one difference was wu that the grower might be present at every stage of ot the proceedings X The change which made th the transaction trans tran action visible to the eye of the producer producer pro pro- ducer Is I. responsible for tor operative co marketing It brought a psychological heal ical change loser Closer connection with his crop after Its production made th hi buyer think more of ot the problems problem of ot marketing In 1873 1813 the Alabama Grange put a sales representative In la New York York- The Mississippi Grange Orange sent a man to represent represent represent rep rep- resent them in Liverpool Other state Orange organizations hired a man to represent them on the various cotton markets In some Instances warehouses warehouses ware ware- houses houltS were leased where the producers producers pro pro- producers sent their cotton for tor grading and sometimes for tor actual telling Cotton Cotton Cotton Cot Cot- ton marketed In this way did did bring higher prices but the market as a whole was unaffected From 1900 1000 on producers made numerous numerous nu nu- attempts to market cotton co co- operatively In 1002 1902 the Farmers Farmers' Educational operative Co-operative C was was organized organIzed organ organ- In Texas Ks Jots first work was the staging of ot a campaign for tor maintaining the price of ot cotton by fiat flat Many local associations were established usually centered around a warehouse These associations did eliminate some dishonest dishonest dishonest dis dis- dis- dis honest grading und and buying they provided provided pro pro- vided good storage but they offered no real solution to the marketing problem During the World ova ur the South had a taste of ot prosperity There was real money in cotton With the close dose of the war they feared a in their market They determined to d dt d. what they could to stabilize their ther prices With this in n mind the American American Ameri Amerl- can Cotton association W was 9 formed in 1918 1018 In 1918 1919 prices rose CO GO per cent due to an nn Intensive acreage reduction Hut But ut the high prices brought a n heavy heny 1020 1920 crop This along with the general general general gen gen- eral conditions condition crashed crushed cotton prices Colton Cotton producers discovered that the conditions under which they were attempting attempting attempting at at- tempting to handle their business In 1920 1020 were ere almost as ns unsound as ns the system under which their fathers had operated in 1800 Aaron met with the association tion in Montgomery and aroused interest inter Inte interest est by telling them the story of ot Call Cali fornias fornia's plan of ot operative co-operative market- market Ing The plan didn't meet with genera general general gen gen- era eral approval The association set to work to make a marketing plan of Its own When it was completed the growers Vers couldn't be Interested Slowly the American Cotton association began to fade Into the background In Oklahoma Mississippi Texas and North Carolina the plan had found fertile soil The Oklahoma Cotton Growers' Growers aa association as was organized under the leadership of Carl Williams The Th plan is 18 a simple piece of ot machinery ma ma- chinery It is composed entirely of ot bona fide growers' growers of at cotton who sign contracts under which they pledge to toI deliver their cotton to the association for a certain number of at years The I organization must acquire no cotton by purchase or trade and t is allowed to make no profits Title to the cotton cotton cotton cot cot- ton Is vested In the association which agrees to resell resen the cotton and to pay the resale price less the cost of ot han ban ding The receipts are pooled by grade and staple regardless of at the time Ume of ot delivery or sale This equalizes the tho i returns to the growers The Oklahoma organization made madeUs I Its Us start In June 1021 By April 1022 1922 contracts had been signet signed one- one third of ot the Oklahoma crop acreage In less than a year ear the association had completely replaced cotton brokers and secured directly for the growers the spinner and export price The average price for tor the year was around Results Result of Organization Growers In the Mississippi delta were next to organize Th The Staple Cotton Growers' Growers operative Co-operative Co cla don tion was formed which signed 2200 producers of long staple long staple cotton In 1021 1921 1021 they marketed t tIes Iles Ies getting setting set ret ting an average a of more six sir cents a i pound more than or j r s ewers wera The Oklahoma plan oved Ived over theline the theline theline line Into Texas where 12 per cent atthe of at the states state's acreage was signed One thousand of the Ilma Iima cotton gro growers rs of Oklahoma Joined tho tha th Arizona Pima Cotton Growers Growers' association to which nearly half the acreage of ot the Salt River valley was pledged first marketing year ear Its sales topped the outside market from one to two cents per r l found In five other states statts cotton growers grow en began marketing the way ay There was North Carolina with growers and 40 per lr cent of Its It acreage acreage acreage acre acre- age signed by November 1921 1021 21 Then toll followed owed the Arkansas Cotton Growers Growers' Grow Grow- ers ers' operative Co-operative association the Georgia Cotton Growers operative Co association the South So th Carolina Cotton Growers' Growers operative Co association and tile the Alabama Farm Bureau Cotton association as as- The last big step In ID n the formation of at the cotton marketing machine was the organization of the American Coton Cot Cotton Cotton Cot Cot- ton on Growers' Growers exchange This is an overhead o agency which Is attempting to bring together r on a common basis the Interests of ot all American cotton growers roweN It was created by the Ar zona Texas and Oklahoma associations associations In 1021 It alms to standardize the marketing of cotton on a national operative cooperative basis byco the operations of ot Its eight member state associations Each Ench state association retains full control of Its own sales activities but It I Is t expected to employ employ employ em em- ploy the exchange whenever er possible The operative co movement mo has been blessed with two favorable sell seasons sons for tor Its development Hut But It 11 is I. still 1 In an embryonic stage It has had little Influence Influence In In- n fluence on prices but a great teat service selce has haa be been n rendered growers by selling cotton on a grade basis and by sell sell- log Ing direct to the consuming trade trad |