REPORT OF THE FIRST 
 
 RURAL LIFE 
 CONFERENCE 
 
 TT T 
 
 HEED DURING 
 
 NI v E k s «vof 
 
 ikois 
 
 U' 
 
 The Summer Session of the^Sta i |g..<f^ll€ilSe r ‘ ci 
 
 of Washington 
 
 = F * B 2 
 
 182J 
 
 JUNE 18 to 20, 1913 
 
 PULLMAN, WASH. 
 
 Published by 
 
 THE STATE COLLEGE OF WASHINGTON 
 
RURAL LIFE CONFERENCE OF THE STATE 
 COLLEGE OF WASHINGTON 
 
 Selections from papers delivered at the First Rural Life Con¬ 
 ference of the State College of Washington, with preliminary 
 announcement of the Second Conference. 
 
 Foreword. 
 
 Dr. E. A. Bryan, President of Washington State College. 
 
 Plan and Purpose of the Survey. 
 
 Professor E. R. Groves, State 
 
 College of New Hampshire. 
 
 Educational Surveys. 
 
 Mrs. Josephine Preston, State Superintendent of Public in¬ 
 struction, State of Washington. 
 
 Farm Finance. 
 
 Honorable M. E. Hay, Former Governor of the State of Wash¬ 
 ington. 
 
 Cooperative Marketing. 
 
 Mr. H. C. Sampson, Secretary North Pacific Fruit Dis¬ 
 tributors’ Association. 
 
 The Farmer and Cooperation. 
 
 Mr. L. C. Crow, State President of Farmers’ Union, State of 
 Washington. 
 
 Social Aspect of the Church. 
 
 Professor J. F. Nicholson, University of Idaho. 
 
 Program of the Rural Life Conference, 1913. 
 
 Preliminary Announcement of the Rural Life Conference of 
 
 1914. 
 
 Courses offered in the Summer Session of 1914. 
 
FOREWORD. 
 
 E. A. Bryan. 
 
 At the opening of the Summer Session of 1913 of the State 
 College of Washington, a Rural Life Conference was held at 
 the college. It is another evidence of the great awakening of 
 tlie American people to the agricultural problem. We move 
 in cycles. Economically, the last century was devoted to manu¬ 
 facture, transportation, and incidentally, commerce. We had 
 been and were an agricultural people and our aspiration was 
 to become great in the things in which we were lacking. The 
 best brains were called from the country to the city and the 
 city became the place where the strong man delighted ip 
 achievements. In turning our eyes again to the country, the 
 first movement was economic. It looked toward a new agri¬ 
 culture based upon a knowledge as broad and deep as that de¬ 
 manded in the arts and an organization as complete as that 
 achieved in commerce. Then the woeful lack of a sound basis 
 in such knowledge and organization began to appear, and much 
 more the relative decline in other elements of rural life. Sani¬ 
 tation in the city was far in advance of what it was in the 
 country. The old gam.es and social life of the country, the 
 cornhuskings, quilting bees, log rollings, singing schools, were 
 gone and there was no adequate substitute. The country 
 church had well nigh disappeared. Rural telephones, rural de¬ 
 livery, and the automobile, useful as they are, were not able to 
 replace the things which had been lost. Financial reorganiza¬ 
 tion in the country had not kept pace with financial better¬ 
 ment in general. The more stable class of the farmers were 
 paying the highest rate of interest. The love of country life 
 for its own sake had declined. The old were vying with the 
 young in flocking cityward. Now it has come to pass that the 
 study of scientific agriculture has presented a new field of in¬ 
 tellectual effort and achievement. And with the turning of 
 the eyes of many men to this field some of the old allurments 
 begin to appear. Along with this and the rise in land values, 
 which is partly cause and partly effect of the movement, the 
 farm seems to give promise of larger financial return than 
 
State College of Washington 
 
 3 
 
 in the past. “All things work together for good,” so they say. 
 At any rate the teacher, the preacher, the farmer, the scientist, 
 the banker, the statesman, the merchant, each with his per¬ 
 sonal interest, have come together and are focussing attention 
 on the rural problem. It is to be hoped that under this im¬ 
 pulse America may renew its youth. It will not, of course, re¬ 
 peat the same things in the same way, but we are yet young as 
 a nation and the country is bigger and better than the town and 
 we may have the spirit of the primitive country life adapted to 
 the convenience, thee ulture, the prosperity, and the wholesome 
 living of the twentieth century. 
 
 PLAN AND PURPOSE OF THE SURVEY 
 
 E. R. Groves. 
 
 Meaning of the Survey. 
 
 The social survey is a community study. It originated in the 
 city because city problems are more spectacular and apparent 
 than those of the country and the need of reliable information 
 concerning such problems was clearly recognized by social 
 workers. Probably the most famous survey is the magnificent 
 investigation made by Charles Booth concerning the social con¬ 
 ditions of the poor of London. Another able survey, made by 
 Roundtree, disclosed the poverty of York. England. In this 
 country we have the Pittsburg survey, a splendid community 
 study. 
 
 The great purpose of any social survey is accurate informa¬ 
 tion concerning community conditions, but the knowledge may 
 be desired for different purposes. The most common reason 
 for making a survey is the advantages that make for com¬ 
 munity betterment and community spirit that should result 
 from such a study. 
 
 Value of Survey. 
 
 The survey is modern in a significant, sense. Science, with 
 its eagerness for trustworthy information, and business, with 
 its emphasis upon fact, both in these days enforce the value of 
 
4 
 
 Rural Life Conference 
 
 a careful study of community life. Everywhere in our social 
 •life mere opinion proves worthless and an increasing desire is 
 felt for exact knowledge. Thoughtful people appreciate that 
 -community progress requires a scientific basis for community 
 comparison and competition such as the survey provides. The 
 survey appeals to the rational, to the practical, to the scientific. 
 It keeps no fellowship with exaggeration, mere sentiment or 
 selfish exploitation. It is honest in its searching for truth and 
 just in its statements. In the end it proves that frankness and 
 knowledge do more for a community’s prosperity than deceit 
 or guesses, that the first duty of any community is to know 
 itself. 
 
 The Rural Survey. 
 
 The country has every need of community study ti at the 
 -city has. The country problems are the great problems. In 
 forces and opportunities the rural life has the first claim for 
 attention and conservation. The making of a rural survey also 
 -offers a satisfaction that the more complex and changing city 
 life does not permit. Indeed, an authority on city surveys has 
 recently said that the city survey should be made on the unit 
 basis, one section at a time. The rural survey gives the best 
 possible opportunity to test the results of the social study by 
 attempts to improve the country life. The city survey has been 
 of great value; the rural survey must prove of even greater 
 usefulness. 
 
 Kinds of Surveys. 
 
 With reference to content we have surveys of rural indus¬ 
 tries, specific rural problems and general community life. The 
 rural survey most talked about is the study of the community 
 in as great detail as possible. There is real need, however, of 
 surveys of particular industries and survej^s of some specific 
 part of the community life. For example, I read recently that 
 one of your leading fruit men believes that the apple industry 
 of the Northwest will suffer unless there is greater coopera¬ 
 tion among growers. Of course I know nothing concerning the 
 facts, although I do know that eastern apple growers are awake¬ 
 ning to the possibility of raising better apples and that eastern 
 
State College of Washington 
 
 5 
 
 state colleges are preaching to their students the absolute need 
 of cooperation among apple growers at every opportunity. The 
 point I wish to make, however, is that the successful agitation 
 for cooperation among the apple growers of the northwest re¬ 
 quires an accurate and constant knowledge of the conditions 
 of the apple industry, which can only be obtained by the sur¬ 
 vey. What is true of the apple industry is true also of every 
 special rural industry. 
 
 A special problem that can best be met by a preliminary 
 survey to discover actual conditions is that of the consolidated 
 school. Difficult as such a problem often proves in actual 
 practice when a community is divided with reference to the 
 proposition of consolidation, one can hardly question that the 
 first safe step is to learn the exact facts with reference to the 
 problem. This usually is not the step first taken, but it is al¬ 
 ways the wise beginning. 
 
 With reference to purpose, the survey is general or specific. 
 If the general survey gives to science a greater collection of 
 easily used knowledge, the latter provides fuller opportunity 
 for the practical man of affairs. 
 
 Preparation for the Survey. 
 
 A survey needs to be made with forethought. The best pos¬ 
 sible preparation is a study by a group of public spirited and 
 efficient citizens of surveys that have been made and of the 
 program of study that the particular community or industry 
 demands. The ground to be covered, the methods to be fol¬ 
 lowed, the organization of the survey and the uses to be made 
 of the completed work, all need to be carefully planned. The 
 danger of persons with prejudices, axes to grind or theories to 
 defend, engaging in a survey, will be appreciated by anyone 
 with experience. The reformer needs first to be the student 
 and the exploiter must be converted to the responsibilities of 
 serious investigation. 
 
 Organization. 
 
 The organization of the survey is of large importance. It is 
 possible to obtain experts who will take entire charge of the 
 project. For most places this is impractical. Indeed, there are 
 
f, 
 
 Rural Life Conference 
 
 some real advantages in the survey being made by citizens of 
 the locality. Many ministers deserve great credit for the in¬ 
 terest that they have taken in rural surveys that already have 
 been made. I think you will grant, however, that the making 
 of rural surveys ought not to be forced upon country ministers 
 and that the undertaking can best be assumed by business men. 
 Men in business in rural places sometimes make the serious mis¬ 
 take of not being really interested in community prosperity 
 and welfare. Live country business men of foresight will ap¬ 
 preciate the opportunity that cooperation in community study 
 necessarily brings. The very best results of survey organiza¬ 
 tion can probably be obtained by a committee catholic in spirit, 
 representative of the community, not too large to work and 
 willing to delegate parts of the investigation to persons best 
 fitted to obtain the necessary information. The educational 
 results that are bound to come to those who seriously attempt 
 to study the life of a rural community prove of unexpected and 
 permanent value. 
 
 Publicity. 
 
 Makers of rural surveys in the past have given too little at¬ 
 tention to the problem of publicity. A survey is made for use. 
 A rural survey needs most of all to be appreciated by the peo¬ 
 ple of the community that has been studied. It can not have 
 its full success if it appeals only to the rural sociologist and 
 means next to nothing to those who are personally most in¬ 
 terested. It is clear, therefore, that the rural survev needs 
 modern advertising and they who are engaged in making it 
 should study the problem of making it popular. Merely to 
 print results in pamphlet form is to waste human energy. A 
 committee ought to have in hand the problem of publicity. 
 Churches, papers, farmers’ organizations should be urged to 
 help make the results of the investigation known. The weekly 
 paper should be asked to print parts of the survey again and 
 again. Of course it will be printed as a pamphlet for free dis¬ 
 tribution. Even here a mistake in the form in which it is 
 printed will decrease its value. Not in small type on poor 
 paper, but in as attractive a manner as possible it ought to be 
 spread broadcast among the people it concerns. 
 
7 
 
 State College of Washington 
 
 Respecting the Study. 
 
 The usual rural survey is of great value. A better investi¬ 
 gation, however, is one that is made again and again. The 
 community becomes self-conscious of its progress and confi¬ 
 dent of its strength if it knows from time to time that it is 
 making improvements and gaining social efficiency. A careful 
 survey deserves to be continued from period to period. A rural 
 survey that is never followed by later investigation must lose 
 in scientific and practical value. The problems of today will 
 not remain those of tomorrow. A rural survey reports not a 
 dead thing but a living, changing life of human beings. Even 
 the best rural survey will lose its right to authority with the 
 passing of time. 
 
 Ground to be Covered. 
 
 The purpose and character of the survey must determine 
 what it shall contain. The general community study should 
 be very broad. In it should be found all possible information 
 that has social value. Experience teaches that one can not 
 know in advance how valuable a certain gathering of facts may 
 prove. It is easier to discard useless information than it is to 
 repeat the investigation to obtain some valuable knowledge 
 neglected during the first survey. 
 
