Published once a week in Palmer, Alaska, for the Mat
anuska Valley Farmers' Co-operating Association, for
the purpose of giving nov/s of the Association »s work,
probloms and accomplishments#
HOW TC lilFLlinU PUBLIC THIflKIflG
Every day we feel the influence of others thoughts whether we want
to or not. Strange as it seems, most people go through several periods
of development in building up processes of thinking that have a very
definate influence on their individual lives. The bo:/ or girl just out
of school usually thinks that they have the fundamentals of things be
cause they have been told what is right or wrong in their school as
sociations. The peculiar thing about this is that the same person can
plainly see most of his instructors are entirely different persons in
thought and action; yet the difference is not discernible because they
all have to get along together, and in the final summary they all con
form to a uniform pattern. If they are of the inquisitive pattern,
they wi 11 find out that underneath the veneer of education all of these
people have many conflicting thoughts about many important questions.
Usually, however, the instructor goes along with the main stream be
cause he has to make a living, and he knows that independant thinking
is not profitable or permissible inmost instances.
Millions of people read the newspapers and magazines and listen to
the radio and seldom evaluate the plausibility or truth of the daily
news cast. This, it seems to us, is a dargerous situation, because it
removes the benefit of questioning by debate or exchange of letters on
the subject, ’'/hen people become careless about the source or truth of
their daily news, it can be used as propaganda for the benefit of all
kinds of harmful ideas. We should be very careful to check on the
statements, before assuming that they are the last word. We do not be
lieve in thought control. It is the opposite of every liberal thought,
and the only way that we can guarantee that freedom of press and speech
will be maintained is to see that everyone has the right to s ay what he
wantsto ssy . Of course, libel ard s lander should be penalized. But as
long as anyone wants to express his personal belief, he should be al
lowed to do so.
One of the greatest abuses of 1he press and radio at the present
time is the way in which propaganda is being spewed out a gainst the co
operative movement. For some peculiar reason a considerable number of
peoplo seem to think that co-ops are dangerous to our American way of
life. Millions of people have forgotten the big bust of *29 and the de
pression years--it appears the fhet is taken for granted that we will
always have boom conditions of the present and any preparation for the
depression which always follows a boom is worthless because it will not
be needed. There is a chart on the wall of this office prepared by one
of the biggest and most conservative corporations in the U.S., showing
that tho U.S. has had 39 "big business booms and similar number of de
pressions in its history. What this means in reality is that man3T times
in our history the small farmer and the workingman has been permitted
to participate in part of the prosperity of the time the boom was on
and then had to go back to eating beans during the depressions. It
only seems reasonable to think that we will surely have some more de
pressions and we should get ready for that time. How can we prepare
for the depression? Well it seems to us that v/e can help ourselves a
lot by building up our cooperative.
Strange as it seems, co-operatives stand tho tests of adversity
when the time comes better than other businesses because they have
means by which they can help themselves better t han they can through
private business. In marketing they can give tho farmer more for his
products than the private business can, because tho co-op member gets
all of the profit and no one is going to work unless he can profit by
work; in the consumer field the co-op member can get more for his
money for the same reason; and by building up and running his .own busi
ness he can finally own it and get all of the benefits by such owner
ship. There is no valid reason for thinking that Co-ops are not bene
ficial to their members or to the community in which the:y operate. The
Cont’d on page