FORTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT. 59 



who a few years ago supposed that their customers would not back 

 them in buying the number one goods at their prices that now seldom 

 use anytliing else if* the best is to be found. 



Even growing in a limited way we feel the need of some form of mar- 

 keting organization very much. The situation might be greatly improved 

 on the local markets if some sort of organization could be worked out 

 to systematize grading and packing, and to aid in making more uniform 

 prices. Something of this sort .seems to be the coming thing, and we say 

 let the glad day come. The orchards dying from neglect, the low grade 

 fruit, and the poor packing found on the markets everywhere make 

 their own silent appeal for something better. It is not the competition 

 of the fellow who is honestly trying to outdo us, not the fancy fruit that 

 makes us squirm to think that we are getting beaten in the race for 

 quality that hurts. It is the unskillful or dishonest grower with his poor 

 fruit poorly packed and marketed that should cause us uneasiness. It is 

 not the man who meets us on our ground that we have to dread in busi- 

 ness. 



We shall hope that your meeting here will be an entering wedge that 

 will start us as a fruit-growing community on the road to something 

 better. We need our thoughts stirred uj) now and then, and the inspira- 

 tion that comes from contact with those who are leading us in the game 

 of business. In closing I would thank you in behalf of the Kalamazoo 

 Fruit Growers for bringing this meeting here, and for the good things 

 we know that vou will leave us. 



CO-OPERATION THAT COOPERATES. 



MR. GEO, MYHAM, SOUTH HAVEN. 



In treating my subject, "Co-Operation That Co-Operates," I have col- 

 lected a few thoughts that have come to me from time to time and will 

 state some facts regarding the South Haven Fruit Exchange, of which 

 I am a member. 



We hear much concerning the high cost of living and in pre-election 

 pledges politicians of all parties have promised to bring about legisla- 

 tion that will reduce the same, with the result that committees of invevsti- 

 gation have been appointed by their respective bodies to look into the 

 causes and report. That is as far as they have ever gone. Legislation 

 might do much to alleviate conditions, but so far as I can ascertain, 

 it has never done anything. 



I might go into lengthy discussion of how legislation and the courts 

 have protected mighty combinations which have built up colossal for- 

 tunes at the expense of the producer and consumer. I can see no way at 

 present to reduce the cost of living to the consumer and give more of the 

 dollar to the producer except by co-operative buying and selling. 



You ask me how will we co-operate? There is just one way and only 

 one way. That is, to organize your association with sufficient capital 

 and go ahead and do business. The producers of fruits who depend upon 