 A very complete and suggestive outline for a general survey 
 is published in Gillette’s Constructive Rural Sociology —a book 
 that everyone interested in rural problems needs to own. The 
 Russell Sage Foundation has a department prepared to give 
 information concerning the making of social surveys. The 
 Presbyterian Board of Home Missions undertakes the making 
 of rural surveys and have on file excellent rural surveys that 
 already have been made. 
 
 The state colleges are beginning to cooperate in the making 
 of social surveys. Cornell University especially has proven the 
 very great value of information gathered by the rural survey. 
 I expect soon to see a much larger view of the function of the 
 state college. It ought to lead in all educational effort for 
 social betterment. Without doubt the state college of the 
 future will be prepared to direct the rural survey investiga- 
 
8 
 
 Rural Life Conference 
 
 lions. We are training men at New Hampshire State College 
 to take an interest in community survey service and the results 
 of some of the community studies already made by the stu¬ 
 dents are surprisingly valuable. 
 
 The Survey in Washington 
 
 As I speak I am impressed with the importance of the sur¬ 
 vey in the great Northwest. The romance of a great empire in 
 construction captivates one’s attention. You have been drawn 
 by the strong, compelling human instincts to the last frontier 
 of culture. Westward you face the most ancient of civiliza¬ 
 tions. Eastward stretch the older states and nations from 
 which you have come. You are cosmopolitan in the best sense 
 and this is the greatest of all your resources as a people, for 
 from the mixing of the ambitious and brave spirits of many 
 races has always issued the greatest progress. You are free 
 to learn from the mistakes of older communities. You are not 
 as yet entangled in the social traditions that retard progress 
 in the east. You occupy a rich possession in the most splendid 
 century in man’s long history. What a magnificent oppor¬ 
 tunity, what a solemn duy to plan progress with forethought! 
 Hardly has this been done ever before. Surely in the making 
 of progress with forethought you will find real need of the 
 social survey. 
 
 EDUCATIONAL SURVEYS. 
 
 Josephine Preston. 
 
 A survey is the application of thoroughly scientific methods 
 to social and economic phenomena, to secure data upon which 
 o base a scientific program for the increase of human and in¬ 
 stitutional efficiency. 
 
 Growth of the Survey Idea. In part the survey idea is the 
 outgrowth of scientific management in business as developed 
 by Frederic W. Taylor. Many people feel that our school sys¬ 
 tem and state institutions need scientific management as well 
 as business needs it. 
 
State College of Washington 
 
 Scientific management depends upon the securing of com¬ 
 plete information regarding the needs and possibilities of a 
 business. As the test of efficiency was applied to business 
 establishments of great magnitude, so the test of efficiency 
 has later been applied to all human activities in which men are 
 banded together and organized for common purposes. As a 
 result the survey idea has arisen. 
 
 Application. The Country Life Commission in its extended 
 hearings, investigations, and inquiries regarding country life 
 was virtually working along the line of a survey. The later 
 extension of the Country Life movement has employed the 
 survey method in its entirety. And now it is being extended 
 to other fields. 
 
 Probably the first place in which the survey was used so as 
 to gain national prominence was in the great survey of the 
 city of Pittsburg, made and conducted by social experts in the 
 year 1909, I believe. The portrayal of conditions that existed 
 in that great steel manufacturing city, as revealed in that sur¬ 
 vey, showing the great social needs of the people, was a demon¬ 
 stration of the great power of the survey. In fact it was from 
 this incident that the magazine formerly known as ‘ 4 Charities 
 and Commons” changed its title to “The Survey” and has 
 developed into a great social dynamic. 
 
 The Men and Religion Forward Movement, which swept 
 over the country last year, was an illustration of the use of the 
 survey for religious purposes. There were 35 pivotal cities 
 selected for work by the directors of the movement. But the 
 first condition was that a complete social and religious survey 
 should be made of the city before the team should visit the 
 city. This was necessary before they could suggest any rational 
 plan for the city’s betterment. 
 
 Some of the churches have established organizations for the 
 improvement of religious conditions in rural communities. OiV 
 this occasion, at this meeting we find our State College of the 
 State of Washington leading on a state movement to interest 
 the ministers and rural people, as well as the educators of this 
 state in the rural church development. What ever we do we 
 
10 
 
 Rural Life Conference 
 
 .know that first we must work out some plan for a survey of 
 the work and scope of the rural church and then decide upon 
 a plan to do team work towards its development and larger 
 growth. 
 
 Educational Surveys. The educational field has not been 
 overlooked in this endeavor to discover ourselves as a people. 
 A few years ago Greenwich, Conn., employed experts to visit 
 the city and make a survey of the whole educational scheme. 
 The experts investigated the business and equipment, the sani¬ 
 tation, the courses and methods of school administration, and 
 the financial system of the city schools. After their work 
 was finished a great exhibit was held, in which conditions as 
 found by the survey were set forth to the people by graphic 
 means, such as charts, etc. The concrete result was such that 
 the people were so impressed that they adopted the improve¬ 
 ments that they plainly needed and cheerfully voted for higher 
 taxes in order to carry out the needed reforms. 
 
 Other cities have conducted educational surveys, but Green¬ 
 wich, Conn., is a splendid example of the method and of the 
 result. Our states are heeding the “Call of the Survey” and 
 are planning for them in the respective states. 
 
 At present there is being conducted the educational survey 
 of the whole state of Ohio and soon there will be initiated a 
 survey of the educational institutions of Vermont. The plan 
 is to investigate the school systems of the whole state in order 
 to develop a harmonious school system in each state. 
 
 Dr. AVinship, one of our prominent lecturers and educators 
 of the United States says in part in a recent number of the 
 Journal of Education concerning Rhode Island: “Rhode 
 Island, already one of the first ten states in the union in the 
 Sage Foundation scale and first in the length of the school 
 year, has long been in the forefront educationally. The State 
 Superintendent in his automobile can go to any part of the 
 state before schools open in the morning and go home before 
 they close in the afternoon. This is a great asset when it comes 
 to skilled supervision. Rhode Island is an eminently prosper¬ 
 ous state withal, so that salaries are good. Rhode Island was 
 
State College of Washington 
 
 11 
 
 the first or second state to provide pensions for its teachers, 
 setting a pace as to time and a standard as to law which is 
 being followed in the attempts of the other states to enact 
 pension laws. It was the first state to have a ‘survey’ of the 
 public schools of the United States. It may be a little late to 
 report it, but some 70 years ago the legislature of Rhode Island 
 made an appropriation for a survey of the educational con¬ 
 ditions by Henry Barnard. His report was made to the legis¬ 
 lature in a public meeting in the Representative Hall. The 
 repor was accepted by the legislature by a virtually unanimous 
 vote. A state department of education was established and 
 Dr. Henry Barnard was elected as State Commissioner of Edu¬ 
 cation. ’ ’ 
 
 The Agencies that have conducted most of the educational 
 surveys up to the present time are: The Russel Sage Founda¬ 
 tion, The Bureau of Municipal Research, the Carnegie Founda¬ 
 tion. 
 
 One fundamental idea of the survey is that investigators 
 begin their work to discover the truth, not to seek data that 
 will prove their own theories of education. 
 
 Educational Surveys in Washington have not as yet been 
 begun, but it is hoped that the State Department of Education 
 will be able to carry out some such surveys during the present 
 
 biennium. 
 
 FARM FINANCE. 
 
 M. E. Hay. 
 
 As we advance in civilization and knowledge each genera¬ 
 tion has its peculiar problems to meet and to solve. This gen¬ 
 eration has solved many questions effecting our prosperity,, 
 past and present. As our social structure becomes more and 
 more complex, new conditions arise demanding that they be 
 properly solved. 
 
 We have now confronting us one great problem which must 
 be solved if we are to enjoy the prosperity and continue our 
 growth and development as we have in the past, and that is. 
 
12 
 
 Rural Life Conference 
 
 the tendency of our people to leave the farm and go to the 
 cities to reside. In my estimation there are but few questions 
 effecting us that require more careful consideration than the 
 growth of our urban population, which is constantly going on 
 at the expense of rural sections. If one portion of our country 
 is growing in population and another immediately adjoining, 
 equally as well situated, is becoming depopulated to the ad¬ 
 vantage of the other, then there is some reason therefor that 
 requires careful consideration and attention. People do not 
 break up old associations and move about except owing to their 
 health or to improve their social surroundings, or financial 
 affairs. These I take to be the prime reasons why people 
 change their place of abode. 
 
 As relates to health between the city and country districts 
 that is a matter that I think need not be taken into considera¬ 
 tion, for the difference in change of population as between the 
 cities and country sections would be very small. The reason 
 must be that the country people go to the city to improve their 
 social surroundings, or in the hopes of bettering themselves in 
 financial way. 
 
 That the cities have many advantages over the country dis¬ 
 tricts in a social way there is no question. But that is a feature 
 of the question that others better qualified that I will take up 
 and discuss with you. 
 
 The movement from the country to the city is in no small 
 measure for financial reasons, I am quite certain. The problem 
 of financial returns to the farmer is a subject that can be di¬ 
 vided into many reasons, such as the fertility of the soil, 
 methods of farming, efficiency and cost of farm help, method 
 and cost of marketing the crop, ability to secure sufficient 
 money on long time and at a low rate of interest to make his 
 land payments, ability to finance himself during the crop grow¬ 
 ing and marketing period, and other questions that affect farm 
 profits. 
 
 In the past and until quite recently we had large areas of the 
 finest of lands that a man with limited means could acquire 
 ownership of at but little more than the asking. This was a 
 great incentive for a man of small capital to take up his home 
 
State College of Washington 
 
 13 
 
 in the country where he coulcl soon become an independent 
 home owner. The day of the free lands is now gone and lands 
 that could be purchased at a nominal figure but a few years 
 ago today command a good round sum—a fortune to a pool 
 man—and are now out of the reach of a vast number of our 
 people who would remain in the country, or would remove to 
 the country could they but secure money on terms that would 
 v arrant them in engaging in farming operations. Not being 
 able to secure a foothold in the country, and seeing but little 
 opportunity of bettering their financial conditions, they are 
 attracted toward the city where, seemnigly, they may be able 
 to command a better price for what they have to sell—their 
 labor—spending no small portion of all the balance of their 
 lives in day labors, dependent upon some one else for a job. 
 They are rearing their families in an atmosphere that does not 
 give to the child that broad vision of life that is given to the ' 
 child who is raised in the country. 
 
 Could they have secured money on long time and at a suffi¬ 
 ciently low rate of interest that would warrant the investment 
 they would have become permanent residents in the country, 
 and in time would have become independent home owners— 
 the backbone of our Republic. 
 
 Then again we have many who have obtained a temporary 
 foothold in the country, but have been unable to make good for 
 the reason that they have not been able to secure funds to carry 
 them through the crop-growing periods, except at an enormous 
 rate of interest, which has taken all the profit and discouraged 
 them in their efforts. They have sold out and gone to the city. 
 
 Have we financial institutions in this country which a man 
 with small capital but with plenty of energy, from which a 
 man can borrow money on long time and at a sufficiently low 
 rate of interest that he may in time pay out? Not at the prices 
 farm lands now command. Therefore he is compelled to re¬ 
 main a hired hand on the farm, or else seek employment else¬ 
 where. 
 
 Do we have institutions in this country that will carry a 
 farmer through the crop-growing period and furnish him 
 
14 
 
 Rural Life Conference 
 
 sufficient money at a low rate of interest until lie can mar¬ 
 ket his crop? We have not. 
 
