North Carolina Newspapers

A SECTION DEVOTED TO INFORMATION ON COOPERATIVE MARKETING OF FARM PRODUCTS AND the WELFARE PAID-UP CIRCULATION Of This Paper Is Greater Than The Population Given Shelby In The 1920 Census of CLEVELAND FARMERS letoclanti RELIABLE HOME PAPER Of Shelby And The State’s Fertile Farming Section. Modern Job Department. VOL. XXXIII, No. 9 THE CLEVELAND STAR FRIDAY, JAN. 39, 192.*, $2.00 A YEAR IN ADVANCE Results of Cooperative4 Meeting I"ar reached. Bingham Says Move is on Sound Basis. Washington.— Agriculture over shadowed last week in Washington for while nothing spectacular was done, the impress left by the meeting of the national council of Farmer.-’ Co-operative Marketing associations will he a lasting one, say- David Law rence. The national council had a satis factory session with the agricultural commission which was appointed by President Coolidge to .'make -recom mendations with respect to the en tire agricultural problem. While the commission is rtill in its early stages of work, there is no doubt that it took to Heart the advice of' the co operatives. namely, that what is need ed is no more specific legislation, hut « much more sympathetic administra tion by government agenda: of exist ing laws. The co-operatives said frankly they didn’t want to be subject to further regulation, that they were getting along very well now and that the government could best held them by letting them work out their own problems. Takes Strong Stand. ‘‘President Coolidge,” said Judge R. W. Bingham, of Louisville, who is at the head of the national council of the co-operatives, has taken very strong ground with respect to co-operative marketing and the department.-of ag riculture has begun to acquire a real understanding of the problem. It has not been comprehended before but. now we have our relations are most harmonious. “'The government can be of help to us in an information-giving rather than a regulatory way. Heretofore the department of agriculture has been devoted largely to the production and has.not as now begun to devote itself to marketing. We are also receiv ing valuable aid from the bureau of markets of the department :.f‘ com merce and we look upon the iederal trade commission as a protection against unfair methods and monopo lies. "We now have the largest farm or ganization in America, more than 62-1, 000 paying members. It is a non-par tisan organization, devoted entirely to the business of merchandising farm products in a scientific and intelligent way.” Success With Wheat. Asked about the corn and wheat farmers and their problems. Judge Bingham said the co-operativi had not yet extended to the corn belt but that a small number of wheat grow ers were in the co-operative move ment. “It has been successful in wheat wherever it has been applied as in Oklahoma, Indiana and Texas. When we market at least half of the cotton and wheat we will be in a position to get better results, although we are getting good results on the small per centage now handled. W e marketed about $500,000,000 worth last year.” lhe most active opponent ■ co-operative movements are the in dividuals engaged in speculation, for the co-operative idea seeks to elimin ate the imposition of profits to the middleman who take advantage of the farmer’s crude methods of mark eting his products. Farmer Benefits. There is no doubt that so tar as the credit situation is concerned the in dividual farmer who is a member of a co-operative organization has the benefit of extended credit facilities The intermediate credit banks for in stance recently established by con gress were sponorcd by the co-opera tive societies and are proving a bul wark to the farmer. Since their enti \ into the situation, the big banks o New York and Chicago have been competing to lend money to the fann ers, an unprecedented development. The agricultural commission has not come to any conclusion on the major problems of aricultnre, but will examine every phase for the next sev eral months in the hope of present ing a really worth-while report to the country. It is expected, however, that within a week the commission will have something to say about the cat tle industry in which there has been a depression. Action is to be taken on this because it is the most acute prob lem before the commission and irre spective of the fact that any legisla tion would have to be acted on before March 4, the commission is ^present ed as being desirous of getting a rem edy started at once. On the whole ag riculture is receiving serious consid eration in the national capital, and the outstanding fact about the meeting