COOPERATIVE PURCHASING AND MARKETING ORGANIZATIONS. 5 
tions in the United States will be excluded from the cooperative class 
because they fail to live up to cooperative rules in every detail. 
After all, the main point to be considered is the extent to which the 
organization works for the benefit of the farmer. An organization 
may never declare a patronage dividend and still be of profit to all 
its patrons. A number of the grain elevators, organized on the 
capital-stock plan, may be cited as examples. They have paid 
out the profits in the form of stock dividends, yet in many cases 
have been of benefit to all the patrons because they have paid a 
higher price for the grain than the farmers had previously received. 
The farmers of the United States have engaged in business along a 
number of different lines. Although the underlying reasons for or- 
ganizing have been quite similar for the various lines of organiza- 
tion, the histories of their growth are different and present some 
very instructive facts. 
ELEVATORS. 
The growth of the farmers' elevator movement was very slow at 
first but it gradually gained in stability and prominence and began 
to attract more attention and to receive more favorable treatment 
from the commission men and railroads. Since 1900 a number of 
very successful farmers' elevators have been established in the 
grain-growing States of the Middle West. As they became firmly 
established they began to assume a wider range of activity than that 
of handling grain. In some sections it is usual for elevators to ship 
live stock as well as grain, making a separate live-stock shipping 
association unnecessary. 
Marked success also has been achieved by many farmers' elevators 
in handling such commodities as coal, lumber, brick, flour, feed, 
salt, twine, oils, and similar supplies needed by the farmers. 
The cooperative elevators have frequently met with opposition 
from other dealers in these products. Nevertheless they have been 
able to carry these side lines with a resultant saving to the farmer. 
Various estimates have been made of the amount saved by farm- 
ers' elevators, but it is difficult to arrive at any definite results be- 
cause of the far-reaching effects of this form of organization. In 
many instances the farmers' elevators have increased the price paid 
the farmer for his grain; when side lines are carried there has often 
been an additional direct saving; and the dividends paid to the 
farmers by many of the elevators should also be considered. The 
increase in returns on products of the farm through the operation: 
of these elevators has had a direct tendency to increase the value 
of the land in sections where such elevators are located. 
Practically all of the important Middle West grain States now have 
State associations of farmers' elevators. These State associations 
make it possible for the local companies to keep in touch with one 