 It is our duty then to study this situation to learn if pres¬ 
 ent methods can not he improved upon, or institutions cre¬ 
 ated that will assist the man with small capital who wishes 
 to invest in the country, and to give to him ready money so 
 that he can secure land of his own and furnish him money 
 at a low rate of interest to meet his harvesting expenses and 
 not be compelled to dump his crop on the market as soon as 
 harvested, but allow him to market his crop as conditions 
 warrant a sale, the money to be returned as fast as his crop 
 is disposed of, the rate of interest depending upon the 
 amount of money required and the length of time retained; 
 the greater the amount and the longer time retained, the 
 higher rate of interest. Also to furnish the farmers money 
 to erect community warehouses, cold storage plants, evapora¬ 
 tors, canneries, elevators, creameries, etc. 
 
 We find that in many European countries they have farm¬ 
 ers’ organizations for the very purpose of relieving the con¬ 
 ditions we are complaining of; to assist the man who wishes 
 to purchase land by loaning him money up to To per cent of 
 the value on long time and at a low rate of interest; to 
 furnish the farmer ready money at a nominal rate of 
 interest to harvest and to carry his crop until disposed of. 
 
 During his term of office, President Taft directed the 
 Department of State to make an investigation of the agri¬ 
 cultural credit systems in operation in certain European 
 countries. In his preliminary report to the President, Am¬ 
 bassador Myron T. Herrick states: 
 
 “The investigation conducted thus far warrants the con¬ 
 clusion that land and agricultural credit are so thoroughly 
 organized in most of the European nations that real estate 
 securities are as liquid and sound as municipal bonds, while 
 the honest, capable and industrious farmer is able to supply 
 himself with working funds for short or long time when de¬ 
 sired. The institutions and also the systems devised for these 
 objects have certain basic features in common, but vary con¬ 
 siderable in type, and thereby show a remarkable adaptabil- 
 
State College of Washington 
 
 15 
 
 ity to all sorts of social and economical conditions such as 
 exist in America. The rates of interest at which they are able 
 to lend money fall even below the European commercial rate 
 and are about one-third to one-half less than what prevail in 
 the United States. 
 
 “Farmers in many parts of Europe are as familiar with the 
 credit and banking business as the tradespeople in towns and 
 cities, and the great bulk of their loans have been made on 
 personal or chattel security. The loans secured by land mort¬ 
 gages, as a rule, are not repayable in lump at the end of a 
 few years, but run on for 30 or 50 years, and are gradually 
 wiped out by small semi-annual payments coming out of the 
 income of the property. Foreclosures are infrequent, and no 
 company, dealing principally in these so-called long-time 
 * amortizable” farm loans, has failed or occasioned loss to in¬ 
 vestors in recent times. Farm paper and mortgage bonds are 
 considered investments of the safest sort—the latter being 
 listed on the bourse or stock exchange and having an inter¬ 
 national market. 
 
 “This almost complete organization of land and rural credit 
 in advanced European nations was not a haphazard and spon¬ 
 taneous growth. It was brought about by the insistence of 
 public and private individuals, philanthropists, scholars, bank¬ 
 ers, legislators, agricultural societies, government commissions, 
 and national assemblies, all studying and working in a com¬ 
 mon cause. The history of their efforts in the middle of the. 
 past century reads much like an account of the agitation 
 which has been started in the United States by the American 
 Bankers’ Association, the Southern Commercial Congress, the 
 Federal authorities at Washington, and other bodies and in¬ 
 dividuals for financing the farmer, improving agricultural 
 conditions, and encouraging the movement back to the soil. In 
 Europe the agricultural banks and credit facilities were cre¬ 
 ated before agricultural or even general education was at¬ 
 tempted. The United States began at the opposite end. The 
 American colleges and systems for teaching agriculture are 
 among the oldest and best in the world, and millions of dol¬ 
 lars have been appropriated by the Federal and State legis- 
 
16 
 
 Rural Life Conference 
 
 latures since the passage of the Morrill Act in Lincoln’s ad¬ 
 ministration to aid this science in one way or another. Incal¬ 
 culable good has come therefrom, but the results would have 
 been far greater if financial education had gone hand m hand 
 with this work. It would have led to the study and intro¬ 
 duction of the rural banking methods of Europe generations 
 ago, and so familiarized the American farmers with the uses 
 of credit that the lack of capital and excessive interest rates 
 would not now be interfering with the agriculural develop¬ 
 ment of the country. 
 
 “ Personal credit in agricultural Europe is obtained usually 
 by means of the cooperative credit associations. They are 
 also used by artisans and small tradespeople in the towns and 
 cities. These associations are in fact the only banks which 
 the farmers will patronize for short-time loans in the nations 
 where they abound in the greatest numbers. With their aid 
 poverty and usury have been banished, sterile fields have been 
 made fertile, production has been increased, and agriculture 
 and agricultural science raised to the highest point. Their 
 educational influence is no less marked. They have taught 
 the farmers the uses of credit as well as of cash, given them 
 a commercial instinct and business knowledge, and stimulated 
 them to associated action. They have encouraged thrift and 
 saving, created a feeling of independence and self-reliance, and 
 even elevated their moral tone. v 
 
 “The picture can hardly be overdrawn. Every traveler who 
 visits the places where these little associations exist speaks 
 in glowing phases of the prosperity and contentment that pre¬ 
 vail. They are organized on such simple lines that their man¬ 
 agement requires only ordinary intelligence. Failures have 
 rarely occurred. In France and other countries they hold a 
 record of never having lost a cent. The working capital and 
 number of members of individual associations are so small as 
 to be insignificant, yet they do one-third of the banking busi¬ 
 ness of Italy; while the combined amount of their operations 
 in Germany equal that of the commercial banks. But tha 
 mutual banks, both in town and country, are looked upon with 
 favor in the financial world because they keep millions of dol- 
 
State College of Washington 
 
 17 
 
 lars of petty sums in circulation which, except for them, would 
 be idle and hoarded. They are, in fact, feeders for the com¬ 
 mercial banking system. 
 
 “In 1909 in Belgium 458 banks, with a membership of 25,762,. 
 had outstanding (rouglity calculated) $4,000,000 of loans; in 
 France 96 regional banks did upward of $25,000,000 of busi¬ 
 ness on a capital of $2,983,646; while the 2,983 local banks,, 
 with a membership of 133,382 farmers, had $2,622,241 of capi¬ 
 tal and a record of over $20,500,000 of operations. There were 
 nearly 6,000 banks in Austria. The membership was over 
 725,666, and the loans ran over $86,500,000. In Italy 690 
 banks that furnished reports had a. working capital of over 
 $170,091,946. In Germany there is one bank for every 1,600. 
 of the population, and the total business done was over $4,- 
 888,000,000. In one Province there is a bank for every 3,000 
 acres of land, and so on for all other nations that have co¬ 
 operative credit institutions. 
 
 “With this striking array of figures to show its stability and 
 usefulness, it is remarkable that the farmers of the United 
 States have been so slow to adopt this system of banking for 
 temporary loans on personal security. It has existed in Can¬ 
 ada for 22 years. In the Province of Quebec there are a num¬ 
 ber of mutual banks that have loaned hundreds of thousands, 
 of dollars. Massachusetts is the only state in our country 
 that has made an attempt to encourage its introduction. It 
 already has a law allowing the incorporation of credit unions. 
 It was passed in 1909 after a careful study of European legis¬ 
 lation, and furnishes an excellent example for the other states. 
 The first concern to start under this law was the Myrick 
 Credit Union at Springfield. In 12 months it had 105 mem¬ 
 bers, a capital of $3,000, and $10,000 of outstanding loans. 
 Interest rates have been low, yet it paid over 6 per cent divi¬ 
 dends on its capital. Thirteen new unions were formed in 
 1911 and have $25,000 of capital. A pamphlet issued by the 
 State Bank Commissioner gives a comprehensive description 
 of the fundamental principles that a mutual association for 
 personal credit must adhere to.” 
 
 In Germany, the home of the cooperative land and agricul- 
 
18 
 
 Rural Life Conference 
 
 tural credit, they have several systems: The Landsehaften, 
 the Raiffeisen, the Sehulze-Delitzch, are the more prominent. 
 The object of the associations is to give credit to their mem¬ 
 bers on favorable terms and not to make a commercial profit. 
 
 The main principles underlying all forms of cooperative 
 credit are that if a group of persons combine to furnish a 
 collective guaranty they can, on the security of that guaranty, 
 obtain money at lower rates of interest than they could indi¬ 
 vidually. The collective guaranty may be that of real prop¬ 
 erty. A number of land owners may obtain capital on the 
 security of a collective mortgage on their lands. This is the 
 basis of the German Landsehaften—the oldest form of co¬ 
 operative credit institutions. Or the collective guaranty may 
 be a personal one. A number may obtain capital by making 
 themselves jointly responsible. The liability may be unlimited 
 as under the Raiffeisen system, or a limited liability as under 
 the Sehulze-Delitzsch system. 
 
 Upon such guaranties capital may be obtained in a variety 
 of ways. In Germany the Landsehaften issue bonds, but the 
 Raiffeisen banks derive their working capital mainly from the 
 deposits they are able to attract. In France the rural banks 
 depend mainly upon capital advanced by the state. In all 
 countries the credit societies are able to obtain capital from 
 the larger banking institutions or from the investing public. 
 
 Having obtained the capital, the group of persons must be 
 able to lend it to one another at a rate of interest only slightly 
 in excess of the rate which they pay collectively. This requires 
 two conditions: (1) that the expenses of the management shall 
 be small in proportion to the business done, and (2) that the 
 risk of loss shall be reduced to a minimum. 
 
 Where the business is very large, the expenses are not pro¬ 
 portionately high, even if the undertaking be conducted on 
 ordinary commercial lines, as we shall see in the case of the 
 Sehulze-Delitzch banks. Where, however, the business is 
 small there must be no attempt to pay high dividends and the 
 management must be largely voluntary. In the banks formed 
 on the Raiffeisen system (which are individually small, though 
 in the aggregate they do an enormous business) the payment 
 
State College of Washington 
 
 19 
 
 of dividends is either prohibited altogether, or it is limited to 
 a small percentage, while the management is almost entirely 
 gratuitous. 
 
 To reduee the risk of loans to members, many safeguards 
 have been devised which are adopted to varying extents in the 
 different systems. 
 
 Where the members are land owners and can give mort¬ 
 gages of their property, it is only necessary to insure that the 
 amount of the loan shall be fully secured by the mortgage, 
 allowing for any possible depreciation in the value of the 
 property. Loans on mortgage are, however, an inconvenient 
 form of credit, where capital is only required for a compara¬ 
 tively short period, and the following are the principal safe¬ 
 guards for loans given on personal security: 
 
 1. That loans are only made to members of the group and 
 that only persons known to be trustworthy are admitted. 
 
 2. That membership is confined to persons residing with¬ 
 in a small district and that, therefore, the members are per¬ 
 sonally known to one another. 
 
 3. That the members being mutually responsible, it will 
 be to the interest of all members to keep an eye upon a bor¬ 
 rower and to see that he makes proper use of the money lent 
 to him. 
 
 4. That, in like manner, it is to the interest of all mem¬ 
 bers to help a member when he is in difficulties. 
 
 5. That the borrower is required to find sureties or give 
 other collateral security for the repayment of the loan. 
 
 6. That the borrower binds himself to apply his loan to a 
 specific purpose which will bring in a monetary return suffic¬ 
 ient to enable him to repay the sum borrowed, to pay the in¬ 
 terest charged, and to leave a net profit for himself. 
 
 In France they have a state endowed institution known as 
 the Credit Agricole Mutuel, which was founded some 14 years 
 ago. The ground work of the system consists of a number of 
 in dividual societies organized on the principle of Raiffeisenism. 
 The funds for financing the scheme are largely supplied by the 
 state, which, as a condition of the renewal of the charter by 
 the Bank of France in 1897, should loan, without interest, the 
 
20 
 
 Rural Life Conference 
 
 bum of forty millions of francs for the purpose of agrieulture r 
 and should in addition furnish a further annual sum by way 
 of tax for the same purpose. 
 
