American Agriculturist, November 10,1923 
What Is Wrong With the 
Cooperatives ? 
(Continued from page 315) 
business efficiency. But efficient service 
w-as, and is however, the real test of the 
cooperative movement. Could the farm¬ 
ers be educated to this real purpose of 
organization? Could they be taught 
that there is no magic about organiza¬ 
tion and that it is only a method by 
which farmers can work together to 
produce, grade, pack and sell the farm 
pioducts in such an efficient and orderly 
way as to beat all of the other old- 
established agencies, which had been 
doing the same thing for years? 
Could they be shown that their organ¬ 
ization is themselves and that they 
could never take out more than they 
themselves put in? Some of the co¬ 
operatives have already failed to meet 
these ^ tests. Those that were poorly 
organized or badly managed, or being 
run more on hot air than they were for 
real service began to show the sand in 
their gears. Some, like the Chicago 
Milk Producers’ Association and the 
Oregon Dairymen’s League, went on 
the rocks. Many others came mighty 
near the same fate; still others had to 
be re-organized to meet the changed 
conditions. Nearly all lost members. 
Of course, the dealers took this oppor¬ 
tunity to increase prices and to other¬ 
wise make the way of cooperation more 
difficult. 
Going Through The Test 
In the country common'ties, bitter 
feelings were engendered, because . of 
differences on the cooperative l'esults. 
Most of those who belonged to the as¬ 
sociations were bitter partisans in favor 
of them. Those who were out were 
called traitors. On the other hand, 
farmers who had failed to join for one 
reason or another were just as bitter 
against the-members. Life-long friends 
became enemies; neighbors that had 
lived alongside one another perhaps for 
two generations and changed work, 
cared for one another in sickness and 
buried each other’s dead, ceased to 
speak. . , 
All great movements have had simi¬ 
lar history. The cooperative movement 
has been and is going through the test¬ 
ing time, and out of that time of 
sacrifice, misunderstanding, enmity and 
bitterness some will come through 
stronger and better able than ever to 
solve the farmers’ great economic 
troubles. Bitterness and hatred will 
pass away. They are going already. 
Most of "those organizations that fail ( 
probably ought to. Those that are left 
on the job will, because of the experi¬ 
ence through which they have been, 
have weeded out their inefficiencies, 
profited by their mistakes frankly 
recognized, studied and used the good 
methods of their dealer competitors; 
and in short, put their business on the 
same basis of other great enterprises 
and movements of history that have 
succeeded on a large scale. 
Not Yet Out of the Woods 
Just at the present time, the prin¬ 
ciple of cooperation as applied to farm 
marketing is not yet out of the woods. 
It has done the farmers a tremendous 
amount of good. Its advocates have a 
right to be enthusiastic about some of 
its accomplishments, so long as that 
enthusiasm does not make them over¬ 
confident. It is absolute foolishness to 
preach the success of cooperatives all 
the time without giving due heed to the 
failures and mistakes. The movement 
is too young yet and farm marketing 
is too.complicated to be too sure about 
anything that concerns it. About the 
only thing we are sure of is that some 
kind of cooperative marketing is the 
only answer to the problem. Farmers 
have been painfully gathering experi¬ 
ence in the different organizations. 
There has not been enough clear think¬ 
ing on this experience for the enthu¬ 
siasts have discussed only the good side 
of it, while the enemies have pointed 
out only the failures. 
In succeeding articles, we hope to 
take up some of the different coopera¬ 
tive principles, one by one, and frankly 
discuss and analyze them as well as we 
can from the way these principles have 
worked in actual practice so far. We 
will also discuss some of the good and 
bad experiences of some of the coopera¬ 
tives themselves. It is our hope that a 
discussion of the successes will make 
(Continued on page 330) 
Every Farm Needs Two 
E VERY farm needs two 
automobiles, one of 
which should be a closed 
model Chevrolet. 
The open touring car is best 
for" general farm use, carry¬ 
ing passengers or perhaps 
miscellaneous bulky pro¬ 
duce or merchandise, but 
for cold or rainy weather, 
and for church or social use 
the family needs a closed car, 
either a 2-passenger Utility 
Coupe, as illustrated, or the 
5-passenger Sedan. The 
extra large rear compart¬ 
ment is a feature of the 
Coupe. 
These closed cars are very 
finely made, furnished, up¬ 
holstered and trimmed. The 
windows are of plate glass 
and can be lowered, provid¬ 
ing as much air as an open 
car, yet affording full pro¬ 
tection against wind, r$in, 
snow or cold when raised. 
With a second car on a farm, 
one is always available for 
those at home when the 
other car is out. 
0 
The low prices of Chevrolet 
make the ownership of two 
cars feasible for most farm 
families. 
CHEVROLET MOTOR COMPANY 
Division of Qeneral Motors Corporation 
DETROIT, MICHIGAN 
Prices Effective September 1, 1923 f. 
Flint, Michigan 
Superior 2-Pass. Roadster. 
Superior 5-Pass. Touring. 
Superior 2-Pass. Utility Coupe . . * 
Superior 5-Pass. Sedan . 
Superior Commercial Chassis . 
Superior Light Delivery. 
Utility Express Truck Chassis . „ „ *, * 
o. b. 
$490 
495 
640 
795 
395 
495 
550 
Five United States manufacturing plants, 
seven assembly plants and two Canadian 
plants give us the largest production capac - 
ity hi the world for high-grade cars and 
make possible our Ipw prices . 
Dealers and Service Stations Everywhere 
