Page i6 



BETTER FRUIT 



October 



FENCE DIRECT TO THE CONSUMER 



American Steel and Wire 

 Company's Products 



Do you leant a Good Farm Fence at a 

 Low Price:' We have a new liglit weight 

 field fence made of higli grade galvan- 

 ized wire. We can save you money on 

 all kinds of fencing. Write us for descrij)- 

 tive matt<'r and prices. 



We Contract to Erect Fence 



National Fence Company 



Foot of Columbia St., Portland, Ore. 



66 



Specialize" says Henry Ford 



Of the Ford Auto Company, "and you will succeed." 

 That is why we succeed in growing the finest 



Grafted Vrooman Franquette Walnut Trees 



On the market. AU of our trees are grafted on selected California black roots. We are 

 the walnut specialists in regard to varieties, culture, soils, location, etc. We grow no 

 other nursery stock. Our walnut nursery receives our entire attention, and our trees 

 are in a class by themselves. 



C. W. Noble, of Toronto, Ontario, planted 3500 of our trees near Salem. Oregon and 

 every tree grew. Write for prices or information to 



FERD GRONER & McCLURE, Hillsboro, Oregon 



can only succeed when given the un- 

 flinching .support of the members who 

 through years of experience have ac- 

 quired an appreciation of the funda- 

 mentals that underlie a successful asso- 

 ciation of this kind. The success of any 

 organization depends on its members, 

 not on its form. 



The membership in a co-operative 

 organization should be confined exclu- 

 sively to those who are producers and 

 who, as producers, use its facilities. 

 The members should be acciuainted and 

 have confidence in each other. It .should 

 never include those who contribute 

 capital alone to it. Many organizations 

 are formed by bankers, fruit dealers, or 

 others, who promote an organization 

 for the purpose of making a profit from 

 it. They may be formed in good faith 

 by business men who realize the value 

 of the co-operative movement and who 

 are willing, as a service, and not for 

 profit, to furnish the capital for its 

 organization. The need for such an 

 organization must spring from within, 

 from the necessity of the industry, and 

 not from a desire of a commission 

 merchant or broker, or of an ambi- 

 tious manager who sees an opportunity 

 of capitalizing the co-operative move- 

 ment for his personal benefit. There 

 are many organizations of the latter 

 type that masquerade under the co- 

 operative banner, but which are 

 formed, nianageil and contiolled either 

 directly or indirectly by those who 

 make a i)rofit on the packing organiza- 

 tions, on the sale of fruit, on the ]Hir- 

 chase of supplies, on railroad claims 

 or trade rebates, or in other indirect 

 ways. Such orgnaizations are always 

 kept prominently before the giowcis 



as co-operative, a situation which, 

 when it exists, is almost prima facia 

 evidence that the co-operative features 

 are for the benefit of a few, i-ather 

 than for all the members. 



Membership in a co-operative organi- 

 zation .should carry with it a responsi- 

 bility on the part of the member 

 strong enough to carry it through ad- 

 versity of every kind. To feel this 

 lesponsibility, the member must of 

 course feel the necessity for the or- 

 ganization; he must feel that he is a 

 part of it; that the organization is his, 

 developed and managed to promote and 

 protect his interests. If tlie association 

 is formed by the members to meet their 

 economic needs, this feeling of re- 

 sponsibility pervades the membership, 

 but if the association is formed to pro- 

 mote the welfare of the olTicers or any 

 other class of people, or if financed by 

 well-meaning people who really desire 

 its success, an association cannot de- 

 pend on the loyalty of its members in 

 time of adversity. 



One of the problems that a co-opera- 

 tive association always has before it is 

 keeping alive the interest of the mem- 

 bers. The\- must be a vital part of the 

 organization. They must take an active 

 part in its development. They must 

 keep posted on the details of the busi- 

 ness; the business methods of the or- 

 ganization must be an open book to 

 them. There can be nothing myste- 

 rious about the management of the 

 business. Contracts, salaries, trade or 

 other legitimate rebates, railroad 

 claims, profits or earnings of every 

 kind — these must be of such a nature 

 that every grower can know about 

 them if a co-operative association is to 



maintain the loyal support and confi- 

 dence of its members. It must, of 

 course, win that support by the results 

 it accomplishes, and these results must 

 be obtained by a business record that 

 keeps free from suspicion regarding 

 the integrity of its methods, and as free 

 as possible from criticism regarding its 

 business elliciency. Every defect of 

 the organization will be kept before 

 the members by its competitors, and 

 imaginary defects created by willful 

 misrepresentation by those who aim to 

 break down the membership will al- 

 ways be prominently featured. 



In a strictly co-operative organiza- 

 tion a fundamental principle should 

 be "one man, one vote." It should be 

 a real industrial democracy in which 

 the members trust each other and lean 

 upon each other's judgment as men. 

 In such an organization neither the 

 capital contributed nor the volume of 

 business transacted should be the basis 

 of the responsibility or influence of the 

 individual member, because neither 

 can co-ojierate or be made a basis for 

 lasting co-operation. In the European 

 co-operative associations the "one man, 

 one vote" principle is applied as a test 

 to separate the strictly co-operative 

 associations from the pseudo co-oper- 

 tive. Since co-operation is founded on 

 men, not on capital or jjroducts, there 

 is no fundamental diffei-ence in prin- 

 ciple where capital is eliminated and 

 product is substituted as a basis of 

 voting and control. The control of 

 a co-operative association should be 

 founded on the equality of member- 

 ship, whether the member cimtributes 

 a large or a small volume of business. 

 It is the members, who as men, co- 

 oiK'iate in these organizations. The 

 history of the co-operative movement 

 in luirope and in California shows that 

 this fundamental basis is sound. In 

 the latter state one organization, the 

 California Fruit Growers' Exchange, 

 which was formed as a stock corjjora- 

 tion but which operates strictly on co- 

 operative principles handles a business 

 of twenty million dollars, more or less, 

 annually on the "one man, one vote" 

 princiide of voting. The directors each 

 represent a business that varies widely 

 in volume and in value, but the "one 

 man, one vote" principle of repre- 

 sentation has stood the test of business 

 experience and has been one of the 

 foundaticm stones on which the success 

 of this organization has been built. 

 The directors reserved the right when 

 they organized to vote pro rata on the 

 shipments represented by them, but 

 this method of voting has never been 

 used in twenty years of business ex- 

 perience. The California statute gov- 

 ernin.g the non-profit corjjoralions 

 without capital stock permits the 

 voting power of members to be equal 

 or uneciual. In many of these organi- 

 zations the voting power and pro|)erty 

 rights of the members is proportional 

 to the contribution which each makes 

 lo the investment necessary for opera- 

 tion, the by-laws in some citrus fruit 

 organizations providing that "members 

 will contribute to the invesment neces- 

 Continued on page 22 



