Image provided by: Joanne Skelton; Cottage Grove, OR
About Halsey enterprise. (Halsey, Linn County, Or.) 19??-1924 | View Entire Issue (March 27, 1924)
i, . i - - ■ '! i . . . . . . . j - j ■giiTíiiiiiiriiiTiiiMur« FARM CO-OPERATIVE SELLING By GLENN a HAY14 a*MM«»M«l<M<K4*Mb»fitt ( • . 1»«. DaWaJ How Organizatiott Baneflto Cotton Grower*. C LO U D LE S S Seffferober morning The cottoa field* la y eti’i and wblse, drenched la heavy flew. The th ia white base that had wrapped tfte valtay la «ha dartmeee st',wiy rasa to be dissolved la sunshine. A Across the field» <-i»e aaatefcec of aaag. a hit of conversation, tha lilting aata of a whistler, I t was cottonpkk I M aaaaaa la I «ulslana A blue-sycd MMa girt wlto long black braids Of hair tied togethar with a »boost ring leaked np from her half-filled bag of cettea. Aba waa listening. F ro « »error tba valley rama the sUw even tear's ef a school bell, ~^“ov three yaara aba had listened to the t<'Bg— tang—tong of the bell— bat acbool wasat far tha poor w hite«; there waa tha cotton. Sha d “had her teamin'. Moat four yaara of IL That was inore’^ moat tba kid» got"—ao aba consoled herself and turned again to her picking. ■ha la only one of a million children that King Cotton has cheated out of a * education—out of the Joys of child- heed. On two million cotton planta tions boys and girts, black and white, are the slaves of cotton. Dixie is the home of more than half of ell the wsvld's cotton. Its average crop of IK009.000 bales la doable the amount grown In the remainder of the globe. T a t despite this supremacy In world production the South has kept poor. Cotton Is king, but Ilia throne Is being undermined by the poverty of his king dom. ■Far sixty yaara the Southern states hare lad with the highest percentage of illiteracy In the t ’nlted States, with the lowest percentage of landowners. The standard of living among the cot ton growers Is the lowest of any clasa of farmers. For two hundred years the Sooth has been trying to raise Itself out of its poverty, Its Illiteracy. The effort has been wasted. Discovering the Defect. In 1920 began the dawn of a now day. Agricultural leaders declared that all that was wrong In the cotton states waa their system of marketing. By changing their marketing methods the whole South could be put on s higher economic plane. Up to thia time the marketing to the producer meant merely hauling the baled prod net from the gin to tha merchant with tha crop mortgage or to the public square. where buyers offered cash. That was marketing—dumping de lux«. Three-fourths of the cotton Is grown by tha tenants and small landowners, who are always a year behind whan It ceases to money matters. Thay live ■a credit extended by their home town merchants, who take a Hen on the crop as security. At marketing time If cotton prices are low tba producer Is simply out of lack. Ha can’t afford ta hold his crop tor batter prices for his debtors are demanding. And very likely I f ba did hold It prices wouldn't Im prove. for prices on cotton exchanges arc largely manipulated by speculators sad trader» These small growers know nothing «bout the grades or rlas- ffflcatlona of cotton. Thay leave that ta tha Judgment of the buyers and boyars are not always honest. The whole system of marketing Is made to beoefit the buyer. Before the Civil war tba outstand (ng r<wxore In tba marketing of cotton was tha English factorage system. The farter Invariably required the con signment of tha entire crop for the tale of which he charged a commis sion. Tha planter's basis of credit wsa usually fixed on baleage; on an advance of so many thousand dollars so many bales of cotton were re- «wired to ba shipped. A penalty com odM*on was charged for every hale short of tha contract number Tba system had far reaching results It established one of the most vicious circles poeslbls to any tndnsiry. Tt was a business of unusual hsiards for both the factor and tba planter, nut the piloting end was fundamentally nes-'uod I t couldn't have stood up many more years If there had been no flv lt war. Another result was the concentre tie« ta a few Important cities and towns af practically all of the fluid wealth of the cotton growing South Tbs interior country which was pvac .«(tally the sole source of this wealth was In s state of hopeless economic dapaadanca on these urban centers Thia condition was not relieved until after the mortgage loan companlee went Inta operation «bout thirty years la te r What Brought tbs Change. Tar two and a half decades follow •*g IM S there were some very definite Ohangea tor the better la cotton mar k in g Lorn! factors still did a large p e n of the business, hot under a modi fied system. Local buyers eetsbllshed themsalves In every small town. Local beaks were organised local com- preasas and warehouses were built The market had mat the producer half way. Next came country buying The planter could sell his crop at his own gin platform This was • change In th* ° t marketing but tha syn- yl r •t*- into TeanA «'here B par cant tem Itself remained almost the earns (De stata'« ocraags Tha one difference was that tha grows» tbeaaand of the PH might ba present at every stage af tha of Oklahoma Joined the Ariaeoa Cotton Growers' assortane». » » » o n proceedings. The change which mads tha trans alarti- heir the acreage of the sal. action visible te tha aye of tha pro River valley was pledged During the year tea a»a* tapped ducer la responsible tor co-operative first marketing __ i» . _#e»kPn-------------- - marketing. It