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29 BULLETIN 1392, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
legalistic basis, emphasis no doubt will be placed properly on the 
contract as a business instrument essential in the conduct of business 
activities and not as a legal substitute for service in maintaining 
membership loyalty. 
THE MEMBERSHIP 
The Staple Cotton Cooperative Association limits its membership 
to the delta area of Mississippi, Arkansas, and Tennessee. The 
Arkansas Farmers’ Union association restricts membership to 
Farmers’ Union members. In all other associations of the group 
the territorial limitations are the State boundaries and any growers 
therein may join. 
In its first sign-up campaign the Staple association had a member- 
ship fee of 25 cents per bale, with a $10 minimum. The Farmers’ 
Union association and the North Carolina association adopted a 
membership fee of $3; the South Carolina and Georgia associations, 
$5; and the others $10. In both North Carolina and Georgia the fee 
was later changed to $10. In its renewal contracts the Texas asso- 
ciation requires no membership fee from present members, and the 
Staple Cotton Cooperative Association has entirely eliminated it. 
In all associations membership is limited to cotton growers, “ in- 
cluding the landlord or tenant or lessor or lessee of land on which 
cotton is grown, provided the landlord or lessor receives all or part 
of the rental in cotton.” By thus limiting membership to producers 
and by eliminating nonmember business, a certain unity of interest 
is assured that is impossible to attain in cooperative marketing asso- 
ciations which include as members, growers, dealers, and others hay- 
ing varied interests in the commodity or the industry. Many asso- 
ciations of the latter type have been wrecked as a result of the con- 
flicting interests of the members and by control becoming concen- 
trated in the hands of individuals not primarily producers. A1- 
though there is nothing in the agreements of the cotton cooperatives 
that excludes buyers and merchants, provided they are also growers, 
they are in the minority and can not as a minority group control 
the associations under the present voting plan. 
DEMOCRATIC CONTROL 
The territory covered by each association is divided into districts, 
the number varying from 6 to 20 in the several associations. These 
are primarily voting districts, and are therefore made approxi- 
mately equal on the basis of estimated production rather than geo- 
graphical area. In accordance with the by-laws, redistricting oc- 
curs from time to time in order to maintain a fair and equitable 
representation of the total membership. 
Prior to the annual election of directors the members in each 
county hold a primary election, at which they select one delegate 
for each 1,000 bales of cotton or majority fraction thereof, delivered 
by the county membership during the preceding season. ‘The county 
delegates in turn attend a district meeting and select two members 
as nominees for director from the district. A district election is 
then held, and one of the nominees is elected, the members voting 
in person or by mail. Rules and regulations for the conduct of pri- 
mary and other elections are determined by the existing boards of 
directors. 
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