Pag-e Two
THE CAROLINA ONION FARMER
[Thursday, January 2, l9l3.
Business Cooperation— What
Can We Do About It ?
Address by Mr. Clarence Poe.
Before Annual Convention North Carolina Farmers Union, Raleigh, December 11th.
In discussing the subject of “Busi
ness Co-operation and What We Can
Do About It,” Mr. Poe said:
“The first thing that comes to
mind, of course, is the buying of
supplies. That, as the leaders of the
Irish Agricultural Organization So
ciety remarked to me this summer, is
the A, B, C of co-operation. I need
not enlarge Upon its advantages.
Farmers learned this A, B, C co-op
eration through the old business
agency work of the Farmers’ Alli
ance, and you are still practicing it
through the business agency work of
the Farmers’ Union. Let me add
simply this thought—that the Irish
leaders told me that the policy they
had decided wisest was this: to en
courage the farmers to buy their fer
tilizers and feed stuffs through their
organization, but to purchase gen
eral supplies from wholesale or re
tail merchants in their communities
without embarking on the risky ven
ture of miscellaneous co-operative
stores.
“But while the buying of supplies
may be merely the A, B, C of co
operation, its importance can be read
ily guessed from what we all know
as to the saving that has been ef
fected through the co-operative pur
chase of fertilizers alone here in
North Carolina. Only yesterday I
was talking with Brother Bagwell,
business agent of Mt. Hope local here
in Wake County. ‘What did you save
on your fertilizers last year?’ I ask
ed. ‘From $2.00 on the common
2—8—2 grade,’ was his reply, ‘up to
$7.50 per ton on the high grade top-
dressers and nitrate of soda.’ And
Brother Jones, of Iredell County, re
marked that this tallied with results
in Iredell. •
$15,000,000 Loss on Cotton Alone in
North Carolina This Year.
“In considering the question of
business co-operation and what we
can do about it therefore, we must
put down the purchase of supplies as
‘Opportunity No. 1.’ But this is a
very simple and easy matter as com
pared with ‘Opportunity No. 2, which
is the co-operative sale of our farm
products—the biggest problem of all.
The South’s cotton crop which sold
in early January, while a great part
of it was still in th*e farmers’ hands,
at the rate of $780,000,000 for the
total crop, sold in mid-May, after it
had passed out of the farmers’ hands
at the rate of $930,000,000 for the
entire crop—and later in August at
the rate of more than $1,000,000,000
for the total crop. Or, if we take
only the May prices and the January
prices, we find that the January rate
as compared with the May rate show
ed a loss of more than $15,000,000
to our North Carolina farmers alone
$15,000,000 while our total rural
school funds in North Carolina are
less than $3,000,000. In other words,
if we had had such a system of mar
keting that we could have saved to
the cotton growers of North Carolina
the difference between the value of
their last year’s cotton crop on Janu
ary 6 and its value on May 11, the
saving alone would have amounted
to enough to double the rural school
term in North Carolina for five years
without one cent of tax added.
“Now to co-operate in selling—and
in holdings—the South’s great staple
crop is indeed a problem great enough
to challenge the attention of the
greatest minds on our continent. I
should like to make this remark in
passing—that ultimately I think our
National Farmers’ Union must em
ploy three or four of the very ablest
and wisest and strongest men in the
South to study the cotton market and
the cotton situation in all its ramifi
cations, investigate every source of
supply, demand, and speculation, and
act as a board to advise the farmers
in the South regarding the sale of
this supreme source of Southern
wealth. That, ho\\ever, is a matter
for the future. Now we are face to
face with the problem of what we
shall do while we are working out the
larger solution which must come in
the fullness of time.
Selling Cotton and Tobacco.
“The co-operative cotton ware
house is the best thing in sight, and
should be encouraged and supported
by everybody interested in the wel
fare of our farmers. The warehouse
will enable us to gain in a great many
ways. We shall gain, of course, by
being able to hold the cotton over
for higher prices whenever a slump
occurs. We shall be enabled to bor
row money for pressing needs, and so
avoid sacrificing the crop when the
great supplies of distressed cotton by
tenants and the slaves of time mer
chants are being rushed on the buy
ers. We shall gain, too, by being
able to sell in 100 and 500 bale lots
and by being able to classify the cot
ton into different grades; and wher
ever longer staple cotton is grown to
get the benefits of the increased
price.
