gether in a little impromptu meet- 

 ing. They were almost afraid to 

 open the letter. Finally the chair- 

 man of the group ripped it open 

 and stared at the check. The rest 

 gathered around and stared also, 

 unable to grasp the significance of 

 the slip of paper. The check was 

 for $32.00 — thirty-two dollars 

 for lobsters that up until then had 

 brought them $9-80. 



"The next day the news of that 

 check spread. It eventually got to 

 the ears of the local dealers, who 

 decided on swift action to kill this 

 move in its infancy. They sent 

 out word that they would not buy 

 the small canning-sized losbters 

 from any fisherman who shipped 

 his large lobsters direct to Boston. 



"Again the fishermen called a 

 meeting and talked it over. They 

 figured out the prices they could 

 get for lobsters in Boston, and 

 realized that they would be ahead 

 of the game even if they had to 

 throw all their cannery-sized lob- 

 sters away. So they told the deal- 

 ers where they could go with their 

 dictum. 



"The buyers strike did not last 

 the day. The dealers saw they 

 were beaten and came around to 

 buy the cannery lobsters they had 

 to have if their plants were to 

 keep going and if they were to 

 fill their orders. The news of that 

 check swept like a tornado along 

 the coast, jolting all the other study 

 clubs into quick action. Today 

 most of the lobsters from that 

 Nova Scotia shore are handled 

 through cooperative organization. 

 The dealers who buy from unor- 

 ganized fishermen are having to 

 meet competitive prices in order to 

 get a share of the catch. 



"From the selling of lobsters the 

 the fishermen moved naturally to 

 the marketing of other fish. They 

 had found their way and discov- 

 ered that there was nothing mys- 

 terious about marketing. 



"In Little Dover, to return again 

 to that fishing village, there was 

 Uttle direct contact with the out- 

 side world five years ago. A tele- 

 gram arriving there would have 

 created a major sensation in the 

 hamlet. Today the manager of 

 the local marketing cooperative 

 leans his elbow nonchalantly on 

 the desk while he calls up his agent 

 in Boston and talks prices and mar- 

 ket changes. That is one of the 

 most significant alterations that 

 adult education has worked in a 



Trade Agreement With 

 Great Britain 



Looks Like A Step In the Right Direction, 

 Farmers May Benefit 



y# TRADE agreement between 

 ■X C the United States and the 

 /^^ i ^^ / United Kingdom, and a re- 

 vision of tjie existing Canadian agree- 

 ment were completed November 17, 

 1938, with provision for tariff conces- 

 sions contained therein to become effec- 

 tive January 1, 1939. 



The successful negotiation of these 

 commercial treaties, in view of present 

 trends toward national self-sufficiency 

 throughout the world, is considered by 

 the administration a step of far reaching 

 economic and political significance in re- 

 storing international trade and improv- 

 ing national relations. 



people who were, a few years ago, 

 without initiative or resources." 



The fishermen later went back 

 into the timber hewed down trees 

 to build their own cooperative can- 

 nery, and borrowed part of the 

 money to buy the needed machin- 

 ery. At the end of their first sea- 

 son after selling the pack in Hali- 

 fax, they found they had enough 

 money to pay off the $1,000 bor- 

 rowed and return an extra two 

 cents a pound to the individual 

 fishermen. 



"Little Dover closed with a tri- 

 umphant flourish the first chapter 

 in its epic of self-help. The men 

 lifted up their heads and looked 

 about them with a new light in 

 their eyes. They had done all this 

 for themselves."- — Editor. 



"Tok* yovi hand off tht tcalt, Floharty. Thai order b 

 lor your wrt«r 



Of chief interest to Illinois farmers 

 will be the provisions in the agreement 

 for increasing the quota of American 

 hams going into the British Isles, putting 

 wheat on the free list (was 6c a bu. 

 tariff), removing the 10% import duty 

 on lard, and reducing the duty on apples 

 and pears and canned vegetables. A 

 great many items of more or less im- 

 portance are affected by the agreement. 



The United States in turn lowered its 

 tariff on British imports of such articles 

 as cotton and wool cloth, agricultural 

 hand tools, wool carpets, leather wearing 

 apparel, and others. None of the con- 

 cessions are drastic but the reductions will 

 tend to lower the cost of clothing farm- 

 ers buy since production costs are lower 

 on the British Isles than in this country. 



In the past, the British Isles have im- 

 ported substantial quantities of American 

 farm products while at one time, the 

 United States imported large quantities 

 of British manufactured goods. With 

 constant increases in the American pro- 

 tective tariff, British trade fell off and 

 American farmers began paying more 

 for manufactured goods, especially hard- 

 ware, cotton and woolen cloth, clothing 

 of all kinds made in the United King- 

 dom. 



The recent agreement is considered by 

 far the most important yet adopted be- 

 cause of the large number of items af- 

 fected and the fact that Great Britain 

 and Canada are both heavy importers of 

 American products. 



No attempt is made here to analyze the 

 changes in the Canadian trade agreement 

 although there were a number of im- 

 portant reductions on imports from the 

 U. S., nor to predict what will be the 

 final result of the treaty. More time is 

 needed to go over each item and study 

 the probable long-time effect on each 

 commodity named. Any move to re- 

 store international trade involving 

 changes in tariffs invariably hurts some 

 interests and helps others, at least tem- 

 porarily. 



In general reducing the tariff on in- 

 dustrial imports at first may cut into the 

 home industry affected, but in the end 

 the influence of foreign competition may 

 stimulate our industries to lower their 

 costs of production and so find wider 

 markets for their goods. 



In the end it is a good thing to build 

 up international trade because it pro- 



L A. A. RECORD 



