Newspapers / The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, … / Oct. 2, 1915, edition 1 / Page 13
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Saturday, October 2,ZmS) (1) Education to Develop IWr, 2 Cooperation to Multiply It, and (3) UrfaUtfcm 7? i t0 Proffiote EguaUUght, ana Ilanian Propes. - PUj, T.,k About MenlMeand 1:,! ' ' Br CLARENCE PQE ""vonrcq I -Buy ihe Business With Patronage Dividends Four Big. Issues; MR. W. T. Bost, the, brilliant .correspondent 0f ftiA Creensboro News', mention sfour hi y ic sues which"'the.. political leaders of ;North Carolina will have to reckon wttn, tn.liie xampaign next year. The f ourl" big- problems '-in the order that he Rives, them are: - it A juster system of 'taxation;;... . 1 '' TTv n rt. -k 1 .1 1 -t j4 . A L. i .' ."!' ..,".,,5"?"' 2 Kace seyi c,dJiiwAi m uuu uwucismp, 1 Rural credits, ; ' . ; 4 -Township YAtemfofrgbv.wSment. This begins to look.as if the practical issues that really benefit the"farmer"are going to get atten tion. At the same time it-. should be remembered that townsmen having Tun ppliticsi so-long, it-will take Yigrous enfrtv orr'tKe part of- thef armers to compel action on-questjon's; affecting the farmers' welfare. In this state, where; 80 per cent of the people get their living from the farm, there was not a single farmer on the state platform 'commit tee of the dominant -party last-year, 'nor have farmers been conspicuous in 'shaping the policy of any political party in the "state.-- It lis high time for a change in the. treatment ofsaur rural people and rural problems.. 7 . ' . ' Texas Cooperative Cotton Gins, Prove Big IF THE dairy farmers jand grain , farmers of the West own and run-their. elevators and cream cries on ' the cooperative, patronage-dividend plan, why shouldn't JtheV cotton -farmers of the South own and run -their cotton gins and cotton seed oil mills on thesa'me plan that is .to say (1) pay legal interest. on. capital stock' and (2) divide all other profits on the-.basis of :patronage non members getting patronage dividends at one-half the rates allowed members. ' We don't mean by this that iarmers ought to be gin a boycott of any existing gins -or cottonseed oil mills, or that cooperative gins :and mills should be started in oppositipn . to honestly conducted plants of this kind now running on ;the old capital- isuc Dasis. jout wnerever a section neeas a new cotton gin or a newHCOttonseed Qil;mill, or wher ever there is a good chance 'to-buy out a gin or mill on a profitable basisthe' farmers will do well to inquire if a group "of them cannot get together and take anotherstep toward hastening the time when the farmer will -own all the businesses en gaged in marketing "or finishing f arm products. Out in Haskell, Knox and Fisher; Counties, Tex as, the farmers are already getting this idea and operating a number, .of successful... cotton gins. Writing in the .Farmers' rPireSidq .Bulletin, Man ager J. N. Hudson of the O'Brien gin says: "In the spring of 1910 we commenced to agi tate the question tf a . cooperative .gin at O'Brien, Haskell County,.:Txasi . There ,had once been a Local.'Union at O'Brien, though at. that time there was noiocal there. We made the third trial before-: we could .effect a local with five members, though when we once got started we advanced , very "rapidly. "We now have 100 paid-up-members'; "There was a' local a few miles west"of town and we organ- ' ftu one a. tew miles east, of town at -Dennis lhapel and then we organized the:three locals into a District Union arid' went into' the gin business. On April 1 1913, we paid the last dollar we owed oh our. grn including the mon- ; ey advanced by" our members start the bus ' ijess, and pn February 1, 1914, we returned' to nieraoership $23,000 profit -on' their .busi ness. .. " 'r''r-y- "In the SlimtriAf nt 101 auout one hundred.'yards "fromthe" first one, and .ginned about. stboitsand bales of last- jcar S CrOO. TK .:.fmcircs- r rncirtpr1 W9C WOO, with a saving of $8,000,-which'; was ?rjmr,?ver to the memlership: on February v " . ' 'J. .':i'f''f Lrnpsor du the good work stop there.- Mr. Hudson 1 011 t0 say that in 1913 this Idea snread and and oVr- gi?S were builMour. in-Haskell County in k'n 111 , ox and la&t year xme-more was built 1914 X and, three in Fisher;. He.adds r'Trom the bale, JP those elev'e gms-have'gi'nned 52,000' cotton C!t0n' shippd 675 cars; tr 16,875 tons of $420 000 -V and thjeir total -business will reach AndwhT a Sa of -$100-000" to -the people." Planter! I i Say the leople,-I mean'the-men that and rirl. t.plowed th cropland th Httle boys sacks Tun wh, Ped. the. cotton and pulled the, the crops' n K -'rows.and, harvested " THE farmers are certin1v..ior";.. ;u . 