216 THE GREEN RISING 



municating every change in conditions which might 

 affect the price in the end? No, there can be no 

 such equality for the cotton growers, corn growers 

 and pig growers unless the farmers and producers 

 organize on commodity lines." 



These quotations bring out one of the essentially 

 valid arguments for cooperative marketing. The 

 farmer is not expecting to set aside the laws of sup- 

 ply and demand. On the other hand, this plan of 

 marketing farm products is one of the reasonable 

 ways of giving free play to these laws. Everyone 

 knows that under the laissez faire policy that has 

 prevailed in the past the price paid to farmers in the 

 primary markets by middlemen has varied greatly. 

 For example, the market price paid to individual 

 farmers in local markets on the same day and on the 

 same basis of grade and staple of cotton is far from 

 uniform. Often the prices paid for cotton have been 

 from 150 to 200 points under New Orleans quota- 

 tions. To produce uniformity of the price level, to 

 decrease the cost of the marketing process, and to 

 provide efficient machinery for conducting the busi- 

 ness of farmers are the outstanding valid arguments 

 for cooperative marketing. 



While there may be a difference of opinion with 

 reference to details in the organization of coopera- 

 tive marketing and while it is undoubtedly true that 

 some commodity marketing organizations will fail 

 because of inefficient business leadership and organ- 

 ization policies, it seems reasonably certain that 



