The CORPORATION 

 and the FARMER 



Farmers Are Beginning To Take Full 

 Advantage Of The Corporate Organization 

 As Other Economic Groups Have For Years 



By GEORGE E. METZGER, 



lAA Field Secretary 



FARMERS are just beginning to 

 make use of the corporation as 

 other economic groups of people 

 have made use of it for years. 

 According to Raymond Miller, 

 former president of the American Insti- 

 tute of Cooperation, the principal rea- 

 son that farmers have not been able 

 to advance their standard of living 

 as have city groups, is because they 

 have not availed themselves of the 

 corporation and the benefits that might 

 be derived from it. 



As an example, an incorporated city 

 is classified as a muncipal corporation. 

 When a city gets its corporate charter, 

 under the law, it can avail itself of the 

 taxing power. This power, along with 

 other advantages, has enabled residents 

 of a municipal corporation to enjoy ad- 

 vantages that the farmer does not have 

 operating as an individual. 



A municipality can construct a sewer 

 system. It can have available the best 

 engineering service for laying out that 

 sewer system and for determining the 

 size of the main sewer and its various 

 tributaries. It can have available to it 

 construction crews which can put in a 

 sewer system in accordance with engi- 

 neering blueprints. In other words, it 

 can bring a sewer system to the door 

 of the city resident. 



When that city resident decides to 

 modernize his home and put in a bath- 

 room, he of course has fixtures installed 

 and pays a moderate charge for a con- 

 nection to the municipal sewer. True, he 

 has paid some taxes for the constrution 



of that sewer, but through the power of 

 the corporation he, along with this 

 neighbors and fellow townsmen, has 

 constructed a system to meet the re- 

 quirements of the law and health regu- 

 lations. 



If the farmer should decide to 

 modernize his home, we will assume 

 that he will be at the same expense as 

 a city resident in installing bathroom 

 fixtures, and probably the same expense 

 in carrying the sewage from his bath- 

 room a reasonable distance from his 

 house. But when he has done that, he 

 still lacks a sewerage system which 

 he must have installed at his own 

 expense. To be safe, he must install a 

 septic tank and arrange to protect his 

 own water supply. In many instances, 

 these expenses have put the thing out 

 of his reach. 



The same can be said of a municipal 

 water system, which the farmer him- 

 self must supply when he attempts 

 to modernize his own residence. So, 

 the corporation has distinct advantages 

 that the farmer, as an individual, does 

 not have. 



A similar illustration might be used 

 in the case of an electric company. The 

 utility corporation, through its corpo- 

 rate powers, can service a city at mod- 

 erate cost. Before the days of REA. if 

 the farmer wanted electricity, he was 

 generally called upon by the electric 

 companies to construct his own line or 

 do it jointly with neighbors, and then 

 to virtually give the line to the com- 

 pany. 



He had the same expense as his city 

 neighbor. In addition, he had a hook- 

 up charge to the main line. Above that, 

 in many instances, he was required to 

 guarantee a high minimum amount per 

 month. He did not have the advantages 

 of the corporate structure until REA 

 came along. Many of our farmers now 

 have electricity and have it at a reason- 

 able rate. 



We might multiply these examples of 

 the corporate structure. Farmers are 

 just beginning to use it. Someone may 

 argue that we have had farmer co- 

 operative elevators for a number of 

 years and that that is a corporate struc- 

 ture. True it is, and it has served the 

 farmers of the various communities 

 well, but until recently, that corporate 

 structure has not been expanded in such 



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I. A. A. RECORD 



