Cooperation 151 



managers, and help in the formation of new associations. 

 It is this system that has given Denmark the primacy 

 among the dairy countries of the world. In Denmark, 

 there are at least nine selling federations that represent 

 the dairy associations in the sale of their products. 



It is essential to the American dairy interests that the 

 cooperative creamery system be maintained and improved. 

 In no other way can the dairy farmer insure the protection 

 of his interests. The cooperative creamery is formed to 

 handle the product of the members so that the producer 

 shall receive the maximum return for his product after 

 the operating costs have been deducted, and to improve 

 the dairy industry in every other way. The centralizer 

 corporation, on the other hand, is formed to make money 

 out of the product of the dairymen. It is also interested 

 in the development of the industry as a means of making 

 larger profits for the stockholders. The two systems aim 

 in the same direction, but for entirely different reasons. 

 The former is interested in making the dairy industry 

 better in order to make farming a more profitable and 

 desirable vocation ; the latter is interested in the develop- 

 ment of country life only in so far as it is a means of paying 

 larger dividends on the capital stock invested in the cream- 

 ery corporation. As long as there is competition, the 

 financial status of the farmer may improve under either 

 . system. But the aim of the large corporations that handle 

 the common articles of consumption is to become monop- 

 olistic by suppressing competition, and when competi- 

 tion is stifled, to dictate to the producer the conditions 

 under which he shall sell his products, the price which he 

 shall receive, and the price which the consumer shall pay. 



