After we have secured better crops, the
next logical and inevitable step is to secure better business
organization on the farm, so that each farmer shall get from what he
grows the best possible return.
Consider what has been accomplished in Ireland through agricultural
cooeperation. The Irish have discovered that it is not good for the
farmer to work alone. Since 1894 they have been organizing agricultural
societies to give the farmer a chance to sell at the right time and at
the right price. The result is impressive. In Ireland the cooeperative
creameries produce about half the butter exported. There are 40,000
farmers in the societies for cooeperative selling, which, as we know in
this country, means better prices. There are about 300 agricultural
credit societies with a membership of 15,000 and a capital of more than
$200,000. In a word, in Ireland, which we have been apt to consider as
far behind us in all that relates to agriculture, there are nearly 1,000
agricultural societies with a total membership of 100,000 persons. Since
1894 their total business has been more than $300,000,000.
But, after the farmer has begun to make use of his right to combine for
his advantage in selling his products and buying his supplies, is there
nothing else he can do? As well might we say that, after the body and
the mind of a boy have been trained, he should be deprived of all those
associations with his fellows which make life worth living, and to which
every child has an inborn right.
Pages:
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38