274 THE FARMER AS A COOPERATOR. 



It should be apparent from the foregoing that there can be 

 no economic gain to cooperative associations of producers in 

 dispensing with the services of wholesale and retail merchants, 

 or in any attempt to directly control prices at which they shall 

 sell the goods for which they have paid their money, but that, 

 ou the contrary, loss is almost sure to follow such attempts. 

 It seems also clear that cooperation does offer opportunity for 

 gain within reach of such reasonable ability and pei'sistence as 

 ought to be available in concentrating and grading the product 

 for the market. 



It remains to examine the manner in which the concen- 

 trated and graded product in the hands of associated producers 

 can be best sold and delivered to the wholesale merchant; and 

 in this I shall assume that the product is to go direct from 

 the warehouse of the producers to those of the wholesale mer- 

 chants. Those warehouses may be situated near the point of 

 production, or, if the market is distant, and competition com- 

 pels, they may be in the principal marketing centers. I have 

 already stated that I do not believe cooperative organization 

 equal to the strain of maintaining and profitably supervising 

 distant warehouses from which goods can be sold in small 

 lots, and under conditions which retailers would require, 

 but it is possible, although to be avoided unless compelled by 

 competition, to simply arrange for sales for cash only in such 

 considerable but less than car-load lots as wholesale merchants 

 can use.* ■ 



The product must be brought to the attention of the whole- 

 sale merchant by solicitation. Farmers sometimes appear to 

 suppose that merchants go out and canvass the market for 

 their sui)plies. They do not. They sit in their offices and 



* It may be said that it is always unwise to refuse to sell to any one, either 

 wholesaler or retailer, who otters to pay in cash tlie price asked for the i^oods 

 offered. The price of car-load lots of any product, however, must always bo 

 less than the price of small lots of the same goods, and the wholesale merchant 

 whose aggregate annual purchases may be many car-loads, may always with 

 propriety buy at the same price such smaller lots as he may from time to time 

 need to complete his assortment; while an occasional customer, whether whole- 

 sale or retail, buying a small lot, would expect to pay a higher price. 