o the national council of co-operatives is that Washington has been given to understand in unmistakable terms that proposals for price, fixing and subsidy are not relished by some of the most influential leaders in the agricultural industry today. COOPERATIVE MARKETING OF FARM Business-Like Selling Means Better Conditions For Rural People. —IJY T. W. CHAMBLISS— r if- Wit! spread movement through "u: lh ' 1 nit«l State-, from ocean to ‘■ on. for the cooperative marketing 11101 products is a forward step economic conditions ,lle rural people. This move m' in . cents destined to bring a great 's measure of-prosperity to the larg er part of the population of the Unit <<1 Staies^r-that port engaged in farming. By enlarging thme buying power of the producer without add ■ ■i,' additional expense this co-opera tdvc marketing movement will bene •' diri-ctjy the majority of the popu iat on. The movement, properly de veloped carefully conducted, and con servatively led, has as its ultimate aim the economic freedom of the agricultural sections of the United States. A student of cooperative marketing has defined the phrase. Cooperative marketing is the collective selling, in n orderly manner, and on a supply .and demand basis, of individually pro duced farm commodities, through or ganizations of producers formed for that purpose. The cooperative mar kctir.g of farm products is not a "holding" nor is it a “hold-up” move ment. It is an intelligent marketing system that “merchandises farm pro ducts instead of dumping th?m. Cooperation is hte only means by which anything great tan be accom pli jhed. It i the foundation of com munity, town, city and nation build ing. Wherever a great success has been achieved, back of it will be found the motive power, cooperation. Cooperative methods can be used with much benefit by all trades and professions. - The net result of cooperative mar keting a observed over many years of successful operation, has been a better and more economical method of distribution, the distance between the producer and consumer is short ened, thus bringing back to the pro duct r a larger portion of the con sumer's dollar. The fact that the farm ing half of the population receives a larger return and consequently lias a greater buying power creates a greater demand and a better market for the services and the products of the othc half, and this is summed by the benefit of cooperative marketing to : very portion of the economic structure. Co:, iderable interest is being ms oife-ted in the plans and princi ple of cooperative marketing, par ticcularly with reference to cotton, here in North Carolina. Therefore, th re Veins to be a need for the re statement of some observations con cerning the movement and its ideals and methods. It is not new—and there is nothing new to be written about it—but it is growing in breadth of service to the farmer and in the depth of interest among farmers. 1. Organized by commodity. ■J. Only growers for members. H. Cooperative—each man. one vote. 4. Long-term legal, binding-con tract. 5. Big enough to hire experts to run the business and serve the mem bers. Ci. Pools product by type and grade. Bach member gets the same price for the same quanity and quality. A Cooperative Marketing Associa tion is an organization of the grow ers of a certain product for the pur pose of making the business of grow ing that product profitable. Two methods—one orderly marketing and the other standardization or the im provement of the product—are used to make profits for the growers. These two methods—orderly mar keting and standardization—are com bined" in a properly conducted coop erative marketing association. Co operative Commodity Marketing is profitable because it sells a better product in a better order than any previous system of marketing, and sees that the grower receives the ac tual value of his product. By orderly marketing, the product is sold to the manufacturer or ulti mate consumer as the need arises, and does not “dump” the product on the market within a few weeks after harvest. Thereby, eventually, the price is fixed by the supply at point of distribution, and not by the supply at point of production. Orderly mar keting helps stabilize the price for thg benefit o fboth the grower and consumer. Standardization begins with the selection of improved seed by the grower, and continues with the care ful handling and ginning and prop er packing of the cotton. Careful grading of the cotton after it re ceived by the association enables the grower to receive n premium for his efforts to standnrdiz • hi: product. The standardization of - grades is an essential and important part of co operative marketing. These two process s—orderly mar keting and standardization, which are together called merchandising ire both vitally necessary to success. The first, year the gain from cooperative commodity marketing comes most largely from orderly marketing. Af ter that, and of increasing import ance, com? the ga ns from standard ization. Cooperative commodity marketing is but the application of the known successful business principles to the growers’ market. It is better than the former system, because it fur nishes a superior product in a more orderly way, and returns the profits gamed theeby to the farmer’s pocket. The membership of a cooperative marketing organization is limited to the producers of the commodity that is being organized. For instance, the North Carolina Cotton Growers Co operative Association is an organiza tion of cottn grwers. The reason for this principle is clear. There will be no diversity of interest among the members and no opportunity for any member to have any interest in the organization other than his interest as a producer. This provision does not mean that a member of a cooperative cotton growers association must be only a “dirt farmer.” That would be suicidal. Here in North Carolina there are business men of the widest ex perience engaged in the production of cotton, and the ability of these men is of the greatest value to the coop erative marketing organization, and the organization should seek to secure their membership and take advantage of their business experience and busi ness ability. Men of this type should be placed in positions of responsibil ity. As members, directors or officers in the marketing association, they would have the same interest as other members, and in applying their ex perience to the problems of coopera tive marketing they would render a large service to themselves and to every other member. The control of the Norm Carolina Cotton Gro vers Cooperative Associa tion is in the hands of a board of eleven directors. Of these director?! the members of the association elect ten and the governor of the state ap points one. In selecting directors, each man has one vote and ore onlv, >-e gardless of the number of bales of cotton he produces. These director? are elected annually to serve or.e year or until their successors shall have been elected and qualified. For the! convenience of the membership and for their best interest, the stat.' is divided at the present time into ten districts and one director if chosen in each district. As far as practicable each district includes approximately the same estimated production a*nd; counties in each district are held in tact. All successful cooperative market- i ing associations are founded upon a legal and enforceable contract! be- j tween the member and the associa- i tion. By this contract the member is bound to deliver to the Association the cotton grown on his farm over a period of years, and the Association I is bound to receive it, grade it, store it, ship it, and sell it to the best pos sible advantage wherever a market can be found and pay the member the average price received, less the actual cost of operation. These contracts are made to run over a period of years in order that the marketing organiza tion may have full opportunity to de velop business efficiency to the full est, and that it may secure the ser vices of the highest grade experts by employing them for a sufficient time to make the position attractive. No cooperative marketing association makes profit for itself as such, its sole object being to make a profit for the members as producers of the crop. Enforceable contracts are essen tial to assure delivery of the product to the association and to prevent its non delivery through the influence of interseted dealers and others. It Is true that all cooperative associations are dependent t'or their success upon the satisfactory services rendered to the membership, but without some method of assuring the deliveiy of the product the association would be unable to make marketing arrange ments, secure capable help and make arrangements for financing, storage, (Continued on second page.) ' What This Word “Co-Op” Means Down at the fruit stand at. the Union Trust corn* r in Shelby. the stand that is operated by Moses George and associates, officially known as the Carolina Fruit and Frounce con,pany, apples are sold - nttlr.raliy, though, being a fruit .stand. Side by sale ore two display crates of apples, liozen by dozen the apple e arc "li out of one crate; one by one they are sold out of thr' ether. The apples, that sell on ripbt ere nice looking apples, “all shined up, neat'y wrapped I and packed. 