The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, December 27, 1920, Page 7

The Story of French Co- Operatlon' Orgamzatlon Saved the Farmer and Nation From Bankruptcy—Government Aid Extended to Farmer in Ways Denied Here N 1884 farmers of France were in a worse position than the farmers of America today. Before this'date there had been a number of years of artificial prosperity. The land, given no rest, had been cultivated to the utmost and had given abundant crops. As a result it became exhausted. At the same time railroad and ocean transporta- tion had made great’ strides. The farms of North ‘America «and South America had been opened. About 1884, just as the French fields were becoming less productive, wheat began Pourmg in from the United -States, India and Russxa, wool from Aus- tralia and South America, wine from Spain and Italy, cattle from Italy, Germany and the Argen- tine and the universal ruin of the home producers seemed inevitable, - Science had progressed far enough to be able to * tell the farmers of France that to produce cheaply * enough to meet this foreign competition they must - In every farming dis- - | - trict in France a few men knew what was needed. have commercial fertilizers. They told the others. They proposed that the farm- ers unite their resources, buy fertilizer by the car- load or by the shipload, if necessary, and make better and cheaper crops possible. There was on the French statute books, however, a law prohibiting farmers and others from associat- ing themselves in co-operative enterprises. Before they could start on their work the French farmers had to go before their congress and get a new law authorizing them to begin work. By this time the ruin of the farmers, it could be seen clearly, would involve the entire business of France if it became complete. As @ result, when the bill was brought up in the French leglslature in 1884, no objections were made by any interests. and the organization of “farm syndicates” was authorized and started immediately. The “syndlcate”—a ‘French word corresponding with “company” in English—admitted to member- ship not only actual farmers but farm laborers, _ owners and managers of estates, manufacturers of agricultural implements and fertilizers and all others who could show in any way, direct or indirect, a connéction with agriculture. The vast majority of their members, however, were actual working farmers. While the work at first was confined to the big - immediate problem of getting chemical fertilizers and thus building up the depleted soil, the working farmers who organized these syndmates knew that other steps were needed to make farming a profit- . able business. They knew that further changes in ° the laws were needed and in a syndicate chartered in 1885, which 15. years later had a membership of 4,000, we find the followmg statement of purposes ..and ob_]ects FRENCH FARMERS RECOGNIZE NEED FOR POLITICAL ACTION . cially as regards the charges that weigh on ~ to get better laws and, to a certain extent, “The general object of this syn_dicaté is to study and protect the economic interests of the .agricul- * turists and its special ends are:: To examine and . point out all legislative reforms and xmproved meth- ods; to uphold their cause before the governing gu— thorities; to claim their realization; espe-. land, the tariffs of the railways; commercial trea.tles, ‘customs and' octroi. duties, the rights of stalls in fairs and markets, etc.” As early ‘as'1885, it will be noticed, the French farmers had “caught on”, to the . faet that to get fair treatment:the farmer would have to do more than merely follow. “better farming” methods. He would have go into politics. At the first, however, the co- operatlves devoted themselves largely to the “better farming” movement. Farming in France at this time had not developed much beyond the farming of the time of Rome, when the soil was scratched by a crooked stick drawn by oxen or by human beings. = Some of the co-operative societies began to buy modern American agricultural - machmery This symachinery was too expensive to be bought - - by the mdmdual French farmers, so the This is the first of a series of articles on the history of co-operation, abroad and in this country. Nearly all up-to- date farmers, such as are members of the Nonpartisan league, also are mem- bers. of co-operative societies. - They " know the struggle the co-operators have had in this country, in many in- stances, against the opposition of or- ganized greed and the politicians, - Co- operation in Europe ' started many years in advance of co-operation in the United States and is further advanced there than here. It will be interesting to American co-operators to learn what - " problems European co-operators met in ‘theé early stages of their development, ~and how they met them. Therefore -.the first few articles of this series will deal with co-operation abroad. co-operatlve rented it out for & small sum. The co-operatives bought plows, mowers, reapers, har- rows, scales and harvesting machinery and one or two of them even installed small flour mills. ‘All of this added to the prosperity of the individual farm- ers and to the prosperity of French business, so no objections were made by any interest. Meanwhile some of the far-sighted co-operators saw that to