THE ECONOMIC PROTEST 205 



It is scarcely necessary to observe that cooperative 

 effort on the part of farmers did not originate with 

 the economic depression of 1919. Farm organiz- 

 ations had been fostering cooperation in various 

 ways for many years. The pioneer farm organiza- 

 tions encouraged the combined purchasing of sup- 

 plies long before this plan was extended to the mar- 

 keting of farm products. But it should be ob- 

 served that commodity marketing had a substantial 

 beginning before the war. The cooperative move- 

 ment in France, Ireland, and Denmark had been 

 studied by a number of American economists, farm 

 leaders, business and public men. The results of 

 cooperative efforts in these countries were made 

 known to the American farmers through the press 

 and public addresses. The favorable reports that 

 had come to this country had interested greatly the 

 farm producers in many sections. 



Previous to 1914 the citrus growers of Florida and 

 California had demonstrated the advantages of co- 

 operative efforts in selling their products. Cotton 

 also had been marketed successfully on a coopera- 

 tive basis by a group of farmers at Scott, Arkansas. 

 Here and there cooperative creameries had been 

 established. Poultry and vegetable associations 

 were being operated successfully on a small scale in 

 various parts of the country. 3 



But previous to the war this system of marketing 



* See Clarence Poe's How Farmers Cooperate and Double Profits 

 (1915), Chaps. 14, 15 and 16. 



