30 Cooperation in Agriculture 



system is right, and their faith and loyalty must be large 

 enough to hold them together in the face of temporary 

 adversity or of the insidious efforts of the opponents of 

 the cooperative method to disrupt the system. Without 

 this loyal support, a board of directors or a manager cannot 

 succeed in the development of an efficient business or- 

 ganization. It is a fact that in many sections, many of 

 the farmers have not shown loyalty to cooperative asso- 

 ciations formed to distribute and sell their products. 

 They have no interest in the general rural movement. 

 They are willing to have their neighbors form organiza- 

 tions and assume all of the responsibilities connected with 

 their development and maintenance. They prefer to 

 sell their products to buyers whenever they can and to 

 have a cooperative association in the neighborhood as a 

 house of refuge through which their crops can be sold 

 whenever they are unable to dispose of them to better 

 advantage in any other way. They know that a coopera- 

 tive association may prevent the buyers from forcing the 

 producer to sell his crop at an unreasonably low price, 

 but they are interested in it only as a means of getting 

 more money for their crops from year to year. There 

 are many other well-meaning farmers who believe in the 

 cooperative movement as a means of giving stability to 

 the crop-marketing system. They do not antagonize it ; 

 in fact, they encourage it in every way and would give it 

 direct support if its stability were in danger. But they 

 will not identify themselves with it because they prefer 

 to act independently while accepting all the advantages 

 it confers on the industry with which they are connected. 

 As a business precaution, a contract or agreement be- 