 The French system is somewhat complex, and I doubt if it 
 could be worked out in this country unless considerably modi¬ 
 fied. 
 
 The problem of financing our agricultural classes is one that 
 requires careful consideration, and no steps should be taken 
 until we are sure of our ground. 
 
 In my message to the last legislature I recommended that 
 an appropriation be made and a commission appointed for the 
 purpose of making a thorough investigation of cooperative 
 rural banking to the end that some system might be devised 
 or adopted that would be of benefit to our farming popula¬ 
 tion. I understand that no action was taken. Agitation should 
 be kept up on this question and action demanded of the next 
 legislature. 
 
 COOPERATIVE MARKETING. 
 
 H. C. Sampson. 
 
 Before 1912 Northwestern box apples were a novelty and 
 as such sold themselves. With 1912 the Northwestern apple 
 ceased to be a novelty, because a commodity, and therefore 
 ceased to sell itself, and now, like any other product or arti¬ 
 cle of manufacture, requires a scientific, constructive selling 
 machine. 
 
 In 1912 there was: (1) an over-production of fruit, or (2) 
 an under-distribution and failure of the then marketing ma¬ 
 chines to handle that fruit. And with only ten per cent of 
 our present apple acreage of the states of Oregon, Washing¬ 
 ton, Idaho, and Montana in bearing, in 1912, if there was an 
 over-production, what will happen when one hundred per cent 
 of that acreage comes into bearing? 
 
 These four states at present have 505,000 acres of apples al¬ 
 ready planted, to say nothing of approximately 75,000 acres 
 of other fruits. If, because of poor selection of orchard sites, 
 soil and varieties, poor judgment of growers, and effects of 
 
State College of Washington 
 
 21 
 
 pests and diseases, we eliminate 255,000 acres of apples as 
 being non-commercial, we still have 250,000 acres confronting 
 ns some few years in the future. 
 
 I am told that a twelve-year-old orchard should produce a 
 carload per acre. To be perfectly conservative assume the 
 production will be one-half carload per acre for twelve-year- 
 cld trees. We then have confronting us in the near future 
 125,000 carloads of apples instead of 8,000 as in 1913, and 
 15,000 as in 1912. If then, there were an over-production in 
 1912 and the then marketing machinery was as effective as 
 any we can develop, we should dig up our apple trees imme¬ 
 diately. 
 
 However, after traveling more than 17,000 miles and giving 
 more than eighteen months of study to this proposition; talk¬ 
 ing with growers, railway officials, bankers, business men, 
 heads of organizations, United States Department of Agricul¬ 
 ture, wholesalers, commission men, retailers, and in fact with 
 all I could come in contact with whose judgment I thought 
 might bear on the case, I feel assured that there was no over¬ 
 production in 1912, and that with proper selection of place and 
 variety, with proper pruning, cultivation, thinning, spraying, 
 etc., and with the right sort of marketing and distributing ma¬ 
 chinery and that machinery in control of a sufficient per cent 
 of our tonnage, I feel perfectly assured, I say, that there is 
 ahead of the Northwest apple grower a reasonable price for 
 his labor, and a reasonable interest return on his investment. 
 
 The expert orchardist is the one to outline and direct, with 
 regard to choice of site, the orchard cultivation, in short the 
 scientific side of production. But just as scientific manufac¬ 
 turing can not succeed without scientific advertising, distri¬ 
 bution and selling organizations, so scientific production alone 
 results in failure without scientific advertising, distributing 
 and selling machinery. 
 
 If, then, I am correct thus far in my analysis of the neces¬ 
 sity of a better and larger selling institution, and with a larger 
 tonnage than in 1912, the question naturally arises to me, an 
 apple grower, can I wisely and successfully handle my own 
 product this coming season and for succeeding seasons and 
 
22 
 
 Rural Life Conference 
 
 particularly when that 125,000 carloads of apples stares me 
 in the face a few years hence? 
 
 Every trade or sale is a contest between the minds, person¬ 
 ality, knowledge of conditions, as well as the experience, of the 
 two men making the trade. If it be the sale of apples each 
 man brings to the selling or buying his knowledge of market 
 and crop conditions and his experience in the selling or buy¬ 
 ing of fruit, together with his personality and business capac¬ 
 ity. For example: Some months ago the biggest buyer 
 -of boxed fruit in the United States sat in our office 
 in conference with our sales manager and general 
 manager. He wanted approximately a quarter of a million 
 dollars worth of apples, and incidentally ten carloads of prunes. 
 He knew thoroughly and well the market and crop conditions, 
 because as a buyer of probably four to five million dollars’ 
 worth of apples each year he can well afford to pay a snug 
 sum of money per year for a wonderfully accurate and help- 
 fid knowledge of crop and market situations. He likewise 
 brought to this barter or meeting with our officers an experi¬ 
 ence of twenty-five to thirty years in the fruit game. Now I, 
 as an individual apple grower, can not spend what the North 
 Pacific Fruit Distributors can and has spent this present sea¬ 
 son for market and crop reports, viz: the stupdenous sum of 
 $20,000, in order to have a knowledge of crop and market con¬ 
 ditions equal to that of the buyer himself. But six thousand 
 growers associated together in the North Pacific Fruit Dis¬ 
 tributors can and have spent such a sum of money that their 
 officers, who are the growers’ representatives, may be as fully 
 informed on these things as is the buyer himself, and therefore 
 can meet the buyer on his own ground. 
 
 When this buyer talked prunes he stated the price in New 
 York w r as low and would probably go lower. A telegram that 
 very day from New York city, shown to the would-be buyer, 
 and stating that the price of prunes was firm and would go 
 higher, took away from the buyer the strength of his argu¬ 
 ment. He could but smile on this point and come back to the 
 contest with a statement that our own production in these 
 four Northwestern states was unusually large and therefore 
 
State College of Washington 
 
 23 
 
 we must expect a lower priee than we w r ere demanding. Ref¬ 
 erence to our minute book, containing the confidential crop 
 report from our trustees (made possible through the coopera¬ 
 tion of the prune growers of the Northwest), show T ed the buyer 
 that again he was in error, as our crop outlook was below and 
 not above normal as he claimed. Then he stated that other 
 prune growing sections than ours had unusually large crops 
 ann therefore, in competition with this over-production else¬ 
 where, our prices must be lowered. But when our sales man¬ 
 ager quietly produced telegrams from these other various, 
 prune growing sections and proved the buyer wrong for the 
 third time, the buyer smiled for the third time and immedi¬ 
 ately agreed to pay us a total of $1,100 more for those ten car¬ 
 le.ads of prunes than he had within ten minutes before stated 
 positively he would pay. 
 
 Again I repeat, then, that as an individual grower I can not 
 meet this buyer or any other buyer with that knowledge of 
 market and crop conditions and buying or selling experience, 
 and therefore can not hold my own with him. 
 
 And what is true of me, an individual grower, to almost the 
 same degree is true with a small local association or independ¬ 
 ent concern handling but a small tonnage, and would be equal¬ 
 ly true of a large association in any one district. The local 
 association could do little better than I, and the whole Yakima 
 or whole Hood River or whole Wenatchee District, if abso¬ 
 lutely together in one association, could still do a great deal 
 more than could the individual grower or the small associa¬ 
 tion or concern, but it could not do what six to ten thousand 
 growers from all districts can and are doing through the North 
 Pacific Fruit Distributors, and will continue to do in succeed¬ 
 ing years to a much larger degree. 
 
 As an individual grower I can not create and maintain and 
 secure a demand for a uniform grade and pack and brand that 
 will cause people to know and demand my fruit throughout the 
 entire country and bring me an increase of price because of 
 that name and brand. My tonnage alone is not sufficient to 
 do this, and again, what is true of me is true of the small local 
 
24 
 
 Rural Life Conference 
 
 concern or organization and to a partial degree is true of even 
 our bigger valley or district associations of the present day. 
 
 For many years I bought oranges without knowing one type 
 or kind or brand and often the oranges I bought were very 
 unsatisfactory. But in the past few years I have learned a 
 grade and brand of oranges packed by a reputable growers' 
 organization of California. And knowing that these oranges 
 are always uniform and always of high grade, I demand and 
 take no other brand, even though the price be ten or fifteen 
 cents more per dozen than for some other orange which my 
 dealer may assure me is “just as good or better”. This same 
 thing is absolutely true of our apples, and can be brought 
 about only through the affiliation of many thousands of grow¬ 
 ers, as is the case today with the North Pacific Fruit Distribu¬ 
 tors. 
 
 Recently a grower in Yakima Valley asked permission to 
 turn the “Y” (which indicated his brand) inside of his peach 
 boxes and put his own name and brand on the outside. This 
 permission was given, but the inspection made on this carload 
 of peaches was the same made and required on all the ‘ 4 Big Y 
 Brand” output. This particular carload of peaches was sold - 
 by us in Portland, the buyer having ordered “Y” Brand 
 peaches. 
 
 But the buyer w T as very angry when he received these 
 peaches and called us by long distance to know why he had 
 not received what he ordered. We assured him he had re- 
 received 4 ‘Y” Brand peaches, “Y” Brand grade, and “Y” 
 Brand inspection, and that the “Y” Brand was on the inside 
 of the boxes. He said that made no difference at all as his 
 retail customers had built up a trade for “Y” Brand peaches, 
 their consumers demanded “Y” Brand peaches and nothing 
 but “Y” Brand peaches would satisfy them. It was then 
 necessary for us to make an allowance of 5c per crate on this 
 entire carload of peaches (a total of $55) because this grower 
 would not make use of the established brand and reap the 
 benefit thereby. I, as a grower, need the assistance of six to 
 ten thousand other growers to help me create and maintain 
 such grades and brands in order that there will be a demand 
 
State College of Washington 
 
 25 
 
 at better prices for my product. This I can not do if I turn 
 one consignment to this man today and that man tomorrow, 
 this section of the country today and that one tomorrow, or 
 sell to this dealer today and another tomorrow. Then, too, I 
 haven’t a sufficient output to maintain a grade and brand. 
 And what is true of me is true of my neighbors, and true of 
 small associations. Six to ten thousand growers banded to¬ 
 gether can make a uniform grade, pack and brand, and there¬ 
 fore reap the benefit. 
 
 As an individual grower I can not distribute my fruit wisely, 
 for- a wise distribution requires that no market have too much 
 fruit at any one time and no market too little. If I knew 
 where every other grower and organization was going to ship 
 I perhaps could distribute my staff wisely, but that knowledge 
 I never have. 
 
 If all other growers work separately we will flood some mar- 
 • kets and starve others and thereby get the most disastrous re¬ 
 sults. This was undoubtedly the cause in 1912 when our dis¬ 
 tribution was very imperfect. Two or three hundred little 
 associations or independent dealers will be much better in 
 this respect perhaps than five or six thousand growers work¬ 
 ing separately and independently of each other, but two or 
 three hundred little selling organizations will undoubtedly cut 
 each others’ throats as in 1912, and no one, particularly the 
 producer, would gain thereby. 
 
 Recently the North Pacific Fruit Distributors, through mar¬ 
 ket reports, found that the distribution was too heavy towards 
 Chicago and middle west, New York and export points. Im¬ 
 mediately we sent an expert through Oklahoma and Texas 
 points and found there was a keen demand, at prices from 
 fifteen to twenty cents per box better than we could possibly 
 receive in Chicago and New York points. But it is too ex¬ 
 pensive for me, an individual grower, to send a man to spy 
 out more desirable markets and thus relieve the congestion 
 of Chicago and New York and create a better demand for 
 our present storage stock in those points and find an immedi¬ 
 ate output with very satisfactory prices in Texas and Okla¬ 
 homa or other points. But thanks to the tonnage and means 
 
26 
 
 Rural Life Conference 
 
 available through the cooperation of six thousand growers 
 our organization can and did do this thing. Small local or in¬ 
 dependent associations could not do this, and the expense 
 would be somewhat heavy on the part of large districts or 
 groups of associations with a membership of only 300 to 500. 
 But a membership of six thousand can easily bear this burden 
 which becomes very light when divided among so many 
 shoulders. 
 
