American Agriculturist, November 17,1923 
337 
Is Cooperative Marketing Here to Stay? 
The Mythical Meetings of a Mythical Board of a Mythical Cooperative 
W E leant- to ask a favor. Will you kindly 
not read the remarkable article written 
in dramatic form on this page unless you promise yourself and us that 
you will read the whole series which is to follow? 
You will find these articles different and better in many ways than 
one, from any yet written on cooperation. In the first place, they ate 
exceedingly readable and very amusing. They are an accurate and 
laughable interpretation of human nature. In the second place, they 
point out some of the cooperative troubles without being destructive. 
If the full series of articles is well read, it will in our opinion do more 
to boost the cooperative movement than anything that has been writ¬ 
ten yet. If you only read the first one or two, you will get an entirely 
wrong' impression of what the authors have in mind. 
We might say that the authors of this series are two of the best 
known friends of cooperation in eastern United States. Both of them 
actually hold very responsible positions in cooperative work. Maybe 
sometime we will tell you who they are. In the meantime, watch for 
the account of the next meeting of the 
directors and note the gradual ^ improve¬ 
ment and evolution as farmers learn how 
to work and do business together.—The 
Editors. 
By THE SILENT DIRECTOR 
The Cast of Characters 
Act 1—THE FIRST MEETING OF THE 
NEW BOARD 
T HE room is filled with tobacco 
smoke, littered with ashes and 
bits of paper. An area around the 
cuspidor indicates where a tobacco- 
chewing director missed his mark. 
Two directors are-asleep. The geft- 
eral manager is holding forth. 
General Manager: Gentlemen, the 
Ford used by the assistant sales 
manager has a punctured rear tire. 
I recommend that he be authorized 
to purchase a new tire. 
The Lean Director: How many 
miles has he run the tire now on the 
car ? . „ 
General Manager: I don’t know 
but I will find out if you want me to. 
The Director Who Doesn’t Smoke: 
What make Was it? 
The Businesslike Director: Why bother with a detail like 
this? I move that he be authorized to purchase a new tire. 
The Fat Director —who has apparently been asleep, drops 
his chair down o» all four legs and asks the president to repeat 
the question. 
The President: There is no question before the house. Does 
anybody wish to second Mr. Roberts motion . 
The Hurried Director: I second it. 
The President: Thk question is that Mr. Jarvis, assistant 
sales manager, be authorized to purchase a new Ford tire. The 
question is now before you for discussion. ' 
The Director Who Doesn’t Smoke: We better specify the 
make. 
“Me-too” Director: I think so too. * 
The Lean Director: J believe we are goihg too fast, gentle¬ 
men I would like to amend Mr. Roberts’ motion. I move that 
it be amended to read that Mr. Jarvis be authorized to pur¬ 
chase a new tube. 
Silence. The Lean Director nudges the man nearest him. 
He seconds the amendment. 
President: You have all heard the amendment. All in favor 
say ‘‘Aye.” ' * v 
Three Directors say “Aye.” 
President: Do you understand the question? Let’s have a 
o • 
real vote. 
Five Directors say “Aye.” 
President: The ayes have it. All iirfavor of the question 
as amended say “Aye.” The ayes have it. 
The Fat Director—Tells stories, reports executive 
sessions 
The Lean Director—Suspicious and parsimoni¬ 
ous; strong for executive sessions 
The Director Who Doesn’t Smoke—Grouchy; sec¬ 
onds motions 
The Hurried Director—Careless and restless; 
makes motions 
The Judicial Director 
The Director Who Plays Politics—Always whisp¬ 
ering in the corner 
The Silent Director 
The Always Absent Director 
The Nervous Director—Secretary 
The “Me-too” Director 
The Businesslike Director—Treasurer; analytical; 
constructive 
The Director Who Doesn’t Count—In over his head 
The General Manager—Nervous, aggressive, keen, 
very prone to quick decisions 
The Attorney-—Founded on precedent 
The Stenographer—Young and pretty and efficient 
Time: January, 1923 
Place 
General Manager: I now would like to 
present for your consideration the mat¬ 
ter of raising a quarter of a million dollars by bond issue or 
otherwise for the purchase of refrigerator cars. 
The Fat Director: I move that the matter of the purchase 
of refrigerator cars and ways and means be left to the general 
manager with power to act. 
The Hurried Director: I second the motion. 
President: You have heard the question. All in favor 
say “Aye.” 
Eight ayes. 
The Hurried Director, rising: My train goes at 4:15. I 
will have to be excused. 
President to General Manager: Have you any more busi¬ 
ness to bring to our attention? 
Generdl Manager to Stenogra¬ 
pher: Have we covered everything? 
* Stenographer, looking at the 
clock: Yes, we have. 
General Manager: Apparently 
the labors of the day are finished. 
President: I will entertain a mo¬ 
tion for adjournment. 
No motion is made, but all the 
directors arise. Some pick up their 
papers and put them in th^ir 
pockets. Others visit for a few 
moments. Finally there is left in 
the room the Nervous Director and 
the General Manager. 
Nervous Director: Is cooperative 
marketing here to stay? 
General Manager: Who knows. I 
don’t. .. (To be Continued) 
Office of the General Manager 
Putting Eggs Into One Basket 
A. H. DE GRAFF 
W E are often told not to put all 
our eggs into one basket in our 
farming operations. The cotton 
growers in the South have been lectured for years because of 
their habit of raising all the cotton the traffic would bear. Re¬ 
cently the town of Augusta, Ga., raised a monument to the 
Boll Weevil, because it had forced the southern farmer to 
diversify. 
Is this advice not to put all your eggs into one basket sound 
advice or not? Certainly the business man does not do well 
when he splits up his effort among several lines of business. 
The writer knew personally one of the pioneer department 
store men of the country, one who had a mammoth store .in 
Chicago and one in New York. He went into numerous other 
lines of business, and he never made a cent on any of them. 
On the contrary he sunk tens of thousands if not hundreds of 
thousands of dollars in them, and he was a shrewd man who 
did not bite on sucker bait, but actually went into these lines 
himself. 
About fifteen years ago, some of the students of agriculture 
became possessed of the idea that the best method of studying 
farm management was to study farms, find out what systems 
were in use, sort them according to income, size, crop yields, 
degree of diversification, etc. They thought that perhaps by 
this means they could learn a lot more than they could to sit 
down and deduce what ought to be the best method of farm¬ 
ing, and then try this out. The plan was carried out in a 
number of so-called agricultural surveys, and a lot of inter¬ 
esting things were learned. The’ one which we will treat 
of here is diversification. 
(Continued on page 350) 
