56 THE BUSINESS OF FAEMING 



panies, creameries, canning companies or any 

 company composed of farmers for the better mar- 

 keting of farm products, will ever soive the ques- 

 tion of the better marketing of farm products and 

 the obtaining of better prices. 



After all, these companies are nothing more 

 than the simple changing or shifting of middle- 

 men. It requires the same number of men, pos- 

 sessing the requisite skill to manage and carry on 

 the cooperative enterprises, as it does to manage 

 and carry on the non-cooperative enterprises. 

 Therefore you must either employ the man- 

 agers and employes to operate these coopera- 

 tive concerns from the ranks of the non-co- 

 operative concerns, or take them from the ranks 

 of the farmers, and when you take them from 

 the ranks of the farmers you eliminate that 

 many men from the business of farming, and the 

 business of farming suffers to that extent, and 

 you put these farmers into a business for which 

 they have no training or adaptation, and too often 

 they do not make good, and the cooperative con- 

 cerns fail. The highways of the business world 

 are to-day strewn with the wrecks of these co- 

 operative concerns. Some have made good, but 

 the author is sure the majority have not. Every 

 man to his business and every man to his trade, 

 is absolutely necessary for the greater success. 

 But after all, the cooperative concerns must sell 

 their products to non-cooperative concerns, so 

 they do not enhance profits, but simply divide 

 the profits of their business among their stock- 

 holders. 



But assuming that the cooperative concerns are 