enable-the :French farmer ‘to get " the “prosperity that he deserved he must have agricul- tural machinery of his own instead of being able to rent from his co-operative for a few days only. As - a means to this end co-operative: banks Wwere: organ- ized, some with a small capxtal contributed by in- collective credit of. ‘the farmers who Jomed and : guaranteéd each “othér’s accounts: It was necessary to establish strong city connee- tions for these local credit banks, so that their loans could be rediscounted. At about this time - (1899) the charter of the Bank of France came up for renewal. The Bank of France is not, like the ‘Bank of North Dakota, a purely public institution. It is partly backed by the govemment and partly by WHO IS CARRIED? “Does the banker ‘carry’ the farmer, as he cla:ms, or does' the farmer ‘carry’ the banker?2” Congressman John M. Baer. asks .in submitting this cartoon. What do farmers think about it? In France the govern- ment and business interests had sense enough to realize that farming ~must be made a prosperous business, as is told on this page. realized that the farmer and worker carry the burden of the country on their shoulders, something that the rul- ers of the United States must learn soon. PAGE SEVEN v ‘premises of the farmer. France | private financiers. It had to go before the French) congress to get its original charter and renewals. | ‘The co-operatives, by this time, had sufficient po- litical strength to be able to dictate the terms of the! new charter for the Bank of France. It contained a| provision that the Bank of France should lend to * the rural banks $7,500,000 free of interest to assist! them to finance ‘the farmers of France. To these! terms the Bank of France agreed and the organ-! ization of the local banks and credit societies started| immediately. Within a short time 20 had been or-/ ganized and the’ number now, 20 years later, is more| than 4,700. French farmers often found themselves placed in the position of the American farmer today, facing| a market that was sure to fall if products were - dumped upon it immediately. . GET LAWS TO ALLOW FARMER TO HOLD GRAIN The French congress provided two means by! * which this situation could be met. - First, public '“warehouses were established in which the farmer, could store his produce and then take the “war- f rants” or warehouse receipts and raise money upon| them. The capac1ty of the warehouses was msuffi-v cient, however, so in 1898 a new law was enacted| authonzmg the pledging of produce and the obtam— ing -of warrants upon goods still held upon thei This latter law has not/ proved wholly satisfactory, as it has been difficult to secure loans. Some of the “syndicates” have made loans to the farmers but the practice has not been at all general. Possibly some further exten- sion of ‘the public warehouse system, which is es- sentially ‘the same thing that.the Nonpartisan 'league proposes, will ‘have to be worked out. | French farmers were able to get government aldw ©at every step without formmg' a separate political! organization. Their experience has been quite dif-| 2 d1v1dual farmers, others with no capital except the: ferent from that which the American co-operatives| have met from the politicians of this country. Min- nesota and North Dakota farmers remember well! the fight of public officials of those two states against the Equity in the days of George Loftus, .-while within the last few years the milk producers of Wisconsin and ‘Illinois have faced criminal suits| on account of co- operatwe action, and Attorney! _ General Palmer is even now proceeding agamst the! raisin’ growers of Czalifornia. Why is it that French co-operators got govern- ment aid while 'American co-operators face law- - suits backed by the government? The answer is that in France, when the co-opera- tives were first organized nearly 40 years ago, big 'busmess was not organized nearly so completely as in America when the co-operatives began their op- erations here. It was before- the days of the! “trusts.” Agrlculture was threatened with such; complete ruin that it was likely to pull all other lines of business down with it. The co-operative societies saved the day. At the same time that they were proving their usefulness to the entire French people they were being built up so strongly that big' business, which started forming its trusts in France around the year 1900,° did not dare molest:| them. - ‘Similarly, at the time the French co- operators went into the ‘banking business; ‘there were mo. rural banks, comparable with the rural banks controlled by clty’ banks with Wall street connections, such! as existed throug\hout the United States| by the time the co-operators started thefr! work here. Instead of taking a field away| from big business the French banking co- ‘operators were developing a new field of their own. The development of rural bank- ing in France actually proved profitable to the big city banks at the’ same time that it helped the farme:s, for new: connections and a new B counts. “The co-operatlve credit socletles of “France, 4,700 in number and with a mem-| bership of 100,000, represent only a small part of the co- operatwe movement of that country. In the field of farm co-operation alone there were the following numbers of (Continued on page 12) = {ulv‘ dis-s