1 ! As J. Z. Green says, they are beginning u se:theads for something else be sides hatracks. The building: and loan associa W M VC a tchy saying, "Buy a Home With Rent Money" and the farmers are beginning to learn that m the .case of a business that markets or handles farm products, a business supported by the farmer's patronage, they can "buy a business " with patronage dividends."- y When the -writer was in Denmark he was told that in a great proportion of that country's suc cessful cooperative creameries the farmer-owners had never paid in one cent of capital. They had simply signed notes for their stock, borrowed money from ..banks on long-time payments, and then-had let the profits from the creamery pay ' off the notes a plan now being partly copied by ' tobacco farmers in some sections in getting con trol of tobacco warehouses.' Almost the same idea has been used by these Texas farmers in getting possession of their cooperative cotton gins. The plan as'explained by Mr." Hudson is as follows;. "If there is no organization where you want to build a gin, organize local Farmers' Un- " - ions and then districts, and then take -an 'in ventory' of the members of the district, each . man subscribing to pay such amount as he "would be able to pay in case he should be . called on when the required, amount is sub- -- scribed. Each man gives a note for the amount .of his subscription. These notes are placed in the bank for collateral.. Now trie board of directors figure what cash they need to start the business, and make an assessment, ' each member paying his part according to his subscription. When this assessment is . paid, each member receives a receipt for the same, which bears interest until paid by' the- com- pany. The first money earned by the' gin, af ter all other indebtedness is -paid -above ex penses, goes to pay these assessment: debts, with 10 per cent interest. Then you have-your .gin paid for, and it has never, cost the mem- bership anything, nor do they have a cent tied, up in the gin. 'Now, all money above-expenses " that the gin earns is profit, and is returned to. the membership according to their patron age by the bale." " Of course the interest-rate allowed by contract in Texas (10 per cent) is higher than in most oth er states, and we would not commend the 10 per cent feature of the foregoing plan, but otherwise it is all right And .wherever there are Local Unions or -farmers' clubs they will do well to con sider if they cannot strengthen themselves by fed erating or organizing into a "district" as was done in the cases mentioned by Mr. Hudson. Profitable Marketing Means Cooperative Marketing IT CANNOT be too often emphasized that profit able marketing means cooperative marketing. Here are two illustrations that came to our attention last weekY The first is that in one Alabama-neighborhood sometime ago, farmers be- came interested in growing better livestock and took up hog raising.. But because they gave no at tention to the marketing end they, crowded their little market town with 600 hogs, whereas, it had previously been absorbing probably not more than a hundred, with the result that a large pro portion of the hogs were sold at 2 to 3y2 cents a pound gross when Kansas City was paying o cents a pound gross. There is a story about a lit tle boy who said .that "salt is something that makes Irish potatoes taste mighty bad when you don't put it on 'em", and this. story simply nidi--cates that cooperation is something that mate: marketing very unsatisiacioiy vnu. ,u . ,i :conrp a nrroun of North Caro- lina farmers obtained the services of a Govern ment expert in cotton grading, and on one lot of ?75 bales officially graded, and shipped to' Norfolk, it? Dr. -nf t800 was realized over. Ierly the local cotton buyers As the friend said who told us this inci dent "This illustrates the advantages both of ex- . nert Wading and also the advantages of selling in. largeTuantities. For both of these sults xoop f L j necessary-the 'organization of farmers S3on,Jn thissame county an ? fwior. last vear showed that the men mar- , Snggaas "much U?en bales; at a rtime averaged - k 1- . . . (U) 905 $li5 more a bale than tnose who sold single -bales, i - . . , V : " .TJ.".. .at -i .'