Show rax C operative farm products marketing JUL ir I how it Is done in E europe ura la 11 and may be done doric in america to the profit of doth bollt farmer and consumer cy by S DUDGEON 41 A VISIT TO PADDY GALLAGHER lr 47 W itow where the operative cooperative co concern now buya and sells Du dunklow Dun glov county donegal ireland this Is a story of the grand uphill fight for respecting self Belt economic independence which Is being made by a bunch of cheery irishmen in county donegal at the head of this lighting fighting group Is paddy gallaghar an organizer and a 9 promoter if there ever was one but Is a promoter not ot of his own fortunes but the prom promoter ter ot of community welfare this Is also the etory story of what hat a goerend a operative cooperative co organization can be to a community which has been in an economic sense hard stricken by nature nature teems seems to have exhausted herself in the agricultural gifts she showered on eastern and southern ireland and to have reached dunglow dundlow Du in county donegal ith nothing left in her gift bag except a few little patches of cold ati responsive soil which sho she scattered here and there among the huge buge out cropping rocks of the barren hillsides ming between the wide stretches of desolate peet poet bogs in fact we are here hero because sir horace plunkett has said that this ie Is the place of all others to visit if we americans wish to see what cooperation oper atlon will do toward helping an irish community scratch a living out cut of the rocky hills on the bleak northwestern coast of ireland who paddy Is paddy gallagher was boin born boi n forty years ago in one of the poor one room cottages on a barren three acre tenant holding a cottage that had the U wolf olt always alays at the door when paddy was nine he was mas put out to work at three pounds for six months work his father did not do this sort of thing because he wanted the little half starved shaver to work nork beyond his strength but beca iise it was either work for paddy or starvation for still younger and weaker children after that there was vas nothing for paddy but bard lard tork and low wages until he was grown and had started a family of his own ovil but his work had bad taken him into other places into scotland and england and ho he came back bac with the realization that life in r Dun lun galov was not what it ought to be uneducated work worn witheat any outlook of promise for himself or his family 1101 something brought paddy gallagher the realization that ho and his neighbors together might L do what each separately could not do so with the assistance of the irish agricultural organization so society CletY operation cooperation co was brought to dundalow Dun galow how it started gallagher who he had been studying oils and manures learned that according to government analysis the on oil of his section needed certain den dell bilte lie chemical elements ho he asked local I traders if they could give him any arainty ot of analysis of the manures old b them item he ile was informed that the aei never got such a thing kne know v mining nothing about it and child give no guaranty ile v rote to the agricol irai ira department about it they re erred i ellra to tho the irish agricultural wholesale society from them he learned that at this society at that time dealt only im ith local operative cooperative co COncemI 3 80 30 this 1118 farm boy with surprising persistence gathered Ba together the inal win farri barriers the ers and pointed out to them cm antares to bo be gained as to quality aty plad price by purchasing guar steed 66 gnp manures direct from the co operative wholesale sale society tho the re it yas that ho he farmers ordered a aton lot of fertl r ahr through agh a little COOpe ratty alvo in an adjoining vp village e they found that they ey saved curl on the 0 cd and besides so cured phosphate of 30 per cent instead of 0 22 per cent strength and aa dissolved bono bone instead of worthless compounds the battle for co opera tion was already halt half won von for there was as no further question as to the advantages to bo be gained through cooperation the ol 01 old methods of 0 buying and bell sell ing were tho the cause of much poverty in this district eald said mr gallagher the traders have generally kept the public lou houses ses they were mon money moner lenders poor farmers here could not pay cash for what they bought they had to get goods on credit once a farmer got into debt to these retail dealers he seldom got free from the big mans clutches while he was in this state he was no better than a slave he ile was charged tremendous prices and bid to pay big interest I 1 myself have been charged interest on what I 1 bought on credit at the rate of per cent per annum my father had this sort of interest to pay while he was bringing up his family that is where the three pounds went that it took me six months to earn when I 1 started to work what operation cooperation co Is doing but notwithstanding the smallness smail smallness ness of the holdings and the poor soil soll con editions in dundlow dunglow are improving I 1 never knew an organization to do so much for a community as the temple crone operative cooperative co agricultural society is doing for dunglow dundlow Du the society started in a little one room cottage on a farm where here I 1 lived we began by buying manures and later a few groceries we had fierce opposition at first from the man and traders as fierce as any com community muril ever had some of the members were in debt to the men and had to come into the operative cooperative co quarters at night and over the back walks alks in order to conceal from the man that they aure re members if lt the men found out that anyone trading with them was ap trading with us they refused him credit and issued a writ if he owed them thern on the upgrade up grade the boys are learning to f farm arm better than their fat fathera herig farm farmed ed we are raising better cows cos and pigs and chickens and prod producing acing better eggs poultry and meat than we e ever did before through our little co opera tive society we ha have ve a steady market at good prices to for r all we can raise we are not rich for this is not a rich country and neer can be there are too many stones and bogs in don tg tal 1 l for that nut ara doing our best and we