1 ho apples in the oth er' crate are marke I here and there with dirt-stains and aren't at all en t'eiug to the eye. Fact is the dirt i tained apples are the “best tast ing,” if not the best sellers. They are North Carolina apples. The difference is this: Out in Wash ington there is a cooperative fruit association. The apples are har vested, sorted, glossed, packed and >hipped—and it might he said, sold the minute they arrive. The members of the association are making money. Here where our ap ples have an individual taste un equalled, the apples are tossed im ecrimoniously in a wagon bed, hauled to town and sold for what ever they bring, or left to rot at the fruit stands while their dress ed up relatives from Washington sell as fast as they arrive. The difference is the same in the mar keting of all products—There is money in the systematic sale of any farm product; there is just a “living” in the haphazard way. The way the Washington apple sells, while its superior relative, the North Carolina apple, goes un noticed at the fruit stand is the definition of the word “Co-op”— [ the abbreviation of Co-operative. I Think it over! Electric Lights For Cleveland Farm Hemes Lincoln County News. Mr. E. W. Dixon and Mr. P. L. Peeler of Ceveland county, were busi ne -s visitors in Lineolnton Wednesday. Mr, Dixon consulted with local elec trical contractors on the cost'of build ing an electric power line in his coun ty Mr. Dixon and Mr. Peeler are in terested, in a power line from Lawn dole Power plant extending out to a point on the Morganton-Shelhy high way in the Belwood section. This line when built will supply farmers with electric lights and power. Farmers in several sections of Cleveland are con sidering putting up power lines over which to transmit current to farm homes from water power plants, and in this matter Cleveland farmers are taking the lead. Electric power lines are now being discussed by Lincoln farmers, and it is probable that electric current will eventually he available at farm homes in all sections. Realty Sales by Blanton and Greene Here is a list of real estate sales made by Blanton and Green of Moores boro and reported by them Saturday. W. W. Queen, farm to J. V. Hast ings. A. B. Taylor, garage to Arey Brothers. A. M. Lovelace farm to Simm street. P. .T. Daves farm to Mart Daves. Bridges heirs farm to W. F. Daves. J. R. Davidson farm to E. G. Whit aker. Hill Greene farm to George Whitaker, E. B. Lovelace farm to Gus Daves. .1. R. Green farm to J. R. Pack ard. Z. F. Wright farm to J. R. Green. Chever Blanton farm to Matt Camp bell, 0. 0. Hamrick, home to J. R. Greene, Mooresbore garage to S. M. Green. ,T. U. Rollins store house to Hill Green. George Bridges farm to G. W. Smith. W. F. Daves farm to L. R Russ. C. R. Blanton home place to W. H. Haynes. Carrying On. Every day marks an increase in the membership roll of the Cotton Growers Cooperative Association. Cot ton farmers of this State are realiz ing more and more the value of order ly marketing of farm products. The total membership is rapidly going to ward the 37,000 mark. Any way you figure it, the radical Republicans face a cold winter—they will either have to keep cool with Coolidge or stay out in the cold with La Follette.—Norfolk Virginian-Pi lot. Dividing the atom would be no prob-i lem to the salaried man who parcels out his stipend after paying taxes. —Columbia Record. Some Scotchmen think that there is only one great country but they are so afraid of wearing in out that they don’t live in it.—New York Ameri can. WE AlNT GOING TO, tlC,HT NO MO. , VE »i'«T T.oht NO MO. / HOW THE tU A«f ' THE FARMERS TO TfcU y oo m'ht g&inu to_ FIGHT HO MO EVEN SWEET POTATOES MAKE MONEY WHEN HANDLED COOPERATIVE WAV (By Renn Brum ) Every week or so through the year, meaning all seasons, some Cleveland county fellow will lay down his Her ald and wonder why Editor Page in the “Fool Column" talks about sweet potatoes in the same tone that a new lywed refers to his wife. Fact is one gets the opinion that there are few things Mr. Page lik-'s better than ’tater: and homespun sausage. Which j bring; us to our story. The average | rondo’- of the column of ‘‘Odds and | Ends" does not know that those self same ‘tat<>*•’ a: ■ Cleveland county I Nahcy Halls, and what’s more, are above the r.”crage sweet potato be cause .they are- scientifically produced; stored and sold (he co-operative way. And as it he opens Mr. Page is a mem ber of the Kings Mountain Sweet Po tato Storage company, naturally