“COOPERATIVE - 
len States 
Cooperator 
26 

Tuis MAGAZINE is published monthly 
by the Eastern States Farmers’ Ex- 
change, headquarters: West Spring- 
field, Mass. It is distributed free to 
members of this cooperative purchas- 
ing association. The purpose of the 
Eastern States Cooperator is to keep 
members informed about the progress 
of their organization — to help make 
better farming easier to accomplish 
by having up-to-date information 
available regularly. For anyone liv- 
ing outside Eastern States territory 
and those within the territory but 
not able to participate in the asso- 
ciation’s purchasing program, there 
is a subscription price of $1.00 a year. 
There are 100,000 members and 
patrons in the Eastern States Farm- 
ers’ Exchange located in New Eng- 
land, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and 
Maryland. The members are the 
owners of the Exchange, which 
serves as the purchasing department 
of their farms. They control its op- 
eration through their annual meet- 
ing which every member has the 
right to attend. Each member has 
one vote. 
Members elect the Exchange’s 
board of directors at the annual 
meeting. Through its executive com- 
mittee, the board of directors carries | 
out its responsibilities to the mem- 
bership. The management, respon- 
sible to the executive committee, 
selects and purchases the commodi- 
ties handled by the association. 
Eastern States commodities are 
processed in the Exchange's own 
plants — shipped in carloads — 
usually delivered to members from 
the car door — and paid for on a 
cash basis; factors that enable the 
Exchange’s local representatives to 
serve 1000 communities economically. 
—~~~ 
Vol. 19 7 

No. I 


Meetings 
€3 Tue Eastern States 
Annual Meeting is now scheduled for 
Springfield, Massachusetts, Tuesday, 
February 23, 1943. The place will be the 
Masonic Temple — same as for many 
years. No meeting will be held in Boston. 
Plans to hold a meeting there have been 
changed. 
On Wednesday, February 24, there 
will be the usual local representatives’ 
conference in Springfield. 
On Thursday, February 11, in Har- 
risburg, Pennsylvania, there is sched- 
uled a Membership Meeting for the 
Exchange’s southern territory. The 
next day, February 12, a local repre- 
sentatives’ conference will be held 
thete: 
Let’s make these the best meetings 
ever | 
Where We're “at“ 
ey Now we know a lit- 
tle better just ‘“‘where we're at’ in 
buckling down to our war tasks. We 
have Mr. McNutt as manpower chief 
and Secretary Wickard as commander 
on the food front — both being aspects 
of our wartime endeavor which seri- 
ously affect farming. 
Whatever the rules laid down by 
these administrators, the farmer’s job 
is obvious. He and his family must pro- 
duce all possible of the essential foods 
and fibers. They must manage somehow 
to create a substantial part of the fam- 
ily’s food stocks out of sideline vege- 
table and meat projects. Farmers must 
polish up old-fashioned thrift and in- 
genuity in acquiring and maintaining 
the equipment for production. The 
farmer, his wife and his kids must re- 
learn many of our grandparents’ skills 
in food conservation. 
The farmer still has the right — and, 
indeed, the duty — to holler when his 
Capacity to produce is undermined by 
shifting manpower proposals. And not 
the least of his responsibilities is his 
contribution to a common sense public 
clamor for every man doing his hon- 
est best 1n whatever job he holds. 
| There’s no soft way to win this war — 
and there must not be any soft jobs in 
war work. 
Neighborhood 
€y Tue world is now 
one big neighborhood. None can deny 
it. Many call attention to it. Decent 
folks are engaged in clearing out the 
racketeers who have so seriously threat- 
ened to destroy it and the rights of the 
neighbors. That job is the task to 
which all do and should bend their 
efforts. Until that job is done by the 
fighters adequately supported by the 
rest of us, it is impossible to know 
what pattern the development of world 
neighborliness can take. We know 
now, however, certain factors. which 
are characteristic of acceptable neigh- 
borhoods, and we should be adjusting 
the United States end of town to enable 
it to be a constructive part of the world 
town. 
Our end of town is going all-out to 
help the sections in the midst of the 
trouble. It is sending armed men to 
stop the rascalry of the dictator bums. 
It is supplying the material required to 
smoke out the trouble makers, the food 
needed to replace that stolen or de- 
stroyed which our decent neighbors 
right in the scrap and on the edge of it 
have not the means or time to replace 
for themselves. 
We shall have to continue the relief 
side of this community program after 
the fighting ceases, but we shall have 
to provide the means of terminating it 
or we shall be bled white to our dis- 
advantage and that of the world 
neighborhood. We must encourage and 
make possible self-help and encourage 
folks to practice self-help. The largest 
free trade area in the world, populated 
by more people of different creeds, races 
and backgrounds than any other sec- 
tion of the world, the area where under 
these circumstances has blossomed the 
highest standard of living attained and 
the greatest opportunity for the in- 
dividual anywhere—ever—should 
provide leadership and fellowship and 
cooperative understanding to help work 
this thing out on a by, of, and for the 
people basis. 