are going to reach a point soon where every man can go up and down donn dunglow dundlow and say that ho he owes oes no man anat anything hing co opera tion has brought us together and we are all good friends frienda wo we are not r with each other any more wo we are helping each other we are still doing business on a very small scale of course we are poor pele aud we must always be that there Is no chance for v wealth in a five or six acre acro farm we raise r so a little patch of oats for oatmeal for our family most of us get enough potatoes oft off our little places to last us through the year wo we live without potatoes you know the great famine of 1848 when so many died in ireland was caused wholly by potato blight coat cost of living by purchasing goods direct from ori original gindl sources this tills society has made it possible for the poorest farmer to td fertilize his potato patch and increase the crop which ho he raises the seeds which come through it aro are tested and guaranteed as they never were ere before it has lowered the price and biml improved roved the quality of tea indian apal and sugar in one case to example where a rival trader was clarg su ing ina V 30 0 mr orwen stone of flour we aaro oro ol offering Yering in ani balue flour at 2 aa fur for tho the seven stone you may bo be interested lu in knowing about what hat nn florano flo rago family hero here re has for an income lapie ho lie goth it and what lint ho lie has to eat ent I 1 havo haio made out a little so ou could cou id that out to begin with overy every farmer has hie hip own potatoes and oats cats besides this tills bis his income Is if liko like this tills eggs and poultry per week about avo shillings 65 per year nutter butter for about IS 18 or 20 00 weeks in summer ono to two tuo shillings 7 per 3 car salo of cattle possibly 12 pounds each car CO per year salo of sheep ono one pound 5 per 3 oar A total of per 3 car besides this tills tho the women earn a litile something by knitting sweaters scat era and lace etc marketing egue you will nill notice that eggs aro are our staple product tho the poor farm family around hero here gets each car from 12 to 15 pounds out of their eggs which Is generally about halt of their entire money income before wo we took hold ho however adver ogg raising was not at all profitable there was no steady market the farmers did not understand poultry and no one had any ambition to learn anything about it they tako talo caro care of their eggs will ond and few wro wore sold previously tho the local price was as two or three pence less than the price quoted in tl alv nearest market in straw bane and derry now the prices paid aro are from ono one to two penco pence abaye tho the prices quoted in these markets in other words wo 0 o have increased the alue of a dozen eggs from three to four pence six to eight cents irish lace and knitted goo good s our co operative company looks after a good many things besides belling selling eggs and butter we aro are helping the girls market their lace and knitted work ork two to years ago wo we asked the government department to send us an instructor to teach tho girls to mako make hand knit sport coats sweaters they sent a man inan to look it up ho he talked with some of the mel me here who ho were not friendly to this coop co op creative movement nothing was done our girls were getting one shilling six pence ag cents for knitting a dozen pairs of socks cusine usine up from three and a halt half to four pounds of wool these socks were vere purchased of the women by an agent of ft it wholesale falder der the operative cooperative co society they could do better by tho the girl t ian these buyers since they buying the girls get seven shillings six pence from the society tor for knitting a s sweater eater coat using only two pounds of 0 wool ool and taking only one half halt as long as a dozen pair of socks putting it another way may tor for the same amount of wool and the same time spent in knitting the girls get 15 shillings instead of one shilling six pence 36 cents that Is our society Is to paying them ten times what they used to get from the other buyers tor for their knitting formerly the girls who knit lace were bound by a bargain under which it if they sold to any ono one privately they were boycotted tho the buyer told them unless they sold him all ho would buy nothing now we are getting fairly good prices for the lace better than they sot got before and we ot of course permit them to sell wherever they can they frequently have to sell to tourists and others who come through here while we get got fairly good prices for the lace there Is no steady market for it as there Is tor for the knitted goods connected with central society tto clety our little local society child not stand alone and do what we are trying to do we are helped all the time by sir horace plunketts Plunk etta organization society and by the operative cooperative co while salt sali society at dublin each week the wholesale society sends us a forecast giving the figures that should be obtained for eggs butter and chickens and stating whether or not there Is to be a demand for these products each day tre we write to the wholesale society 11 oc oty telling them what wo we have on miaad and what hat we e will likely have sometimes we telegraph then they may either write or telegraph back what NA hat they want us to send and when and w chero her a to send it IL wo we send it not to dublin but directly to tho the places selected by the wholesale society in this way we save freight we savo save commission wo we save eave timo time and wo we save tho the eggs themselves you must not get the idea mr gallagher continued that this concern IR 1 a large establishment wo we know enough to know that wo we can only do business in a modest vay we think we aro are doing it well and we hope it will III continue to grow as it has in tho the past I 1 am inae ina e and more convinced he adds by b what I 1 see every day that it if we a want nant to have a happy and contented content cd hoople here co operation Is tho the best means for bringing it about and so they are makina a fight that would put the ordinary Ameri american call community to shame a fight that 13 1 gradually making this desolate region habitable and this hardworking hard working people happy copyright 1914 wf western union |