The gazette-times., June 04, 1914, HOME AND FARM MAGAZINE SECTION, Page 7, Image 13

HOME AND FARM MAGAZINE SECTION
Among the Orchards of the Northwest
A Page of Interesting Advice and Information About Fruits, Large and Small
Recent news developments re
$ garding the activities of the
Northwest Fruit Exchange will
make this article, wo believe,
doubly interesting. The develop-
ment of the market for North-
western fruit from one purely
' local and, at the most, national,
to an international one over-
night was one of the wonders of
$ two rears ago. Jnst what this $
exchange is doing we shall allow
Mr. Owinn to tell.
fc.$$5j$$$-j.j3e
BY W. F. GWINN.
THE marketing of farm product
is public service. , Corpora
tions engaged in it are pub-
lie Bervice corporation.
Tho question of public service and the
treatment of the corporations that sell
is ono of the liveliest issues before the
American people today. Public opin
ion is sharply divided. Some hold that
efficiency and economy in public ser
vice is best echieved through private
ownership and operation of the public
utilities under public regulation.
Believers in this theory oppose pub
lie ownership on tho ground that public
ownership means., political operation
and that usually means inefficiency,
extravagance and graft. So far as
tried in this country, public ownership
has been characterized in too many in
stances by those very features, whether
in the case of.street railways or farm
rs' organizations." -
The history of rural co-operation is
strewn with wrecks caused by these
am conditions.
On the otbfr hand, believers in the
public ownership theory have many
Tory sound arguments to advance aad
for illustrations can point to the older
civilizations of Europe, where, to an
important extent, the individual has
become merged into the social cosmos.
Personally, I believe that the form of
the corporation whether privately or
publicly owned or operated, is relatively
unimportant. What really counts is
the personal character, responsibility
and efficiency of the men who admin
ister its affairs. " '
It happens that the Northwest Fruit
Exchange is the exponent of the private
ownership theory. It was organized in
1910 by a group of men whosaw the
dire need of the industry for modern
marketing facilities, some time before
there was any general public ' recogni
tion of that need, and what is more,
provided the capital to supply the nec
essary men and equipment
Speculators Are Amazed,
When the exchange was organized
the orchard industry was in the grip of
the land speculators. 1 remember with
what amusement and amazement we re
garded the frantic protests of this gen
try whenever we dared tell an un
favorable truth about the market.
The exchange for three years was the
enly service organization the industry
possessed. Its very existence served to
stimulate the inception and growth of
the correlative theory of public owner
ship, so that the organization recently
f a co-operative sales agancy, was ab
solutely foreordained and is wholly dc
eirable irom tho standpoint of the in
dustrial welfare.
The Northwest Fruit Exchange in
trodnced into tho Northwest is 1910,
the system of f. o. b. sales, and for sev
eral years advocated that principle in
the face of rather general opposition.
It is therefore all the more gratifing
that its judgment has been vindicated
by the adoption of the same system by
the co operative agencies which have
followed it into the field. Also, the ex
change was the first to emphasize the
absolute necessity of wide distribution
and was the first to make this possible
by dividing the country into sales zones
and establishing in each a resident
salesman.
Officer Goes Abroad,
This same system of marketing has
since been adopted by practically all of
the important sales agencies which have
followed tho exchange into the field.
Tho oxohange was the first fruit or
janieatlon in the Northwest to sond
on of its officers to Europe to make
a personal study of the field, and was
the first to establish an office of its
twa on the other side of tie Atlantic.
jlavving established a permanent office
in London in the spring of 1912, as a
result of these methods Northwestern
apples are being given a systematic dis
tribution in Europe that would never
have been possible otherwise.
Beforo the entry of the exchange into
tho situation the European trade in
Northwestern apples was exclusively in
the hands of New York and foreign
speculators, and the appearance of our
fruit on the foreign markets was ir
regular. Under present conditions, the
most famous Northwestern brands can
be had in Europe every day from Octo
ber to April. The exchango sold 200,
000 boxes of Northwestern apples in Eu
rope last season.
Trade Boutes Are Studied.
The exchange is making a serious
professional study of the whole ship
ping situation with reference to pres
ent trade routes and particularly with
reference to the new trade routes to be
established upon the opening of the
Panama Canal At the present time it
is engaged in a serious study of markets
of Australia, Central and South Amer
ica and South Africa,
.To the exchange is due the credit of
opening up this season an important
market in South Africa. During the!
autumn Northwestern newspapers made
frequent mention of the presence of a
buyer from South Africa. They did not
say, because they did not know, that
the buyer had been brought here by the
exchange as the triumphant results of
two years persistent pressure on the
partners in Johannesburg, supplement
ed by strong personal representations by
the exchange's London manager to the
London partners of tho South African
concern. The exehango actually made
the opening sale to this firm in London
and the preliminaries were arranged as
a prerequisite of the trip out by the
buyer. Once here, while the exchange
had the preference and made important
sales, it nevertheless eneouraged the
distribution of the business among
other shipping factors, so that the ex
change's work was a direct benefit to
the industry at large. Next year this
business should mean at least 100 car
loads or more.
'" The exchange's history has been one
of achievement and of service. It has
done much of tho heavy pioneer work
and blazed many important trails. To
it is due the principal credit for the
divorce of the business from a consign
ment basis, and the establishment of
what is practically a cash market f. o.
b. It has spent, since its organization,
in the development of its service over
$200,000. It will dear through tha
Portland banks this season over one
million dollars. Its telesrranh
is said to be the largest in Portland. '
' BEHNKE-WALKEB pupils in
: Bookkeeping, Stenography, Type
writing, Penmanship, Telegraphy
receive that thorough, pratcical,
trustworthy training which alone,
can produce efficient help.
When you realize this youH
' know why the merchants come to
us for competent assistants.
We will place you when com
petent. Write for Catalogue.
BUSINESS COLLEGE
t M. Walker, Pres. Portland, Ore.
1
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