Chapter X 



THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT 



1920-32 



THE YEARS 1920 to 1932 will go down as among the greatest in the 

 history of cooperative development. Once the postwar depression had 

 hit, the farmers, their spokesmen, politicians, and others joined in the 

 hue and cry for more efficient methods of selling. As a result, from 1920 

 to 1924 there was staged the most intensive campaign for the building of 

 cooperative marketing associations that the nation had known. About 

 600,000 farmers took part in this program. Even though these activities 

 were hardly confined to the western Middle West alone, the leadership 

 of the region cannot be denied. Enabling legislation, political pressure, 

 leadership, and financial aid, much of it originating in the region, along 

 with government support of various kinds, played a big role in this 

 growth. After 1924 the enthusiasm for cooperatives temporarily waned; 

 but once the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1929 was put on the statute 

 books and the depression struck the farmers with greater force, the co- 

 operative movement was given greater stimulus by the government than 

 ever before. With the coming of the Triple A there followed a period of 

 readjustment, but the leadership of the western Middle West in coopera- 

 tives was as strong as ever. In 1934-35 almost 55 per cent of the market- 

 ing associations and 45 per cent of the membership were found in seven 

 of these states. 1 



i. R. H. Elsworth, Statistics of Farmers' Cooperative Business Organizations, 7920- 

 I 935> F arm Credit Administration, Cooperative Division, Bulletin 6 (Washington, 



