55 



cents, and grade them over to supply the requirements of their trade. 

 In other words, in the hands of these men, ten cases of storage eggs may 

 produce as high as five cases of nearby henneries retailing anywhere from 

 fifty to seventy-five cents a dozen, two or three cases of so-called fresh 

 eggs selling at a slightly lower price than the former and finally, what are 

 left are then classed as storage eggs. Is it any wonder that the good 

 housewife of the country objects to buying storage eggs and demands 

 what she is led to believe is the fresh product? If this conference and 

 organization wants a problem worthy of its consideration I would like to 

 suggest that they do everything in their power to see to it that storage 

 eggs are sold as storage eggs. 



Returning to the co-operative idea which has been so well discussed 

 by my colleague, I want to say that my experience along this line has 

 been that the personal element which naturally enters into these organiza- 

 tions has been the greatest setback to their progress. I firmly believe, 

 however, that the idea is right and that ultimately the vast majority of 

 our agricultural products will be handled along some such lines. To cite 

 an instance of the great disadvantage of the personal element, let me 

 tell you something about the greatest co-operative state in our union. 

 Minnesota has somewhere in the neighborhood of 900 co-operative 

 creameries and she also has several large private centralizing concerns. 

 Naturally these centralizers are after all the business they can get and 

 in order to undermine the co-operative associations, in which they know 

 this personal greed for gain is bound to help them, they conduct a station 

 in the town where there is a co-operative association and boost the price 

 of butter fat until those managing the co-operative concern can no longer 

 compete with them. The result you probably already know. The mem- 

 bers of the co-operative organization, as soon as the price of the cen- 

 tralizers exceeds that of their own office, immediately become suspicious 

 of their manager and take their products to the competitive house. After 

 the co-operative concern is completely disorganized the centralizer, who 

 has now secured the bulk of the business, gradually reduces the price 

 until it again strikes a normal level. This may not be the exact plan 

 that is always followed in such cases, but from my observation it presents 

 a fairly accurate picture of the usual situation. While I regret to say so 

 it is nevertheless true that there seems to be no limit to which American 

 business may stoop today in order to crush out a competitor. 



I again repeat that the co-operative idea is a splendid medium 

 through which the farmer or producer may buy or sell his products. To 

 be successful, however, it is absolutely essential that the men in charge 

 be competent, command the respect and confidence of patrons and have 

 at heart the welfare and betterment of the community in which they are 

 operating. A great many of the failures of the various co-operative 

 organizations can be traced to the fact that the men in charge of them 

 have little or no laiowledge concerning the handling and selling of the 



