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Show HHH m ' ' " ! ii i - i i hi ii i i ii ii I Essentials For Successful I Cooperative Marketing H BUSINESS ORGANIZATION H "Thoro must bo. sufficient business H in tho community to maintain an ef- H flclet organization,' according to Mr. H V. II. Davis, Ohio field agent In mar- H fcctlng fo rtlio U. S. Ilurcnu of Mnr- H kots. "Thoro aro cortaln expenses H -which must bo mot regardless of tho H amount of buslriss transacted. For H example, it will bo necessary to 0111- H ploy a mnhnger, regardless of tho H amount' of 'produce purchased ' and H ealtl,. JJullillngB and other equipment H will also havo to ho maintained even H though thu a'monnt of. .. .business In H ' comparatively small. Therefore, It a H company can expect, tp handle flva H hundred thousand bushels of grain In H a year, tho overhead charges per H buahol will bo very much less than H If they only handle ono hundred thou H sand buBhcls. No company should bo H formed In a community If there Is H not enough business assured It, so H that Uio overhead is relatively small H per unit of products handled. H; UNIT OF OUOANIZATION H "The area covered by the coopera- HH tlvo company jnust bo llmltod. Tho best unit for the purpose of organizing organ-izing a cooporatiro company Is a natural na-tural community. This may vary in extent from a radius of orto or two inlleajf com a shipping pqlnt ln".;c"ach direction 'to, a diatanco of flvo or six miles, but must bo limited to hauling dlstanco. Tho area covered must nor-, or bo so largo that thoroiwlll bo a qiarkod dlfforonco in tho typo of ag-rlculturo ag-rlculturo or tho principal lntorest or thoso belonging to tho company.. OKGANIZATION FOIt A HI.VWjB I'UItl'OSK- "Thoso compantos usually succeed best which aro organized (or n sluglo purpose. A grain company organized With tho deflnlto purpose of buying ami selling grain will bo moro likely to Buccecd than if it attempts to jporform a groat number of services. It it Is organized for tho purposo of handling grain successfully in all probability pro-bability it wll not bo well adapted to handling dairy products or poultry or eggs. Many cooperative grain companies com-panies have succeeded very well so long aB thoy llmltod their endeavors to tho purchase and sale of grain, but have gotten into serious dlfllcultlcs when thoy began to handle farm machinery. ma-chinery. It would bo best for companies compan-ies newly organized, to limit themselves them-selves in tho beginning to the handling handl-ing of grain and farm supplies concerning con-cerning which there Is not likely to bo any controversy,, f such as feed, fertilizer and coal. After tho company has been operating successfully for a fow.yoars. it. may bo desirable to expand tho business, so as to include tho purchaso and sale of livestock and other allied enterprises. Too .much emphasis cannot bo placod upon up-on tho nccsslty of limiting tho bust- noss of companies newly organized to. a very small number of well established estab-lished lines. i OUOAN1ZATION UPON A' COOl'KKAXlVK HAS IS " "If Uio company wishes to accomplish accom-plish moro .ttian an ordinary dealer could accomplish In Uio community, it is necessary to organize qn a thoroughly thor-oughly cooporativo basis. If tho community com-munity is not ready to organizo on this basis it would. probably bo .bettor .bet-tor to allow so mo outsldo Interest to' conduct tho business in tho ordinary way or to limit tho company to a very small number of well to do farmers. far-mers. In that caso farmers should not expect any hotter results than they would receive from a well conducted company managed by city men. In a cooperative company it is essential tha( dividends on capital stock bo limited to a reasonable interest rato on capital invested. No ono should bo allowed to own o sharo of stock unless thoy aro buying and selling through tho company. The dividends should be distributed on tho basis of . amount of business transacted, probably pro-bably allowing about ono half as much dividend to a non stockholder as to a stockholder. Those provisions aro necessary so that thero will not be a difference in the Interest be twecn tho different members of the |