 As an individual grower I can not leave my orchard and 
 accompany my carload of fruit east, nor can I employ and 
 station men, on a salary basis, at all the leading division points 
 on the railways, such as San Francisco, Dallas (Texas), Omaha, 
 Denver. Butte, Winnipeg, Minneapolis, Chicago, New York, 
 and London as is the ease with the North Pacific Fruit Dis¬ 
 tributors. Nor can I afford or secure seventy to one hundred 
 exclusive agents in as many additional distributive points 
 throughout the United States and Canada, to send me daily 
 market and crop reports, to inspect carloads of fruit passing 
 through their cities, to inspect for me fruit rejected by buyers, 
 to solicit orders for carloads of fruit from their customers and 
 friends; all of which I can not possibly do at this long range. 
 Six to ten thousand growers affiliated together in an organi¬ 
 zation can employ such salaried representatives and such other 
 exclusive agents as the North Pacific Fruit Distributors do, so 
 that each individual grower has more than one hundred capa¬ 
 ble men wisely “staked out.” as it were, in all the principal 
 distributive and diversion points of the civilized world, and 
 all on the lookout each day for each individual growers' in¬ 
 terests. And the experience of the distributors this season is 
 lliat the nearness of a representative to a carload of fruit at 
 its destination often causes the buyer to accept that carload 
 at the full f*. o. b. price, whereas the absence of the owner, or 
 his representative (and especially a solitary fruit grower three 
 thousand miles away), will permit the buyer to beat down the 
 price on the assumption that the fruit is not up to grade and 
 quality. In this way many thousands of dollars can be saved 
 to the individual grower by the big organization through its 
 personal representatives. But these personal representatives. 
 
State College of Washington 
 
 27 
 
 can not possibly be maintained by the individual grower or the 
 small organization and only to a partial degree by a; large dis¬ 
 trict organization. But a big central organization <ean and 
 does get effective results in this particular. 
 
 I, as an individual grower, can not set my price wisely be¬ 
 cause I lack knowledge of market and crop, conditions. Nor 
 can I, wdth my small tonnage, maintain and advance that price 
 and force an f. o. b. basis, as every other trade or< profession 
 than that of the farmer does determine and maintain, the price 
 of its product or its labor through intelligent, cooperation 
 (called organization or combination in the case of capital and 
 union in the case of labor). But a majority of the growers 
 banded together, with a knowledge of the market and crop 
 conditions, can set a fair price for their product and compel 
 that fair price to be paid. The North Pacific Fruit Distribu¬ 
 tors in July served wide notice on the buyers that the growers 
 affiliated with it would have a greater knowledge of market 
 and crop conditions and, in justice to themselves, would de¬ 
 mand a fair division of the profits. And these growers, 
 through the North Pacific Fruit Distributors, for the first 
 time in the history of the Northwest or the apple industry 
 anywhere, did determine the price at which their product 
 should be sold. i 
 
 They stated that the opening price would be moderately low 
 for a certain percentage of their tonnage; that in,about a week 
 or ten days the price would be advanced from five, to ten cents 
 per box, and that this same step would be taken each week or 
 ten days as long as the conditions, season and mark ex .justi¬ 
 fied. This the distributors absolutely carried out to the letter 
 For example, the opening price on extra fancy Jonathans 163 
 and larger was made $1.35 (smaller extra fancy Jonathans, 
 other grades of Jonathans and other varieties and grades of 
 apples in due ratio), the price then was advanced from $1.35 
 to $1.40 (all other grades and varieties in proportion), then to 
 $i.50, $1.60, $1.65, $1.75, and finally to $1.85. Likewise extra 
 fancy winesaps 163 and larger were started at $1.50 and today 
 are $2.10. 
 
 This program was absolutely carried out to the letter and 
 
28 
 
 Rural Life Conference 
 
 thereby tlie ; market was made stable, both for men in our own 
 organization and buyers and dealers outside of our organiza¬ 
 tion. Big eastern buyers having confidence that we could in 
 this manner force a rising market were willing and glad to 
 buy in largo quantities of us, we selling a proper percentage 
 of our fruit at each step as the price advanced. Never before 
 in the history of the Northwest has the apple market been on 
 a continuous rise as in this season. 
 
 The short season is not alone responsible for this condition, 
 because many other short seasons have prevailed in the past 
 fifteen years, yet always heretofore has the price stopped ris¬ 
 ing and often declined during the harvesting season. This was 
 not true 1 in 1913 for the reason that the distributors’ early 
 sales helped to diminish the number of carloads usually sent 
 tramping unsold during the harvest season. And more than 
 that, the purchase of large quantities of fruit by big eastern 
 buyers before the peak of the harvest set a pace for the hun¬ 
 dreds and thousands of little buyers, and they followed the lead 
 of the big “bell wether” buyers, and themselves became buy¬ 
 ers and therefore boosters for the box-apple product. I, an 
 individual grower, could not possibly have accomplished this 
 result. It is equally impossible for a small local association or 
 independent dealer or even a sub-central or district associa¬ 
 tion with a thousand members to do this thing. Only through 
 the cooperation of six to ten thousand growers controlling at 
 least fifty per cent of the Northwestern product is such a con¬ 
 trol of price and price making possible, as was done by the 
 distributors (i. e. 6,000 growers in organization) in 1913—the 
 first time in the history of the American Northwest. 
 
 I, as an individual grower, could not furnish a buyer with 
 all the fruit he wants in any grade, variety, and from any sec¬ 
 tion. A big buyer in New York can go to our New York or 
 Chicago office, or come to the main office at Spokane, or by 
 letter or wire, can arrange through a big central organization 
 like ours, for McIntosh from Montana, Wageners from Spo¬ 
 kane, Yellow Newtowns from Hood River, Winesaps from 
 Yakima or Wenatchee, and any other grade or variety or kind 
 he chooses from any one or all of the various apple producing 
 
State College of Washington 
 
 29 
 
 sections. The big buyer thus can save time and money by 
 dealing with a responsible organization that will guarantee 
 the fulfillment of its contracts as to quality and variety, guar¬ 
 antee its grade and pack, and with it carry a dependency and 
 observance of the ethics of the trade that is not possible on 
 the part of any one individual grower, local association, inde¬ 
 pendent buyer or all-district organization, even if it controlled 
 every individual grower of the entire section, as of the Yakinva 
 or the Wenatchee or the Rogue River or the Walla Walla or 
 South Idaho. Not only then must we have thousands of grow¬ 
 ers in a big organization, but those growers should cover all 
 the fruit producing sections of the whole Northwest. 
 
 Nowadays intelligent advertising is essential to the sale of 
 any product. No individual grower can advertise his product 
 successfully when every one of his neighbors and other grow¬ 
 ers in the Northwest receives nearly as much benefit from that 
 advertising as the man who pays the bill. Advertising must 
 be broad, conservative, intelligently directed, and with money 
 enough to carry it on a large scale. This can be done only 
 through a large organization representing thousands o£ indi¬ 
 vidual growers. 
 
 Many matters of legislation, protection of the orchard in¬ 
 dustry, constructive work on the control of pests, the gather¬ 
 ing and organizing of much information of great value to the 
 growers, such as Panama Canal rates, effects, desirability, re¬ 
 frigeration, etc., can not be handled by the individual grower. 
 It is too expensive for the individual, but is not too expensive 
 when conducted by a big organization representing thousands 
 of growers. The consignment man, the cash buyer, the in¬ 
 dependent dealer, these men are not twelve months on the job 
 tabulating and comparing and contrasting district with dis¬ 
 trict and bringing a wealth of information to the individual 
 grower as is being done by the North Pacific Fruit Distribu¬ 
 tors, with its 6,000 members. 
 
 Recently Congress proposed to prohibit the storage of ap¬ 
 ples longer than 90 clays, also to prohibit storage in the east 
 ol any stock that had already been stored in the west. Both 
 of these provisions would have brought incalculable harm to 
 
30 
 
 Rural Life Conference 
 
 the orchard industry. Six thousands growers, through the 
 North Pacific Fruit Distributors (within two days of the time 
 their letters and wires reached the senators and representa¬ 
 tives from the four northwestern states) secured the elimina¬ 
 tion of these two undesirable features from the proposed legis¬ 
 lation. In like manner will they materially aid in securing at 
 little expense to the growers the uniform box bill that the 
 Northwest has so long wanted. 
 
 As an individual grower I do not have the power that is 
 necessary in handling successfully any large industry. Re¬ 
 cently, when the Illinois Central smashed and burned ten car¬ 
 loads of peaches in one trainload between St. Louis and Chi¬ 
 cago for the North Pacific Fruit Distributors, it recpiired but 
 ten days to get from them a settlement in full for these ten 
 carloads and to pass the same on to the growers. Many other 
 illustrations of this nature I could give. When the lack of 
 competitive railways in a little Yakima valley was used by a 
 certain railway as a basis for an excess freight charge of $16’ 
 per car for a twelve-mile haul, the assurance on our part (rep¬ 
 resenting other sections where there was competition) that 
 fer every $16 collected in this way by this railroad, said rail¬ 
 road would lose five carloads of freight, totaling $1,575, that 
 rightly belonged to this road, but would be diverted to other 
 lines, brought the elimination of this $16 and thus saved the 
 growers of this valley approximately $1,000 of excess freight 
 charges this season. And, as the tonnage of this valley in¬ 
 creases, the value of the saving will proportionately increase. 
 There are many other illustrations just like this of power 
 through organization that can not be obtained by an individual 
 grower, a local association, an independent dealer, a commis¬ 
 sion man or a cash buyer. 
 
 All individual growers can not finance themselves with a 
 perishable product as collateral security. But this present year 
 the North Pacific Fruit Distributors and its allied associations 
 —thanks to good inspection, good assembling and competent 
 selling facilities—have made a perishable product a basis for 
 stable credit for nearly one-half million dollars—every cent of 
 which was paid before it was due. And though I, an individual 
 
State College of Washington 
 
 31 
 
 grower, might be able to borrow money at the bank, not be¬ 
 cause of my fruit, but because of other assets, my neighbor, if 
 riot likewise able to borrow, is forced to sell his fruit at a sacri¬ 
 fice in order to get money, and he thus aids in lowering the 
 
 price of all fruit, and consequently that of every other grower. 
 
 ■ 
 
 The financing side then is an important one. And, through co¬ 
 operation of six to ten thousand growers, a lower interest rate 
 Cali be secured and the financing can be better handled just as 
 the city in its bonding system can secure a far lower rate be- 
 cause of its larger security than (-an the individual grower or 
 citizen. 
 
 Insurance and storage are likewise vital problems that I, an 
 individual grower, can not handle to the best advantage. The 
 railways tell us that they can not carry in refrigerator cars 
 more than 30,000 carloads during the shipping season. If this 
 is correct, contracts must then be made with shipbuilding con¬ 
 cerns to handle our excess tonnage by water, or storage houses 
 must be erected and maintained, insurance and storage for 
 large quantities of fruit must be provided for. And these 
 things I, an individual grower, can not do. But the big cen¬ 
 tral selling organization can handle these affairs wisely and 
 economically. The local association, or the little independent 
 buyer, or the consignment man may do a little better than the 
 individual grower, but the problem is too big for them just 
 as the building of the Panama Canal is too big for private 
 capital or a private concern. 
 