brought a psycholog ical change Hossr connection with cents per pound In five ether states Cotton grower» his crop after Its production made the buyer think more of tha problems of begun marketing the Saplro » » T There was North OareUBA with 27JXW marketing. In 1ST3 the Alabama Grange put a growers and fiO pet cent of its sere sales representative in New York. The ags signed by Neveosher, 1921. Theo Mlselaslppt Grange seat a man to rep i followed the Arkansas Cotton Grow resent them In Liverpool. Other state er«' Co-operative aasortstloa ; tke Grange organisations hired a man to Georgia Cotton Growers' O e p e re tlv e represent them on the various cotton association: the South Carolina Cotton markets. In some instances ware Growers’ Co-operative tseociaGon and houses were leased where the pro the Alabama Farm Bureau Cotton as- ducers sent their cotton for grading sorts tlon. Tha last big step la the formation and sometimes for actual soiling Cot ton marketed In thia way did bring of the cotton marketing machine was higher prlcee, but tha market as a the organisation of the American Cat ton Growers' exchange. This Je an whole waa unaffected. F ro m 1000 on producers made nu overhead agency which Is attempting merous attempts to market cotton co to bring together on a romsoon has» operatively. In 1902 tha Tanners' the Interests of all American cotton growers. It was created by the Ari- Educational Co-operative was organ Ized In Taxes. Its first <ork was tha xona, Texas end Oklahoma aseocle staging of a campaign for maintaining tlon« In 1921. It alma to standardise tha price of cotton by fiat. Many local tbe marketing of cotton on a natlesial associations were established, usually cooperative basis by eo-ordlnating the centered around a warehouse. These operations of Me eight member state associations did eliminate some dis association* Eat® state ossoristlen honest grading and buying, they pro retains full control of Its Own sales vided good storage, but they offered acttvltlen hut It is exported to fim- no real solution to the marketing Ploy tb» exchange whenever possible The cooperative movsnoent has been problem. During tha World war the South blessed with two favorable seasons tov had a taste of prosperity. There was Its developmonL But It Is still In in real money in cotton. With the dose embryonic stage. K has had Mttle In of the war they feared a backset In fluence on prices, but a great service tlielr market. They determined to do has been rendered growers by selling what they could to stabilise their cotton on a grade basis and by »til prlcee. With this In mind the Ameri ing direct to the consuming trade. can Cotton association waa formed In 1918. In 1919 prices rose 66 per cent, or the dignity due to an Intensive acreage reduction. But the high prices brought a heavy 1920 crop. This, along with the gen eral conditions, crashed cotton prices. Colton producers discovered that the conditions under which they were at tempting to handle their business in 1920 were almost as unsound as the system under which their fathers had operated In 1860. Aaron Saplro met with the associa tion In Montgomery and aroused Inter est by telling them the story of Cali fornia’s plan of co-operative market ing. Tbe plan didn't meet with gen eral approval. The association set to work to make a marketing plan of Its own. When It was completed the growers couldn't be Interested. Slowly the American Cotton association began to fade Into the background. In Oklahoma, Mlselselppi. Texas and North Carolina the Saplro plan had found fertile sofl. The Oklahoma Cotton Growers' as sociation waa organised under the Optometrists. Manufacturing Opticians Albany, Oregou leadership of Carl Wllllama. The Sapiro plan Is a simple piece of me chlnery. It la composed entirely of bona fide growers of cotton who sign « a » » « » * * » * * * * * * * * * * * » » * * * * * contracts under which they pledge to a deliver their cotton to tho ssooclstlon for a certain number of years. Tbe organisation must acquire no cottoa by purchase or trade and It la allowed to make no profits. T itle to the cot ton la vested In the association which agrees to resell the cotton and to pay the resale price legs .the cost of han dling. The receipts are pooled by grade and staple regardless of the time of delivery or sale. Thia equalises the returns to the growers. <2. Albany, Oregon » The Oklahoma organisation made e Its start In June. 1921. By April, 1922, * * * * * - » * * » * * 0 « « * » « * » * * * * » * * 24,900 contracts had been signed, one- third of the Oklahoma crop acreage. In less than a year the association bad completely replaced cotton brokers and secured directly for the gflowtrs the spinner and export price. The average price for the y A r was around »7 29. of F the professional man or woman the Shelltex Shuron is dependable. Available in c h e rry , c ry sta l, brown-mottled, demi-amber and black. Meade & Aibro, ♦ Just arrived! J J Large shipment of J • pabcolin : i R ugs I « All new patterns * E. L. STIFF Furniture J Why suffer from headache? Have your eyes examined Results of Organlxstlen. Growers In the Mississippi delta were next to organise. The Staple Cotton Growers' Co-oporttlve aasoda- tlon was formed, which signed 2,200 producers of long-staple cotton. In 1021 they marketed 108.000 bale*, get ting an average of more than six cents a pound more than outside growers The Oklahoma plan moved over the 8. T . FR EN C H Optometrist, with F. 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