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Illinois Farmers Do Not Regard Their Co-ops As Part Of Any Movement. ' 

 The Farmer Regards His Cooperative As A Tool, A Means 

 for Increasing His Farm Operations Income 



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 ..KEEPS QUALITY UP - PRICED DOWN 



ANY charges are made that 

 farm cooperatives receive un- 

 fair tax advantages. There is 

 a constant barrage of propa- 

 ganda to this effect. These 

 charges are repeated by persons who are 

 members of cooperatives serving busi- 

 ness or industry, which enjoy the same 

 tax advantages. One wonders why ail 

 the propaganda directed against farm 

 cooperatives.' What are the motives 

 behind this drive.' 



Illinois farmers do not regard their 

 cooperatives as part of any movement, 

 as a peculiar system, or as a panacea for 

 ■ all economic ills. The farmer regards 

 his cooperative as a tool, a means for 

 increasing his income from his farming 

 operations. 



His cooperative is merely a corpora- 

 tion, privately owned and engaged in 

 business primarily for the benefit of its 

 owners who use its services. It dis- 

 tributes its earnings on a patronage 

 basis in proportion to the amount of 

 business done with each member. 



The cooperative differs from the 

 business corporation principally in the 

 distribution of earnings. The business 

 corporation is privately owned and en- 

 gaged in business for the benefit of its 

 shareholders, with its earnings distrib- 

 uted to its shareholders on the basis of 

 the amount of stock held by them. 



Farm cooperatives engaged in mar- 

 keting farm products are referred to as 

 marketing cooperatives and those en- 

 gaged in purchasing supplies and com- 

 modities used on the farm are referred 

 to as purchasing cooperatives. The 

 nature of the farming industry, in itself, 

 forces farmers to cooperate with their 

 neighbors. 



It was natural that farmers should 



form cooperatives for the marketing of 



their products and the purchasing of 



farm supplies. According to the most 



recent reports, there are 10,125 farm 



cooperatives in the United States. 94 



per cent are local associations serving 



small areas. However, a substantial 



portion of the total volume of business 



is done by large scale central or fed- 



• • 



By PAUL E. MATHIAS, 



Secretory, III. Agr. Ais'n 



erated cooperatives operating in larger 

 areas. 



The United States Department o( 

 Agriculture estimates that for the 1946- 

 47 marketing year, these farmer coop- 

 eratives had a total volume of $7,100, 

 000,000. This compares with a volume 

 of 16,100,000,000 in the preceding year 

 Of the total volume in 1946-47, |5,600, 

 000,000 was done by marketing cooper- 

 atives and 11,500,000,000 was done by 

 purchasing cooperatives. However, co- 

 operatives handled only about 25 per 

 cent of the farm products marketed, 

 and purchased only about 20 per cent 

 of the farm supplies. 



It is charged that farm cooperatives 

 have made a tremendous growth in re- 

 cent years. However, the United States 

 Treasury Department recently stated 

 that the "increases in cooperative mar- 

 keting and purchasing are no greater 

 in the aggregate than the increases in 

 total cash receipts from farm marketing 

 and purchasing". 



The business of the cooperatives has 

 not increased faster than that of other 

 types of firms doing business with farm- 

 ers. An elevator handling a bushel of 

 corn selling at $2 has a 300 per cenr 

 increase over the year in which it sold 

 a bushel of corn for 50 cents on a dollar 

 basis. However, on a bushelage basis, 

 it js still just one bushel of corn. 



While the propaganda is directed 

 against farm cooperatives, the coopera- 

 tive type of organization is not confined 

 to farmers. The newspaper which 

 prints the charges probably is a member 

 of the Associated Press. The Associated 

 Press is a cooperative news gathering 

 agency owned by its newspaper mem- 

 bers. There are many cooperatives in 

 the retail field. 



The National Retailer-Owned 

 Grocers, Inc., 309 W. Jackson Blvd.. 

 Chicago, provides a cooperative buying 

 service for over 100 regional coopera- 

 tives in 33 states and one Canadian 

 province and is reported to have a 

 membership of around 18,000 retail 

 food dealers. The Central Growers 

 Cooperative, 1001 South California 

 Ave., Chicago, serves over 500 retail 

 grocers in the midwest. 



The Mutual Drug Company, 25 

 North Green St., Chicago, serves coop- 



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