1 42 



of ground for their garden and started them at the job, I 

 happened to look back after half an hour from my work, 

 and the girls were crying, while the boys were squabbling. 

 As a director in the enterprise, I started an investigation, 

 and my little girl came to me in great trouble, saying "Don't 

 the President have to work?" It appears that the Presi- 

 dent held that he didn't need to work, all he had to do was 

 to be President. The Secretary, of course, had nothing to 

 do but write in a book. The Treasurer, naturally, did noth- 

 ing but handle the money. It left therefore the Vice-Presi- 

 dent to do all the work, and he had resigned in consequence. 

 Now you may smile at the children, yet again and again 

 large organizations of grown up men have gone to pieces 

 and failed utterly, for just the same reason, for when men 

 organize they sometimes forget that even greater labor and 

 keener care are required than when they run their own bus- 

 iness, and in these two simple illustration lie just about all 

 that there is in successful co-operation. 



And now you will ask why should a farmer co-operate ? 

 Let me ask anyone here to get up and name a single line of 

 business which either sells goods to farmers, or handles his 

 own product, which is not thoroughly organized in a busi- 

 ness way? The railroads the express companies, the com- 

 mission men, the milk dealers, are, every one of them, or- 

 ganized and standing like a well drilled army against the in- 

 dividual farmer. Can any one hope to make a successful 

 battle of the individual against the army? This organiza- 

 tion works in a dozen different ways. It is doubtful if but- 

 ter at 50c a pound would be anything like as extortionate 

 as a pair of rubber boots at $4.50 a pair. Both are called 

 necessities, one made by the individual farmer, the other by 

 an organized corporation. Yet if butter should go to 50c a 

 pound, our entire city population would unite in denouncing^ 

 the farmer. They would call it an outrage and attempt to 

 prove that farmers were all getting rich, yet the public will 

 walk up and pay $4.50 for the rubber boots, although there 

 is a far greater margin between cost and selling price th i,n 

 in the case of the butter. The organization of the manufac- 

 turers and the railroads enables them not only to hold up 

 their prices, but through advertising and other means to 

 control public opinion to a large extent. It should be easy 

 for any man to see that if he can unite with 10, 50, 100 or 

 1000 of other farmers, that he can come closer to controll- 

 ing his business, as these large companies do. As is well 