“Uultimately, too, I expect to see
us work out some wise system of
handling and selling our tobacco
crop. The tobacco problem, in fact,
seems to me to be less complicated
and overwhelming than the cotton
problem. The area covered is small
er, and the demand for specific types
enables the farmers who live in ter
ritory which alone can grow this
type to join together and compel the
fair prices that they should have.
“Here and there in the South, too,
there are opportunities for co-opera
tive creameries and egg-collecting so
cieties—such as the one over in Hick
ory which is succeeding so notably—
but the great danger with most of
these institutions is that of starting
before a sufficient number of cows or
hens are pledged to the enterprise
to make it a success.
Why Not a Farmers’ Exchange in
Raleigh?
“What does strike me as being
about the most practicable forward
step in the line of co-operation for
selling our farm products in the es
tablishment of a co-operative Farm
ers’ Exchange in each important town
or city in the South. Now, for ex
ample, we may find on the streets of
Raleigh to-day one farmer spending
half a day to sell four or five pounds
of butter; another farmer spending
half a day to sell a couple of hams;
another to sell a half a dozen chick
ens; another to sell a few dozen cab
bage, etc., etc. Before our Farmers’
Union movement grows old, I expect
to see at each important town this
co-operative Farmers’ Exchange,
which will take the farmers’ products
and handle them in a scientific and
economical manner without requiring
them to waste, frequently, half as
much time as the products them
selves are worth.
We Must Have Rural Credit Societies.
“Now, of course, we have done
something in the South with the A,
B, C co-operation—the buying of sup
plies—and we have made some prog
ress toward the second step in co
operation, the selling of our products.
Our truckers and fruit growers have
some notable achievements to their
credit, and many cotton warehouses
are doing well—I even heard the oth
er day of a cotton farmers’ co-oper
ative ginning, baling and exporting
organization in Montgomery, Ala.,
which, I think, has made about $10
a bale by selling direct with the Eng
lish spinners—but so far as I can
learn, we are just now starting in the
South toward realizing upon the ad
vantages of the third opportunity of
co-operation that I wish to bring to
your attention. This is the rural
credit society, the organization of a
group of farmers in each community
for the purpose of obtaining and
lending money to their members at
low rates of interest for productive
purposes. It is to our everlasting
discredit that we have yet done noth
ing in this respect, for not only have
these organizations pulled thousands
and thousands of Irish farmers and
Danish farmers and German farmers
out of the mire of poverty, but, when
I was in Japan, I found that even
these so-called ‘heathen’ Mongolian
farmers had for years been improving
their opportunities in this respect;
and when I went down into India I
found that even the poor, benighted
Hindoos had realized the advantages
of co-operation in this respect and
that the British Government was ac
tively assisting the heathen worship
pers of idols over there in this ad
vanced step which we, in the South,
have not yet taken.
“I know absolutely that there is
the greatest sort of opportunity for
us here in the South in the organiza
tion of these rural credit societies.
If every civilized country in Europe
and even the hard-pressed Japanese
farmers and the Hindoo worship
pers of idols, nine-tenths of whom
cannot read or write any language
if all these can organize and get the
benefit of these rural credit societies,
certainly our intelligent North Caro
lina farmers have only to make a
genuine effort to work out a satisfac
tory plan in order to succeed.
Co-operation in Buying Live Stock
and Macliinery.
“There are great opportunities also
for co-operation in the purchase of
improved sires and in breeding bet
ter live stock—especially if our farm
ers in each neighborhood will join to
gether in growing one breed of cat
tle or one breed of hogs and so make
that neighborhood famous as a place
to get animals of that kind. There
are opportunities, too, for business
co-operation in the important matter
of drainage, in the organization of
rural telephone lines so much need
ed everywhere, and in the purchase
of improved machinery. I found in
Ireland this summer that it was
common for the Irish co-operative so
cieties to buy manure spreaders and
spraying machines and potato dig
gers and seed-sowing machines in
combination. There are even greater
opportunities for similar co-opera
tion here in America. Stump pull
ers, manure spreaders, stalk cutters,
wheat thrashers, grain thrashers,
corn shredders, traction plows, etc.,
etc., might well be bought in co-op
eration. I was also very much im
pressed by a letter I received the oth
er day about a 30-horse power oil
tractor engine pulling four 2 6-inch
disks that he saw plowing down in
Mecklenburg County the other day
breaking land at the rate of eight
acres a day, nine inches deep—and
harrowing the land at the same time
part of the day. Mr. Hudson’s com
ment was that while it would not pay
a great number of Individual farm
ers—nor would a great number of
individual farmers be able to buy
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