CONFERENCE ON CO-OPERATION 



81 



Mr. Aldrich: We are grateful to Mr. Cook for what he has 

 told us. 



STATE AID IN CO-OPERATION 



Mr. Tuttle: What are we trying to do in the matter of organi- 

 zation? At the annual meeting of the State Agricultural Society in 

 Albany, as chairman of the Committee on Co-operation, I made a 

 report which was unanimously adopted and followed by a resolution 

 coming from the Committee on Resolutions recommending that a 

 special deputy in the Department of Agriculture should be em- 

 ployed whose sole duty it should be to attend to the organization 

 of co-operative societies among producers, I mean to handle the 

 subject as a general supervisor of that work, to see that aid is given 

 where it is needed. There is a bill now in the Legislature to ac- 

 complish that purpose, and there was a hearing on it week before 

 last in Albany, at which people from all over the state were present 

 and all were in favor of it. The bill carried no appropriation, but 

 the appropriation would come through the general supply bill for 

 the Department of Agriculture. It provided, however, for the 

 employment of a special deputy at the salary of $3,000. I said I 

 was afraid we couldn't get a very competent man for $3,000. I 

 would say $10,000. We want a great big man to handle this great 

 big problem. We want the very best talent there is. I presume 

 that bill will become a law. At Buffalo last week, after a conference 

 with the executive committee and officers of the State Grange, the 

 Committee on Co-operation, of which I was a member, prepared a 

 report which provides for a special committee of three to be ap- 

 pointed by the executive committee of the State Grange. This 

 committee of three is to devise a general plan for co-operative organi- 

 zation, so that the plan may be harmonious, and the same general 

 fundamental principles will run all the way through the organiza- 

 tions from one end of the state to the other. That will probably 

 prevent the organization of granges in different localities on different 

 lines that might result in antagonism. When that committee of 

 three makes its report on a general plan of organization, this report 

 comes before the executive committee of the State Grange. Upon 

 their approval of the plan, that executive committee is then required 

 by the report and resolution to employ a supervisor of organization 

 work, substantially covering the same ground that I mentioned 