 It seems to me that I have conclusively proved the value of 
 a big selling organization over the individual grower, the small 
 organization and the independent or consignment concerns, 
 ^nd the big organization, through the economy possible by 
 concentration, and through its better selling machine, brings 
 a larger net return to the individual grower than he can ob¬ 
 tain year in and year out on an average for all of his product, 
 than is the case with any other of these various organizations, 
 But if these things were not true, the additional advantages 
 for service rendered (as I have outlined above) by a big cen¬ 
 tral selling agency is, itself, worth fifteen to twenty-five cents 
 per box to the individual grower. The independent buyer and 
 
32 
 
 Rural Life Conference 
 
 the consignment man are not forever on the job rendering these 
 srvices as is the big organization directly representing the 
 grower. 
 
 If I can not sell my own product, then what am I to do? 
 Shall I turn it over on consignment? Automobile manufac¬ 
 turers require payment in cash for each car they turn over to 
 their agents to sell. Therefore no automobile agent cuts the 
 price to such a degree that there is loss to the manufacturer. 
 But if instead of requiring cash from their agents the manu¬ 
 facturers would turn over their automobiles on consignment 
 and send great quantities indiscriminately to various distribu¬ 
 tive centers (as has previously been the case with fruit), and 
 would say to their agents '‘get the best price you can and keep 
 ten per cent commission for making the sale,” what then would 
 happen? Price-cutting would mean merely a smaller net 
 commission to the agent, but would also mean increased sales 
 to the agent. But this price-cutting would mean net loss to 
 the manufacturer. Now, instead of automobiles, substitute a 
 perishable product and instead of a few wealthy well-organ¬ 
 ized automobile manufacturers substitute thousands and thou¬ 
 sands of unorganized growers and turn their product over on 
 consignment to agents they can not check upon as the auto 
 manufacturer can do and what then would be the result? Why, 
 demoralization of course, as has been the case always hereto¬ 
 fore. Therefore I do not want to turn my fruit over on the 
 consignment plan because I am opposed to it on principle other 
 than as emergency demands; in which event the consignment 
 man has his place and is performing a meritorious service, and 
 I am opposed to it because it makes for price-cutting and de¬ 
 moralization. 
 
 Anyway, the consignment man was here in 1912 and his 
 machinery broke down; and if it broke down in 1912 with 10 
 per cent of our acreage in bearing, what can I hope from it 
 w T hen one hundred per cent of our acreage is in bearing? 
 
 What of the cash buyer? I believe in him. However, when 
 the crop is short he is here, and when the crop is heavy he is 
 not here. And frequently he changes his complexion from that 
 of a cash buyer to that of a consignment man. Besides, his 
 
State College of Washington 
 
 33 
 
 machinery, too, broke down in 1912. And if the fruit industry 
 of the Northwest is put upon a stable basis I must help pro¬ 
 vide a machine so big, so soundly constructed, so. dependable, 
 that it will carry the load when we have one hundred and 
 twenty-five thousand carloads of fruit to market instead of 
 fifteen thousand, as in 1912. 
 
 Nothing short then of a big organization representing fifty 
 or more per cent of the commercial tonnage of the Northwest 
 will, f believe, successfully and scientifically market the fruit 
 year in and year out and thus preserve our orchard industry. 
 "Without such an organization there will be chaos. With such 
 an organization, rightly manned and constructed on right 
 principles, there will be order and a preservation of our in¬ 
 dustry. i. 
 
 If you will grant me, then, that a big organization is neces¬ 
 sary, the one remaining question for a fruit grower to decide 
 is: “Do I want a cooperative organization owned and con¬ 
 trolled absolutely by the growers themselves, and in their 
 interests, or do 1 want to turn it over to an independent, pri¬ 
 vate, profit-making business concern, which in most instances 
 is controlled outside of, and away from, the fruit growing 
 sections of the Northwest, and is owned and controlled bv men 
 having little, if any, interest at all in the business or growing 
 side of the Northwest, and in some instances by men more 
 largely interested in eastern barrelled apples, and citrous 
 fruits and bananas V’ To me there is but one answer to this 
 
 * ' ; J 
 
 question. The independent private concern will tend towards 
 a monopoly like that of the banana industry in which the 
 grower is absolutely at the mercy of the organization. Even 
 though manned and controlled at the present time by men 
 who are honest and men who are capable, it may eventually 
 be sold to, or inherited by, men who are neither honest nor 
 capable. 
 
 I can not possibly lend my assistance then to the organiza¬ 
 tion of a machine that mav itself be entirelv disinterested in 
 
 * %j 
 
 the box-apple business and in time may hold me absolutely 
 helpless in its grasp. For if it is a big private'oragnization 
 marketing apples, citrus fruits, possibly banana*, barrelled 
 
34 
 
 Rural Life Conference 
 
 apples and'other products, if it can not make the money it 
 desires to make on the box-apple business, having no financial 
 interest in the Northwest, it may decline to handle our box 
 apples, and without question may substitute bananas or citrus 
 fruit or barrelled apples. It does not care if the box-apple 
 business goes entirely to the bow wows. In other words its 
 interest in the box-apple business is only in exploiting it for its 
 own profit. But the cooperative association is owned by those 
 who grow the fruit, and the vital interest of the cooperative 
 association is in preserving the fruit industry of the North¬ 
 west. It can make money for its members only by economi¬ 
 cally and properly managing the sale of its orchard products. 
 And it has no other business than this one thing. But the in¬ 
 dependent business concern, if it can make more profit on 
 citrus fruits or bananas or barrelled apples, will naturally sub¬ 
 stitute these products for the Northwest box apples, and there¬ 
 fore permit the apple industry in this territory to languish 
 and die. 
 
 In 1912 every known type of selling machine in the four 
 Northwestern states failed. The machine that most nearly 
 succeeded was that one which happened to be the largest, the 
 one built 015 a co-operative basis, ami the one manned by those 
 who are important factors in the control today of the North 
 Pacific Fruit Distributors. And the organizations that more 
 nearly met this one already mentioned, namely the Yakima 
 Valley Fruit Growers’ Association, were those most nearly 
 patterned like it and those manned by the most experienced 
 growers, managers and sales managers of the Northwest, 
 whose officers they are now among those in the most impor¬ 
 tant positions with the North Pacific Fruit Distributors. 
 
 Moreover, the men who control the marketing of my fruit 
 I want to be bona fide apple growers looking at the economical 
 handling and price-making from the same angle that I, a 
 grower, look at them. 
 
 After 18 months of study and observation as an officer of 
 the North Pacific Fruit Distributors of the marketing, and 
 after traveling 17,000 miles investigating as well as possible 
 
State College of Washington 
 
 35 
 
 from first-hand sources, I have analyzed this question as 
 above, and can reach one conclusion, and one only, viz: That 
 with a large cooperative organization, owned and controlled 
 by the growers themselves, run in the growers’ own interests, 
 with fifty per cent or more of the commercial output of the 
 Aemriean Northwest, even in the marketing of that prospec¬ 
 tive 125,000 carloads of apples there is order and fair profit, 
 but with 125,000 carloads facing us, and without such a mar¬ 
 keting organization, there is nothing ahead but chaos. Which 
 it shall be, the growers must decide. A great principle is at 
 stake, and the question of temporary returns here and there is 
 a secondary problem. All known machinery utterly failed in 
 
 4 
 
 1912. With ten times the tonnage of 1912 ahead of us, the 
 creation of a capable, efficient marketing machine is the one 
 vital thing, so that order may come from chaos and the grower 
 may come into his own. 
 
 Can the northwestern fruit grower successfully combine with 
 his fellows in building, owning and controlling his own selling 
 machine? The Englishman has done it for many, many years. 
 The Danish farmer handles $90,000,000 a year through his co¬ 
 operative organizations, and receives 92 1-2 per cent of the 
 price paid by the consumer for the farm product. The French¬ 
 man, the German have done it, as has the citrus grower of 
 California and of Florida; the dairyman, the potato grower, 
 the truck grower, the stock breeder, and scores of other very 
 
 capably managed farmers’ organizations in various parts of 
 Ihe United States. In fact, 50,000.000 farmers scattered over 
 the civilized world have for years maintained successful co¬ 
 operative associations. I believe there is no more intelligent 
 farmer in the whole civilized world than in the orchards of the 
 Northwest. Therefore I believe to the most profound degree 
 that the northwestern fruit grower has and will control the 
 sale of his own product even to a better degree than has been 
 done by the farmer of other sections of this or other countries. 
 
36 
 
 Rural Life Conference 
 
 THE FARMER AND COOPERATION. 
 
 L. C. Crow. 
 
 j • * 
 
 Organization is everywhere manifested in nature, both in 
 animate and in inaninate life, from the tiny grain of sand be¬ 
 neath our feet up through all creation of inanimate being, even 
 to the ponderous worlds that whirl in majesty and splendor 
 to adorn the starry vaults of heaven till we reach the climax 
 of our creative world in the ponderous globe of Jupiter, we 
 may read the great lesson of organization. Man, the greatest 
 of all creative intelligence, has been the slowest to realize this 
 great lesson, but the time has now come and in this 20th cen¬ 
 tury of the Christian era, he has begun to realize that he must 
 improve the golden opportunity, that great aggregation of 
 capital and great accumulation of wealth into the hands of the 
 few, mean to him hopeless struggle, single handed and alone; 
 that if the rural husbandman holds his position in life and suc¬ 
 ceeds in the great battle for existence, he must organize in 
 order to be able to cope with other fields of industry and or¬ 
 ganization. 
 
 One of the great factors of organization is almost entirely 
 overlooked by farmers, and this is power. There are today 
 perhaps about 5,000,000 farmers organized in the Farmers 7 
 Union, The Grange, and the Society of Equity; a vast army of 
 men greater than all the combined armies of the Federal army 
 and sufficiently strong to commond the power, respect and 
 admiration of the civilized world; an army strong enough to 
 demand any just and equitable measure and get what it de¬ 
 mands, if it cooperates and agrees on what it wants. 
 
 The National Country Life Commission brought out this fact 
 prominently and one of its recommendations was that farmers 
 needed Organizations to put them in a position where they 
 might better assist themselves, or in other words be able to 
 meet the competitive struggle. If the question be asked why 
 the farmers need be organized the answer is: ‘‘Because all 
 other industries are organized for the purpose of protecting* 
 the capital invested in their industries.” It was said a few 
 years ago by one of our great statesmen that all of our in- 
 
State College of Washington 
 
 37 
 
 dustries were organized except our greatest of all industries, 
 that of agriculture. . , • 
 
 It has been estimated that about one-third of the entire 
 country is engaged directly or indirectly in agriculture, pro¬ 
 ducing about 8 or 9 billions of wealth. Yet this large class of 
 men that is so important to society, so useful to civilization 
 and commercial progress, is scarcely holding its own in the 
 great competitive struggle that is constantly going on in the 
 commercial world. All for want of organization. The farmer 
 has produced enough wealth in a quarter of a century to buy 
 all the property in the United States, and yet he ip. scarcely 
 holding his own, in fact, if we may believe statistics, he has 
 been losing ground financially, for twelve years ago he owned 
 one-fourth of the wealth of the Nation and now own,e : but one- 
 fifth. He has been outgeneraled in the battle of wits and has 
 actually been losing ground, because of his failure do get to¬ 
 gether, stay together, and hold together. , ; 
 
 Professor Spillman says the average farm income is only 
 $650 per year, and out of this the average farmer must clothe, 
 feed, and educate his family, or in other words lie 1 is workings 
 long hours for about $1.00 per day. Thus we see he is work¬ 
 ing himself long hours and paying himself scandalously low 
 wages, which can be largely remedied through concrete, effec¬ 
 tive organization. 
 
 The farmers of the Old World passed through this 1 same evo¬ 
 lutionary period from individual effort to that of organiza¬ 
 tion and cooperation many years ago. The farmers of Den¬ 
 mark, thirty or forty years ago, were in a deplorable condi¬ 
 tion. Their lands were depleted and impoverished and com¬ 
 merce was destroyed and their resources exhausted, but 
 through systematic education and organization they have made 
 rapid improvements. Their lands are now producing much 
 more than in any former period of their existence, Under their 
 methods of intensified farming and under organized methods 
 of marketing and distribution they are in a more prosperous 
 condition than in any time of their history. 
 
