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products in which they deal. Too often a community becomes enthused 

 over the co-operative idea and proceeds at once to perfect an organiza- 

 tion, elect officers and formulate rules and regulations with little or no 

 regard as to the fitness of the various people assigned to different branches 

 of the work, to buy, grade, pack and sell the eggs or other commodities 

 which they may propose to handle. There can be but one result to such 

 methods and that, as you know, is failure. The broker, commission 

 man or business man in the city stand but little chance of being successful 

 today unless they thoroughly understand every detail of the business with 

 which they are connected and this applies equally as well to the officers in 

 charge of a co-operative association. Not only must the officers be com- 

 petent and proficient, but it is of vital importance that the patrons of a 

 co-operative association have implicit confidence in their officials. This 

 latter thought is to be connected primarily with the prices paid and 

 received for products handled. With our wonderful twentieth century 

 development of mail service, telegraph and rural free delivery, every 

 patron is enabled to procure first-hand information concerning the whole- 

 sale market quotations, retail selling prices of practically any product 

 that is produced on the farm and, if he makes good use of this information, 

 there is no reason why he should be misled by competitive quotations 

 which have as their object the undermining and disorganization of the 

 independent co-operative organization. He can tell at a glance whether 

 or not the officers of his particular association are returning to him the 

 proper per cent of profits as manifested by pubUc quotations. If they 

 appear to be doing this, it is only fair to the officers and other members 

 of the association that he consult with them before going over to any 

 competitive buyer who is offering- more remunerative prices. The pursu- 

 ance of such a policy will, in the main, be conducive to a vigorous, 

 healthy growth of the co-operative idea. 



I feel that I should ask your pardon for digressing from the main 

 theme of my talk, for while co-operative organizations are more or less 

 closely affiliated with the general problem of marketing eggs, they are, so 

 to speak, only a drop in the bucket when we consider the enormous 

 quantity of eggs that is consumed each year in the congested centers. 

 In time their influence is bound to be felt, but at present our attention 

 should be directed mainly to the vast problem of properly handling the 

 ordinary farm egg which composes over ninety per cent of the commercial 

 egg trade. Let us then, for a few minutes, direct our attention to this 

 general problem and attempt to ascertain whether or not some methods 

 of procedure may be Evolved which will have as their final object the 

 elimination of the present $45,000,000 yearly loss in the production, 

 handling and marketing of the nation's egg supply. 



In order that we may make pertinent suggestions we must first know 

 something of the present conditions surrounding the commercial egg 

 trade. The production is naturally the first factor which demands our 