his membership there rates only second to his church and Sunday school. Once was the average farmer searched the premises for every old ouilt. sack and other cloth to he found for the purpose of storing his sweet poatoos. At the selling season a good per centage of the poatoes were unfit for sale—the method of storage was not modern. When the oiling period did come along the poatoos were sold at whatever price prevailed on the market—because there was no co operative or systematic way of mark eting. In those days the farmer who got SI per bushel for his potatoes was considered more than lucky. A couple oi years pack a group of farmers and business men in the Kings Mountain section decided to put the sweet potato crop on a business and co-operative basis along with oth er crops. Tiie result was the King Mountain Sweet Potato Storage com pany. Last year, for example, the av erage price received for the potatoes was $1.29' per bushel. The cost of storage and sales the co-operative wa - ll* cents per bushel—considerably cheaper than any individual could have stored or .sold them—and the profit was $1.10 per bushel. That’s just one reason why the “Co-op Way” means something to the farmers of, that section. Another is revealed in 1 Mr. Page’s writtt-n delight about those Nancy Halls. Each year the assoeia- j tioo selects the potatoes for plar*<Wfw? j purposes, guaranteeing a near perfect crop for the next year. Some day ae-| cording to the present production style the Cleveland county Nancy Hall will be famous. Some of the potatoes were recently sent to the mayor of Pittsburgh—for advertising purposes, of course. The poatoes were turned over to a big wholesale produce mer chant and within a short time back j came a letter—“They are the best Southern,potatoes we have ever seen.’’. Each year members of the company ! harvest their crops, which are placed; in the big modern storage house at j Kings Mountain, of which A. B. Put-j nam is manager. Each farmer has a . number and at the end of the year the : actual storage and sales expenses are: totalled and the “running expenses” divided among the farmers according to their individual amount of storage space. Up until October 1 the farmer may sell his own poatoes to any that he so desires, hut after that date the sales are all by Mr. Putnam. This year there are 7,600 bushels stored in the warehouse and only a small percent age will be lost by the common stor age damage or rot—they are taken care of in a systematic manner. The; potatoes are selling at around $1,75—| figure it yourself. The house lias stor- i age space of Robe nine or 10 thousand bushels and the storage space com pletely filled will not supply the Kings Mountain demand alone. There is a business-like system in all success, even to farming—for the “breaks” come just as something is done to make them break on the farm as ev erywhere else. Any of the 100 mem bers or the 12(5 who store their pota toes in the finely ventilated building at Kings Mountain will tell you that co-operation on handling sweet pota toes means just as much as co-oper ation in anything else—and the pro verb about “united effort * * " and such is familiar. In addition to the storage house at Kings Mountain there is also one of In000-bushel capacity at Earl and a number of individual houses over the county, making the total storage ca pacity in C level an I county of 22.000 bushels. The success may be noted in that other warehouses are being talk-' ed, one at Grover, and an addition to the one in Kings Mountain. \t. A. Williams is president of the Kings Mountain potato company that specializes in Nancy Halls—the best of Nancy Halls. Hugh Ware is secre-j tary-treasurer, with A. B. Putnam as manager. The members include: P. N. Neisler, C\ B. Falls, .1. Bun Patterson, Benton Putnam, A, P. Falls, C. T. Or mond, Wayne Ware, C, P. Ware, S. P. Goforth, T. G. Patterson, Wray Pat terson, Wray Williams, G. G. Page, j Beverly Patterson. W. L. Goforth, W. A. Morris, Tom Goforth, Will Wil-i liams, Ora Rhea, Jasper Ware, L. A. Kiser, J. It. Cline, J. J. Gamble, Law rmee Putnam, I). F. Adams, S. S. M are, R. S. Thornburg G. T. Mauney, Harry Falls,, Marvin Wright, B. G. Logan, W. I). McDaniel, D. P. Wright, Cal Ware, Leon Ware, N. K. Morris, H T. Pultun, Hugh Ware, Sam Rhyne, Fuller McGill, James F. Ware, Joe Crawford, Rasty B, Dixon, J. A. Plummer, J. P. Blalock, Butler Dixon, Howard Herndon, R. F. Elam, Mar vin Goforth, Dixon Goforth, Clarence Plonk. W. O. Falls, L. A. McGill, Ru fus Plonk, Tom I). Blalock, Sanford R. Wolfe, J. R. McDaniel, J. I. Hope, Importance Of The Cotton Industry * * ♦ ■(By .1: B. Swain) Tiff' importance of cotton culture can scarcely lie over-estimated. Jt is one of the great staple, commodities f universal use and necessity thut has no adequate substitute. The warp ami woof of our civilization has been spun largely out of the fleecy fabrics of King Cotton. If cotton were suddenly taken away from us, ur civilization would totter in the balance, and so far a * human ingenuity can determine, there will be no adequate substitute For a long time to come. In our complex life today cotton has ninny uses, too numerous to name here, chief among them of course is For clothing material and it is in this use that cotton is king and the manu i fncturihg oF clothing material are ab solutely dependenent upon an adequate upf’ly oF cotton for the successful ■ conduct of their business. The manu facturer of cotton goods is an impor tant industry of England, and this j country has spent huge sums of mo ney in a serious effort to develop a ' cotton area, that would in some large ; measure supply her millions of spin : i;e*i and free her from the fields of jthe South as a source of supply. So ! far her efforts have been in vain. The j nearest aproach being her atempt to : control the Sudan. It will be recalled | in this connection that one of her army I ... ___ ..——' J. B. SWAIN officers was murdered during this dif ficult undertaking. Supply. Most all tropical and semi-tropical countries grows some cotton, but there are only three that produce any large amount of cotton for export; E_gypt, India and United States. Egypt grows about two million bales per year. The acreage required to feed and clothe the ever increasing population and the amount of land reached by irrigation preclude any material increase in production of ex port cotton. India produces about four million bales per year on about twenty-two million acres of land, or 85 to 90 pounds per acre! The soortching sun during the dry season, ravages of in (Continucd on second page.) R. It. Blackburn, Lester Hord, J. C. Randle. J. W. Ramseur, Lee Thorn burg, H. T. Wright. Dr. 0. G. Falls, Chas. Whisnant, DeWitt Patterson, Leo Beattie, William Wolfe, T. C. Black, C. J. Borders, Hunter Wells, John Carroll. J. Bun Royster, A. L. Wells, J. E. Adderholdt, J. O. Plonk, Harley Queen, G. P. Barber, H. W. Gamble. .1. M. Patterson, J. S. Ware, Frank Webster, Ormand Goforth, G. W. Ware and C. F. Stowe. A FABLE WITHOUT SLANG Once uori u time, just a few weeks aR°, A Grecian gentleman, fired with enthusiasm to see his native land and get his name in the paper, set out from New York—just himself and a dog—in a little open boat. The weath er was bright, the wind was fair; the man at the helm did not have a worry about what anyone else was do ing. He was the captain of his soul; the strong individual. And when lie went to sleep that first night, with his little sail riding light at the mast, and his little dog all full of dog biscuits and uneasiness curled up around the little gasoline stove, there was no man in the world more independent or free, and he sang himself to sleep with the immortal words of “I love to be a sailor.” Before dawm, the mariner was awakened by the freshening breeze, j The little craft bobbed and shook in the heavy billows. The little dog’s un-l easiness became vocal and eruptive The man reefed in his sail and reefed in his trousers. At the end of a couple of weeks, having travejled about one! hundred miles of the three thousand j he set out to devour, he sent up a sig nal of distress, and a master of a fish ing craft took him aboard and brought him home—although the dispatches do not indicate why he should bother about it. At *he time this gentleman was heaving up and down for one hun dred miles, a great ocean liner set out for the same port. In a week or ten days, the liner reached its des tination. Which all goes to show that when men pool their resources and energies, they are able to accomplish their objects much more readily and easily than when they insist on tho importance of their individuality. Yes, there is another point. The liner was held up for an hour or so with minor engine trouble just after leaving port and the fellow in the little sail boat sailed past them with an encouraging breeze and gave those on board the laugh. The men who have joined the Wheat Pool are on board a craft that will get thou to where they want to go, if it i. possible with the pool meth ods of selling, the ir^-'-'idual selling of grain is as hopeh ' a proposition as the silly little m«< with his silly little boat and his silly little uneasy dog.—The Western Producer (Sas katchewan.) 1