Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 184, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 August 1915 — NEIGHBORHOOD PATRIOTISM [ARTICLE]

NEIGHBORHOOD PATRIOTISM

Outline of a Method for Securing Com munity Co-operation in Business and Social Affairs.

A scheme for the organization of rural communities for both business and social purposes is worked out in an article which appears in the Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture. The scheme calls for ten committees, five of. which are to deal with business needs and five with social needs. Every member of the organization is to serve on some one of these committees. In addition there ‘ls to be a central or executive committee composed of the President of the organization, its Secretary, its Treasurer and the chairman of the ten other committees. This central is to direct the general policy of the organiaztion, raise all funds and control their expenditures. The committees that are to deal with the business interests of the community are as follows:

1. Committee on farm production. 2. Committee on marketing. 3. Committee on securing farm supplies. 4. Committee on farm finance and accounting. # 5. Committee oh communication and transportation. Similarly the five committees that attend to the community’s social interests will deal with: 1. Education. 2. Sanitation. 3. Recreation. 4. Beautification. 5. Household economics.

The work of most of these committees is indicated sufficiently clearly by their titles; for example, the committee on production can do much good by Improving the breeds of live stock in a community through co-operative purchases of purebred males. It can encourage the formation of corn, poultry, pigs, cattle, canning and gardening clubs which have already demonstrated their value in the sections where they have been established; and it can carry on useful studies of the type of agriculture best fitted to local conditions.

In the same way the committee on marketing can secure the standardization of the community’s products and thus obtain better prices than are possible when nondescript goods are dumped upon the market. The committee can also seardh out the best markets, make contracts on a large scale which will be more favorable than any individual can secure for himself, and in many other ways economize in the selling of the community’s goods. Even if co-operative marketing Is not actually resorted to, the information which the committee collects can hardly fail to be of great assistance to the individual shippers.

Just as the committee on marketing can facilitate selling, the committee on farm supplies can economize in buying. Farmers are warned, however, not to underestimate the cost of running a store or commercial agency and not to overestimate the saving which this can effect. ’ The co-operative society, of course, does away with the necessity of the store’s making a profit, but somebody must manage the store and that somebody must be paid for his time. His salary, therefore, corresponds in a way to the ordinary store’s profit, and it is not always possible to secure a good man for less than he would be able to make in business for himself. There are, however, several methods of purchasing farm supplies co-operatively, which will be found to be of advantage. The simplest is the joint order, in which a group of farmers can buy a given article in large quantities, thereby effecting a considerable saving in the expense of handling commissions, etc. Sometimes when this method is adopted a warehouse is added which is owned or rented cooperatively, and In which the goods are stored until the associated purchasers need them. If these two methods have been tried and found successful, it may be desirable to carry them out to their logical development and conduct a cooperative store which renders the same service to its customers that a private enterprise would. This, however. Inevitably leads to complications and should only be undertaken after some experience with simpler methods of co-operation. With the committee on farm finance and accounting the first duty is to ascertain what farm enterprises can safely be financed. This is only possible when accurate accounts are kept and carefully analyzed. After this has been done the next step is to secure the most favorable terms for financing proper and sound enterprises. This is frequently not difficult if the committee has thoroughly mastered the subject and is able to put it clearly before local bankers. Where the local banker* are unwilling to finance genuinely productive enterprises at a reasonable rate of interest, the committee must consider other ways of securing capital. One of the simplest plans for accomplishing this is a credit union or co-operative credit association, The essential features of this plan are that group of farmers organize themselves to' receive deposits and make loans. By keeping the expenses down to a minimum, it has been possible in some cases for such associations to pay interest on deposits that is within one per cent of the Interest it charges on loans.. ’ The committee on communication and transportation should deal primarily with the roads and telephones. The keynote of the work should be organ