-;.S--' j.4r;:; , ivcspeci Law lieccuse it Is Law; OOUTH Carolina the whelmingly for state-wide prohibition, wherc upon the. Columbia Sute, which has been the most.cprjspicuous.newspaper opporfent'of prohibi- uon, came out in an editorial utterance which ev erybody from one end of the South to the other ought to read: - . "The vote yesterday leaves for The State, '. and for honest; manly citizens who would have , this South Carolina a fit; place for themselves and their children to live in but one thing to do, ' and that is to uphold the Uw.. If any honest man there be who thinks that he cannot live where the . whiskey traffic is outlawed, lie owes it to himself to go, and stand not upon the order of his going, to some land where it is lawful. To remain and encourage, tacitly or actively, .an ' unlawful traffic will be to become a breaker of ine iaw. ana an enemv ot the commonwealth " It is , this spirit, the spirit of 'bowing to the will of the majority, of accepting frankly the results of our processes of law, however disagreeable they may be to us personally at any time it is' this ww v wa i iiiii i Liir. iiiLii i it iiinv riT l iu MTirinn . ' w m W fcl Vl ' and safety. He is usually a childish weakling and a contemptible man 4iot to be trusted who will not abide by the' results of the game, played according to the rules he is "not a good sport" and men rightly despise him and the same thing is true of the citizen who will not honestly wait for and accept the vefdicts of juries'and courts and elect ions, these being the established rules set up b'y the people for the settlement of causes and cases, The spirit of lawlessness is becoming entirely too strong in the South, and is hurting our'repu-. tation the world over. It is timely and fitting therefore to recall the notable words of the great American philosopher, William James, in a public "Democracy is still upon its trial. The civic ' genius of our people is its only bulwark, and nothing can save us from degeneration if the inner mystery be. lost. That mystery, at once the secret. and the glory of our. English-speak-; ing race, consists in nothing but two common habits, .two inveterate habits carried into pub lic life, habits so homely that . they lend the m selves to n o , r h e t o rical '', expr e s s ion, yet. - habits -more ?preciQus, perhaps, than any that the human race. has gained. They can never be too often pointed out or praised. One of them is the. Kabit of trained and disciplined food temper toward the oppocite party when it fairly wln iti inning. J'he' other is that of ; fierce and merdletc resentment toward erefy man xr set of men who . break- the public T peace . Take this standard of judging the "civic genius" of your county and see how your people .stand. Are they willing to abide by and accept the-Ter-dict of law. and are thev fiercely resentful of anv man who, unwilling to abide by law, becomes in- stead "a breaker of ihe public peace"? This .is a good test of a people's 'progress in civilization. " Mmor Matters x i ixy-i, kj uia u y auu many a uavivwaiu ntJjii- . borhood in which it is almost impossible to pet neighborhood action bv voluntary means. o - , ' The residents have no farmers' club or Local Union, and there is not local leadership enough not enough persons who are willing to give time and trouble and -energy in arousing the indifferent -tomake any such organization a permanent suc ces;tHence there is no community life, noj com ing together -of the people to consider and at upon all the vital matters affecting community nrnorrecc sin'rl mmmiinitv welfare! Iroevitablv. there VC5 .. w j j . fore, such neighborhoods stagnate. With the town- "n.-r. vi rrniTOtnotii tVi . ir4-rc ' limn A Vvr. Btlip BJf O It III Al - JjW IV! UlUkUi iwvu iiuuiu uv summoned as .citizens to come together at least once a year, and gradually the little leaven would leaven the whole lump. . We must give rural com munities local self-government. . i:-&?PA:y: .-" -.v5:v;:V,-.'-.:.:v;:;.iv-'--;: Don't dismiss the idea of cooperative cotton . gins without : giving it more : attention. Why , shouldn't the ginning profits go back to the men xxrUn .rAfp hrm? ReaH what Mr' Hudson savs about the success of this idea in the counties men tioned and then talk up the subject in your farm ers' club. President Mobley of - the Arkansas Parmers' Union writesvus: "We're with you in the twelve cent cotton fight. I am calling a state meeting to inaugurate a state campaign to induce the farmers to keep cotton safe from fire and water, as they keep corn, grade it, borrow money from the banks, .... . I 11 xl . t. . . i. hold, and marKet graauany mruutiu a wvuuij cum- mittee cooperating with a state committee. j
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Oct. 2, 1915, edition 1
13
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