22 Cooperation in Agriculture 



portation facilities to its competitors, or by some other 

 influence over which its competitors have control ; and 

 it is likely to fail at the start in the face of the fire which 

 it will have to meet unless it is founded on the bed rock 

 of necessity. Among farmers, who under existing condi- 

 tions are already prosperous, the need of business organi- 

 zation is not usually felt, even though the costs of market- 

 ing and the extravagant profits of the middlemen or the 

 railroads might be greatly reduced. They must feel the 

 pressure of need before they can launch a successful busi- 

 ness association. When the farmers buy their supplies 

 at reasonable prices, and sell their products readily at 

 a good profit, they do not feel the necessity of organiza- 

 tion. It has been the experience of the past that they 

 must feel the need of getting together to meet a crisis in 

 their affairs, and the realization of the need must spring 

 from within and not be forced on them from without by 

 the enthusiasm of some opportunist who seeks to unite 

 the farmers on the principle that organization is a good 

 thing. American agriculture is strewn with the wrecks 

 of associations that were the outcome of high motives 

 and impractical enthusiasm. It will continue to be filled 

 with derelict associations as long as they are formed by 

 professional organizers, by middlemen who seek to control 

 the products of a community, or by impractical farmers 

 who affiliate to fight some evil but who fail to form on a 

 broad, constructive basis for the upbuilding of the busi- 

 ness side of their industry. To unite successfully, a 

 group of farmers in the past have had to feel the effect of 

 hard times, or of oppression by the railroads, a helpless- 

 ness on account of a combination among those who buy 



