FIFTY MILLION STRONG 



both gas and electricity. In many parts of the country central 

 electric light plants supply power and light, where desired, 

 within a radius of many miles. Besides, most persons have 

 heard of the discoveries that make possible both lighting and 

 heating by electricity at a distance and by wireless. Investi- 

 gation also shows that there are organizations of many kinds 

 having to do with cooperative buying and selling. However, 

 all cooperative activities are for the most part local in char- 

 acter and nothing has yet been worked out that is national 

 in its scope. The many units found in Rural America make 

 the problem of cooperation on a very large scale very diffi- 

 cult of solution. 



At the National Conference on Marketing and Farm Credits 

 the slogan was cooperation. Millard R. Myers, editor of the 

 American Cooperative Journal, advocated the adoption of 

 the Rochdale plan in cooperative activities. This means : ( i ) 

 every customer a shareholder; (2) every shareholder one vote; 

 (3) interest paid on money invested; and (4) surplus divided 

 on the basis of patronage. Hon. Frank L. McVey, president 

 of the conference, stated that although the farmers of the 

 nation (36 per cent of the population) have had for several 

 years an annual income of nine billion dollars, yet agriculture 

 has not prospered, and he mentioned three needs : better agri- 

 culture, better markets and better finance. And back of all 

 three, he maintained, there must be organization, cooperation. 

 Producers of iron ore are organized for the transportation, 

 melting and manufacture of their product, and its sale to the 

 consumer, and many other producers have found it necessary 

 to do the same thing. American agriculture must organize 

 also if she would hold her own. In Germany, according to 

 Hon. David Lubin, of Rome, Italy, an autocratic government 

 devised an economic system for the farming population and 

 put it into operation for a double purpose : to elevate the farm- 

 ing population to a higher plane, and, through strengthening 

 the position of the conservative farming population, to coun- 

 teract the tendencies of the socialistic and radical urban popu- 

 lation. Mr. Lubin says the American farmer is naturally 