 The farmers of Denmark have taken their place among the 
 most prosperous and progressive of the world and all because 
 
38 
 
 Rural Life Conference 
 
 of their cooperation and constructive methods of economics 
 and industry as it is brought about by organization. The Irish 
 peasants have made wonderful progress in organization under 
 the leadership of Sir Horace Plunket. The American farmers 
 are making great progress at organizing and effective coopera¬ 
 tion under the leadership of C. S. Barrett. The farmers of 
 Italy, Germany, France, Belgium, Scotland. England and 
 other European countries are getting together, organizing and 
 getting definite results from organization. 
 
 The farmers of the rural districts should organize, estab¬ 
 lish social centers and discuss better living, better market¬ 
 ing, better sociability, and better citizenship. They will foster 
 education, uproot ignorance, shorten hours and lengthen life, 
 increase independence and decrease dependence, develop merit, 
 decrease selfishness, reduce prejudice, and induce liberty, 
 broaden social centers, eliminate classes, lighten toil, and cheer 
 the home, bring happiness to the fireside. They will soothe the 
 mother’s heart to get in the social circle of the organization 
 and spend a few happy hours in social recreation, enjoyment 
 and entertainment with her neighbors. Here is a good place for 
 the children, a social place for the mothers and daughters and 
 a business place for the fathers and sons. 
 
 THE SOCIAL ASPECTS OF THE COUNTRY CHURCH. 
 
 John F. Nicholson. 
 
 The subject that I desire to discuss is the social aspect of the 
 country church. There are a few prefatory statements that I 
 desire to make as statements of fact. One is that the country 
 church is responsive to every stimulus which affects the country 
 community. Secondly, the country church has always expres¬ 
 sed and measured the social and economic prosperity of the 
 community. One can go into any rural community and by r 
 determining the condition of the country church ascertain in 
 a large measure the economic and social welfare of the country 
 people. There are many communities in the United States 
 where the religious sentiment has been so strong that the whole 
 
State College of Washington 
 
 39 
 
 social fabric of the community lias been woven around the 
 church. Let me cite as an illustration the Quaker community, 
 the Mennonites, the Mormon districts, those communities where 
 the Scotch-Irish have settled in large numbers, and lastly in 
 some sections of the United States where a whole community 
 is composed of a religious German element. In all of these 
 communities one finds the entire social conditions completely 
 overshadowed by the church of those communities. 
 
 It has always been true that when people worship together 
 they will work together. For this reason, a church organiza¬ 
 tion can hold a community together better than a club or 
 union. There is a certain bond of fellowship running through 
 the church organization that is never found in any other kind 
 of social gathering. For this reason I believe that the social 
 betterment of the farming communities can best be worked 
 out through the religious organizations or the so-called church. 
 
 Let me review for a moment the social types found among 
 the rural populations in the United States. We have first of 
 all the pioneer. As a rule the pioneer is of an exclusive na¬ 
 ture. He is a lonely type of man and the religion that he be¬ 
 lieves in is a religion of personal salvation. The second type 
 is the exploiter. He is interested in developing new sections 
 of farm land, he follows the pioneer and attempts to build up 
 rural communities. The church that this type of citizen would 
 found would be a giving, a building, a donating Church. I 
 think this type of so-called farmer is found in many of the 
 new sections of the Northwest. It is the desire of the exploiter 
 or builder to make as great an external appearance as possi¬ 
 ble. And the church becomes a conspicuous object from a 
 material standpoint in the community. The third type found in 
 the United States is the hubandman himself. This is the old- 
 time farmer who is contented to remain upon his acres, rear 
 his children under the best social conditions possible and live 
 to see the day when his sons and daughters are comfortably 
 situated on farms surrounding his own. This type of citizen 
 builds his church as an institutional and social home, and it is 
 in this kind of a rural church that the real social and economic 
 betterment of the rural community must find its solution. 
 
40 
 
 Rural Life Conference 
 
 As we look over tlie history of the agricultural changes or 
 developments in the United States, we see remnants still of 
 each period through which the agricultural development has 
 passed. Look to the New England States and observe still the 
 one-horse farmer. Look to the old south where the small acre 
 farms are si ill worked with the one mule. Coming farther west 
 we strike the Ohio farmer with his two-horse farm, and still 
 farther west the Iowa farmer farming his land with a four- 
 horse team, while the Idaho farmer rides the gang plow, pulled 
 by eight horses. 
 
 In considering the social conditions of a farming community 
 we must take into consideration the tenant, the laborers, and 
 the owner. No system of social betterment can be successful 
 where the so-called marginal people are not taken into con¬ 
 sideration. By marginal people I mean those people who labor 
 upon the farm, shifting rapidly from one place to another, such 
 as the hired man and the hired girl. 
 
 Now, in looking over the rapid development that agriculture 
 has made in the United States, I fail to find that the church 
 has adapted itself to the changed conditions. Country services 
 today are much like they were fifty years ago. If one should 
 step from an old-time class meeting or prayer meeting that our 
 grandfather attended into one of the similar meetings of today 
 there would be little change. In other words, I am prepared to 
 say that the church is behind the times and is not living up to 
 its opportunities. 
 
 So far as the number of churches is concerned, the rural dis¬ 
 tricts are certainly well supplied, and I am prepared to say 
 that there are too many churches in the country today. In- 
 looking over some reports at my command I find in one dis¬ 
 trict in Pennsylvania that within a radius of four miles there 
 are twenty-four different churches, and a half mile from this 
 point, within a radius of three miles, there are sixteen churches. 
 It seems to me that the dogmatic differences represented in 
 these various denominations indicate no deep-seated social 
 difference. In certain parts of the United States there has 
 been brought about a perfect consolidation of the various de¬ 
 nominations represented in the country churches and, as a rule, 
 
State College of Washington 
 
 41 
 
 I find that where schools have been consolidated there is apt 
 to be a union of churches. Again I find that in three counties 
 in Indiana there are as many as 41 denominations represented 
 in the rural communities. If religion was to be measured by 
 the number of organizations these three Indiana counties would 
 certainly be very religious. Why, in such counties as this 
 where there are so many churches, consolidated schools are out 
 of the question. As a matter of fact these three Indiana coun¬ 
 ties have only one consolidated school, only twenty-five per 
 cent of their roads are graveled or macadamized, and, what is 
 more deplorable, there is not even a record of the ministers of 
 these three counties ever having workd together in any move¬ 
 ment. 
 
 So long as the church is considered a vehicle of eternal sal¬ 
 vation just so long shall we have a multitude of denominations, 
 which is, as someone has said, the scandal of Protestantism. 
 Religion is the result of social experiences and not personal. 
 
 The apathy of the rural church today certainly can not be 
 remedied by doctrinal training. Churches must be united, must 
 be the center of the social life of the community in order to 
 perform the function that they should perform in a social com¬ 
 munity. It has been argued that the country school can be 
 made the center for social and community life of the rural dis¬ 
 trict, but this I do not agree with. The country needs a fed¬ 
 eration of all the betterment forces and those forces are best 
 concentrated and drawn together and made to operate through 
 the church organization. The country schools frequently make 
 it impossible for a real community spirit to be fostered. The 
 boys and girls are taught those things in the country school, 
 which naturally are foreign to life on the farm. Why not 
 teach farm things to farm boys and girls? This alone will cause 
 a concentration of the community spirit which can be worked 
 out in the larger organization. 
 
 There is no doubt that the dominating institution in the 
 country today is the church, and with this advantage why can 
 not she perform that function demanded of her throughout the 
 United States? If the church could only have an economic 
 doctrine and recognize that she has as great a work to per- 
 
42 
 
 Rural Life Conference 
 
 form and. the same kind of work to perform as that of Booker 
 T. Washington among the negroes, this farm betterment ques¬ 
 tion would be largely solved. 
 
 Let us turn our attention a moment to some of the factors 
 operating against the church in its struggle to take its place 
 as a social and economic center of a community. The country 
 minister has no training for the work he is to perform. Our 
 seminaries are training men for sky pilots and not for leader¬ 
 ship among men. The young minister who desires a life work 
 that will reap the largest amount of satisfaction had better 
 turn his face towards the country community, for there he will 
 find a field for original investigation. 
 
 The preacher who accepts a call to the country church in 
 these times is handicapped from the beginning because he has 
 accepted that call. The community at once begins to wonder 
 what it was that caused him to leave the city for a country 
 charge. I’ll tell you the church must raise its estimate of it¬ 
 self. The country church is handicapped again by the lack 
 of leadership in the country. The city has called the best men 
 and the farmers remaining in the community are generally un¬ 
 progressive, much alike in their thoughts, and have no com¬ 
 munity experiences where all can get together. This condition 
 engenders the type of suspicion which makes it almost impos¬ 
 sible for any one man to assume any semblance of leadership. 
 Among fifty agricultural communities that I have taken pains 
 to look up, there were only two that had anything like a leader. 
 I therefore plead for rural leaders. G. F. Wells says “ Personal 
 leadership is the most important question today.” 
 
 Now, in closing, I wish I could refer you to the report of the 
 work of Matthew B. McNutt in DuPage county, Illinios. His 
 work in that county is a wonderful revelation of what can be 
 done by a man who will seize his opportunities and apply them 
 to the betterment of the social and economic welfare of the 
 rural people. I wish I had time to tell you of how this young 
 minister of the gospel, absolutely unfitted for the task, assumed 
 unwillingly the duties of pastor of a country church, and how, 
 by use of native leadership ability, welded that whole com¬ 
 munity into one compact body and made the church the abso- 
 
State College of Washington 
 
 43 
 
 lute social center of that district. The story of his work reads 
 like fiction, but it demonstrates that there is not a rural neigh¬ 
 borhood in this country that can not be organized for its up¬ 
 building by somebody, by some method, by some activity of 
 general interest. People today have as great spiritual aspira¬ 
 tions as ever, but the appeal must be made in terms of every 
 day life. 
 
 # 
 
FIRST RURAL LIFE CONFERENCE. 
 
 The State College of Washington, June 18-19-20, 1913. 
 
 PROGRAM OF EXERCISES. 
 
 Wednesday, June 18, 1: 30 to 3:30 p. m. 
 
 SURVEY OF RURAL LIFE CONDITIONS AND INSPEC¬ 
 TION OF EXHIBITS. 
 
 Chairman, President E. A. Bryan, Washington State College, 
 
 1:30 to 2:00 p. in. Plan and Purpose of the Survey. 
 
 Professor E. R. Groves, State College of New Hampshire. 
 
 2 :00 to 2 :30 p. m. Value of the Survey to Business Interests. 
 Edwin T. Coman, Cashier Exchange National Bank, Spokane. 
 
 2:20 to 2.40 p. m. Religious Surveys. 
 
 Reverend Carl Veazie, lone, Washington. 
 
 2:40 to 3:30 p. m. Educational Surveys. 
 
 Mrs. Josephine Preston, State Superintendent of Public In¬ 
 struction, State of Washington. 
 
 3 :00 to 3 :30 p. m. General discussion Surveys, open to all. 
 
 3 :30 to 5 :00 p. m. Inspection of Exhibits. 
 
 Pure Food. 
 
 Farm Power and Machinery. 
 
 Lighting Plants. 
 
 Sewage Disposal. 
 
 Farm and Household Pests. 
 
 Textiles. 
 
 Bacteriological. 
 
 8:30 p. m. Reception to Summer Session Students and Visitors 
 and Guests of the onferenee, the Armory. 
 
State College of Washington 45 
 
 Thursday, June 19, 8:30 to 12:00 m. 
 
 THE ECONOMICS OF AGRICULTURE. 
 
 Chairman, Acting President Carlyle, University of Idaho. 
 
 8 :35 to 9 :00 a. m. Farm Finance. 
 
 Hon. M. E. Hay of Spokane. 
 
