OCR Text |
Show u COOPERATION AT ALL TIMES It is interesting to note that of all the plans that have been suggested to aid the farmer, only one has been anything like unanimous un-animous approval by Experts the farm cooperative. Cooperation, both in producing and marketing, must be the dominant factor in any program designed to restore prosperity to agriculture. It is sound in economic principle a fact that has been proven by the American manufacturing industries, as well! as by the long-established farm cooperatives and it produces ! definite results. It cannot be too often pointed out that the individual farmer, when he goes to sell his products, is at an inescapable disadvantage. disadvant-age. He nust take what is offered or fail to sell. But when he bands together with ten or fifty or a hundred thousand other farmers, the shoe is on the other foot. He has become "big business" busi-ness" himself, and he can bargain and make fair terms. It is said that one barrier in the way of successful coopertiv-es, coopertiv-es, in the past has been the virtual refusal of many fanners to co-operate when times are comparatively good. Then, when bad times came along, they are without the organization and machinery machin-ery for taking decisive action. If the present severe agricultur- al depression has taught farmers that they must cooperate all the time and under all circumstances if they are to prosper, it will have done a great deal for the American farmjing industry. o The late Dwight Morrow, asked when the depression would abate, replied, "About three months before we realize it is over," and in this statement Mr. Morrow put his finger on a great human hu-man failing. All of us are too much inclined to keep our heads so full of our own difficulties that we fail to make a proper analysis an-alysis of general conditions. So long as our own profit or income continues on an unsatisfactory basis we are apt to think that general business improvement is still far from a current reality. There is nothing new about this human tendency. The history his-tory of every major depression shows that pessimistic thought has always continued for months after any reason for it has disappeared. dis-appeared. 'But, keep this fact in mind: History also shows that each depression has produced its group of far-sighted people who laid new foundations of fortune by analyzing conditions properly and having the courage to go ahead while their neighbors marked time. |