PALMER, ALASKA
DOROTHY M. BELL, Editor
Published every Friday at Palmer, Alaska, for the Matanuska Valley
Farmers’ Cooperating Association for the purpose of giving news of the
Associations work, problems, and accomplishments.
SUBSCRIPTION BY MAIL $1.75 BOX $1.00 SINGLE COPY lOjz'
"IT AIN'T NO USE.'*
Wouldn't It be a queer world if everyone started to do something and
.then said--"Guess, I won't do whe^t I was going to d® 'cause there just
ain't no use"? Sometimes it almost seems that too many people have that
attitude toward their own organization.
Supposing every farmer's wife decided there just wasn't any use get*.-.h
ting meals because the food was eaten up. Supposing the engineers on the
trains decided there just wasn't any use going out on a route, because
he would just have to go over the same old route again? Supposing that
the boys and girls in military service decide there "ain't no use in
fighting? Well,—suppose all those things J
Sounds rather silly doesn't It? Does It sovfd any different than the
thousand times we have heard, "Just isn't any use our going to the local,
the same old gang Is there, we do the same things, and I figure I may as
well stay home?" How about breathing, and- eating end sleeping? Any use
doing those things over and over? The fellow who stays home from the
local just because the "the same old gang" will be there Is using a
pretty silly excuse--at least that is the’ way It seems.
Taken from STATE DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION COLUMN
By Mildred K Stoltz "The Way it Seems to Me."
We v/o\ildn't mind if the Japs would only say "It ain't no us3. ' now
would we? Nevertheless, Isn't that just the attitude we bump into so
often when we try to do something? To me this applies as much to other
activities as to the meetings of our organizations. Look at the
attempts to start a credit union here in this Valley. And how many of
you have served on committees to do something about something and rui.
into what we often call a "stone wall"? Perhaps many or some of us
think sometimes that it Isn't any use to belong to the Co-op or* do' .**.■
business with them. We can think of a lot of reasons for not b.lftnglng
to the Co-op, but there must be lots of reasons.why we should. J\^fc what
Is Co-operation? The Farmers Union News has given the following defin
itions fO* C®-operation:
From Webster’s Dictionary: COOPERATOR:One who acts or labors co-jbj-ntly
with others.” In the Farmers Union, the Co-operators are indivj.duni.smem
bers pooling their efforts and ideas, and beginning the formation or a
group of people who start the Co-operative movement,
"CO-OPERATE: TO ACT OR WORK JOINTLY: CONCUR,TO PRODUCE THE SAMS EFFECT."
The above mentioned people, the co-operators who have started formation :
of a Co-operative mowament, work not for themselves, but together*, for
'the good of all in their group; this is co-operation.
"CO-OPERATION: THE ACT OF WORKING JOINTLY TOGETHER: CONCURRENCE."trough
continued co-operation of this group, we find these people going forward
educating themselves, and finding the need of doing business with tRiem
selves. 00-OPERATIVE: is PROMOTING JOINTLY, THE SAME END."
Co-operators in the state of Montana, working together with co-op«*rafcc
tors in other states, have not only built 'their local co-operatives,btut
have large regional co-operatives. By doing business with th#iselves,t.hey
not only have retained their earnings in their own communities, but have
secured for themselves a better way of life, and a higher standard of
living, through the promotion of Educational work done by the Farmers
Union.
The Farmers Union organizes locals to develop the CO-OPERATOKS who
CO-OPERATE to build CO-OPERATIVES. The CO-OPERATIVES pay educational
funds into the state and county organizations so that locals can continue
to develop CO-OPERATORS.___ __
Farmer owned co-operatives showed a membership increase of 250,000
during^the 1942-43 marketing season. During the period the Co-ops in
creased their volume of business by .$940,000,000* A slight drop w^ns noted
in the‘number of active co-operative, associations. The total business
volume was $3,780,000,000* which ,ist partially accounted for by\the generr
Increase in agricultural price lWels, Farmers Union News takeVi-from
figures from the Farm Cre.dit Administration._