 Discussion. 
 
 9 :10 to 9 :35 a. m. Co-operation in Marketing. 
 
 H. C. Sampson, Secretary North Pacific Fruit Growers’ Assn. 
 
 Discussion. 
 
 9:45 to 10:10. The Farmers’ Educational and Cooperative 
 Union. 
 
 Hon. J. L. Brislawn, Davenport, Washington. 
 
 10:20 to 10:45. The Grange. 
 
 C. B. Kegley, Master of the Washington State Grange. 
 
 11:00 to 11:25. Relation of Chambers of Commerce to Rural 
 Communities. 
 
 C. C. Chapman, President Portland Chamber of Commerce. 
 Discussion. 
 
 11:35 to 12:00 m. The Bankers’ Part in Rural Development. 
 J. J. Rouse, Cashier Fidelity National Bank, Spokane. 
 
 Thursday Afternoon, 1:30 to 3:30. 
 
 DISCUSSION OF SOCIAL CENTERS. 
 
 Chairman, David Brown, Chairman Country Life Committee 
 of Washington. 
 
 Mrs. Josephine Preston, Olympia, Washington. 
 
 Rev. Ohas. McCaughey, Spokane. Washington. 
 
 Mr. C. O. Button, Bellingham. Washington. 
 
 General Discussion. 
 
46 
 
 Rural Life Conference 
 
 Thursday Evening, 8:15 p. m. 
 
 Chairman, Hon. R. C. McCroskey, Garfield, Washington. 
 Social Aspect of the Church. 
 
 Professor J. F. Nicholson, University of Idaho, Moscow, 
 Idaho. 
 
 Friday Morning, 8:30 a. m. 
 
 Social Agencies for Rural Betterment. 
 
 Chairman, Rev. John M. Matthews, Seattle, Washington. 
 The Rural Church. W. J. Hindley, Spokane, Washington. 
 Discussion/ 
 
 Church Organization and Efficiency. 
 
 Rev. Harley Jackon, Columbus, Indiana. 
 
 Discussion., 
 
 The Rural Schools. 
 
 (a) The High School and the Community. 
 
 Superintendent C. W. Hodge, Snohomish, Washington. 
 
 (b) School Consolidation. 
 
 Mrs. Josephine Preston, Olympia, Washington. 
 
 (c) School Supervision. 
 
 J. C. Muerman, attache of the Federal Department of 
 Education, Salem, Oregon. 
 
RURAL LIFE CONFERENCE OF 1914. 
 
 The second Rural Life Conference of the State College of 
 Washington will take place during three days from June 30 to 
 July 2, 1914. As was the case last summer this conference will 
 attempt to consider some of the manifold phases of Rural Life, 
 with especial reference to conditions in the Northwest, and 
 particularly in Washington. 
 
 While following the general lines of the previous conference 
 the experience of the earlier sessions has led to a modification 
 which will result in a somewhat greater emphasis being laid on 
 certain practical features of country life. The morning ses¬ 
 sions of the three days will be devoted to prepared papers on 
 such subjects as the social aspects of country life, with atten¬ 
 tion to existing and potential social agencies, such as the school, 
 the church, and social centers apart from these two institutions; 
 the economic side of rural life, including consideration of the 
 financial situation, touching, among other matters, the probable 
 effects of the new currency bill, the rural credit question, with 
 a review of the rural credit bill now pending; marketing, and 
 other aspects of the problem of getting a living in the country. 
 There will be time devoted to some of the pathological aspects 
 of rural groups, including such social problems as poverty and 
 pauperism, crime, defectiveness, etc. In addition to the pre¬ 
 pared papers there will be discussions in open meeting and 
 round-table conferences. 
 
 The afternoons will be devoted exclusively to the practical 
 side. There will be exhibits, accompanied by demonstrations, 
 related to home, farm and rural town life, including home man¬ 
 agement, home decoration, beautification of grounds of home, 
 church and school; sanitation in the home and on the farm will 
 also form a part of this feature. In addition to these there are 
 to be arranged demonstrations in stock judging, poultry rais¬ 
 ing, soil testing, seed testing, and the like. Exhibits and dem¬ 
 onstrations of application of mechanical power in the home and 
 on the farm will afford no small part of the interest of this 
 side of the conference. 
 
 The evening sessions are each to be given up to one or two 
 
48 
 
 Rural Life Conference 
 
 lectures on some of the special features of the Conference, and 
 for these formal presentations some of the strongest speakers- 
 of the Conference will be secured. 
 
 In addition to the staff of the Summer Session and the addi¬ 
 tional staff, of the two weeks Ministers’ 1 course, the time of 
 which coincides in part with the Conference, special speakers 
 are to be secured. Among those who have already engaged 
 to be present is Dr. Ernest H. Linclley of the University of 
 Indiana. ; ! Mr. Ralph Felton of New York, who will have 
 charge of the ministerial work and who has spent 
 many years in rural survey work, will be one of the most help¬ 
 ful contributors to the Conference. Men and women prominent 
 in social ! ahd educational work in the Northwest will add to the 
 value of the sessions. 
 
 All of those men and women who are interested in the 
 vital phases of rural life and who are working and desire to 
 work in a constructive way should receive both practical help 
 and renewed enthusiasm from attendance at the Conference. 
 
COURSES OFFERED IN THE SUMMER SESSION OF 1914 
 
 Agriculture —Soil Physics, Field Crops, Types and Breeds 
 of Farm Animals, Principles of Feeding, Principles of Breed¬ 
 ing, Poultry Management, Farm Dairying, Methods of Teach¬ 
 ing Agriculture, Soils and Crops, Livestock. ; - i: ' ■ 
 
 Botany —General Botany, Taxonomy, Pathology, ■ Bac¬ 
 teriology, Ecology, Research, Methods of Teaching Botany. 
 
 Chemistry —Experimental Chemistry, Qualitative Analysis, 
 Quantative Analysis. .. , 
 
 Economics and Sociology —Agricultural EcononiicS, General 
 Economics, Social Problems. . ... 
 
 Two Weeks Course for Ministers —Rural Sociology, Re¬ 
 ligious Pedagogy. 
 
 Education —School Law, Psychology, History of Education, 
 Adolescence, Ethics, Social Psychology. 
 
 English —Teachers’ Course, Rhetoric and Composition, Ex¬ 
 position, Introduction to English Literature, Debate, Shakes¬ 
 peare, American Literature. 
 
 Fine Arts—Teachers’ Art Course, Home Decoration, Free 
 Hand Drawing. 
 
 History —Development of the Northwest, Teachers’ Course, 
 Oriental and Greek History. 
 
 Home Economics —Foods and Nutrition, Textiles and Cloth¬ 
 ing, Household Management, Teachers’ Course, Elementary 
 Cooking, Elementary Sewing. 
 
 Horticulture —General Horticulture, Vegetable Gardening, 
 Propagation of Plants, Plant Growth and Culture. 
 
 Latin —Teachers’ Course, Beginning Latin, Cicero and Sal¬ 
 lust, Vergil. « ; 
 
 Manual Arts and Drawing —Freehand Drawing, Con¬ 
 structive Design, Sloyd, Elementary Woodworking, Cabinet 
 
50 
 
 Rural Life Conference 
 
 Making, Teachers’ Course, Instrument Making, Metal Work in 
 Shops, Art Metal Work. 
 
 Mathematics —College Algebra, Trigonometry, Calculus, 
 Differential Equations, Teachers’ Course, Elementary Algebra, 
 Plane Geometry, Solid Geometry. 
 
 Modern Languages —Beginning French, Beginning German, 
 Reading and Conversation, Scientific German, Conversation 
 Course, Teachers’ Course. 
 
 Music —Pianoforte Playing, Organ Playing, Music Appreci¬ 
 ation, Sight Singing. 
 
 i 
 
 Oral Expression —Public Speaking, Dramatics, Reading 
 Aloud. 
 
 Photography. 
 
 Athletics and Physical Education— 
 
 For Men : Folk Dances and Games, The Theory and Tech¬ 
 nique of Coaching, Training and First x\id, Swimming, Tennis. 
 
 For Women: German and Swedish Calisthenics, Play 
 Ground Games, Coaching, Tennis, Swimming. 
 
 Physics —Physics for Non-Engineering Students, General 
 Physics, Teachers’ Course, Elementary Physics. 
 
 Physiology —General Physiology, Elementary Physiology. 
 
 Review Courses for Examination —Arithmetic, Drawing, 
 Geography, Grammar, United States History, Literature, Music, 
 Nature Study, Physical Geography, Physics, Physiology, Read¬ 
 ing, State Manual, Theory and Art of Teaching. 
 
 Industrial Courses for Rural Teachers —Elementary Agri¬ 
 culture, Elementary Sewing, Elementary Cooking, Plant 
 Growth and Culture, Manual Training. 
 
 Zoology—Introductory Zoology, Bird Life, Economic Ento¬ 
 mology. 
 
r 
 
 State College of Washington 
 
 LECTURES 
 
 51 
 
 Single Lectures 
 
 June 17-—Opening Address.President E. A. Bryan 
 
 •tune 18—Organ Recital.Dr. Ernst A. Evans 
 
 •June 22—The Development of Civic Consciousness.. 
 
 Dr. Isaac N. MeCash, President, Spokane University 
 
 d vine 28-—The Customs, People, and Natural Re¬ 
 sources of Hawaii.Professor Elton Fulmer 
 
 •June 25— Subject to announced.Professor Ralph Fenton 
 
 dune 29 —Robert Owen and the New Harmony Ex¬ 
 periment.President E. A. Bryan 
 
 •Tune 30—The Dormant Powers of Men. .Dr. Ernest II. Bindley 
 
 •July 2—Organ Recital.Dr. Ernst A. Evans 
 
 duly 6—Rural Surveys.Mrs. Josephine Preston 
 
 State Superintendent of Public Instruction 
 
 duly 7—The Mystery of Dreams.Dr. Ernest H. Bindley 
 
 •July 9—Sex Hygiene.Dr. Ira D. Cardiff 
 
 July 13—Subject to be announced.Dr. Edward 0. Sisson 
 
 Commissioner of Education of State of Idaho 
 
 duly 14—The New Pioneers.Dr. Ernest IT. Bindlev 
 
 duly 16—The Source and Function of Daughter.... 
 
 .Dr. Frank F. Potter 
 
 duly 20—Books: Their Relation to Happiness arid 
 
 Culture.'Rev. dolm AY. Caughlan 
 
 duly 21 —Organ Recital.Dr. Ernst A. Evans 
 
 Serial Lectures 
 
 Rural Schools .(two lectures).June 22. 28 
 
 Professor J. B. Dumas, of the State Dept, of Education 
 
52 
 
 Rural Life Conference 
 
 Architectural Styles and Famous Buildings, four illus¬ 
 trated lectures.June 30, July 7, 14, 21 
 
 June 30, Egyptian and Asiatic; July 7, Greek and 
 Roman; July 14, Romanesque, Byzantine, and Gothic; 
 
 July 21, Renaissance and Modern. 
 
 Rudolph Weaver, Professor of Architecture and 
 Architect to the College 
 
 The Expansion of the American People.July 6, 13, 20 
 
 A series of three illustrated lectures 
 Professor Leroy F. Jackson of the Department of 
 
 Economic Science and Historv 
 
 */ 
 
 Writers of American Fiction.June 24, July 1, 8, 15, 22 
 
 June 24—Early: Charles Brockden Brown, etc. 
 
 July 1—Romantic: Irving, Hawthorne, Poe. July 8— 
 Local Color: Bret Ilarte, Mark Twain, G. AY. Cable. 
 
 July 15—Realist: Howells and James. July 22— 
 Sociological: Edith Wharton, Robert Herrick, Mar¬ 
 garet Deland. 
 
 Professor Stephen Faunce Sears of the Depart¬ 
 ment of English 
 
r 
 
 
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