Palmer.Alaska
Published once a week at Palmer, Alaska, for the tanuska Volley
farmers' Cooper.-.ting association for the purpose of giving news of the
associations work, problems and accomplishments.
SUBSCRIPTION LATE .1.75 per year yl.00 for six months lO^a copy
the co-op's pilgrims' progress
.another year has rolled around end it is time to toko on inventory of
the year’s progress. -hat did we expect to do this year and how much
did we accomplish? ’.ell, it hasn’t boon a bad y a. r judging by the usual
standards; however, it could have boon bettor we know. hilo it is true
that the most important thing to us is that it bu a financial success,
-r0t that is not the total sum of success. When the financial condition
becomes impossible, it usually means that any cooperative or corporation
must fail.’ However, by the same token it doesn’t necessarily mean that
financial success will guarantee the overall success necessary to keep
going, ■eometimos we wonder if our financial success didn’t come too
quietkly and whether some of our members didn’t lot the matter "Go to
their heads" so to speak.
In 1939 when spuds v/cro soiling for *1.75 por hun.drcd we w^re only able
to soil fifty tons on the Anchorage market that year, ^t that time eggs
wore soiling at 35^ por dozen. The farmers were not allowed to sell
any fluid milk in Anchorage, but had to sell croan to the Creamery at
38^ per pound which would mean a fraction of the present price of CJrade
A milk. At that, things were no worse to some of the people who are so
discontented at the present time. In fact if we remember rightly, some
of these people were very happy with the way things wore going at that
time. Of course,most people know that these people were being granted
special favors by "the powers that be'*, but even at that they were not
living in as much comfort as they are now, and there was no feeling of
security at all. Even President Roosevelt had admitted to reporters
that he regarded the 11 at anus k a Colony as a failure. Very few thought
that the Cooperative could succeed end the ARRC took a lambasting on all
sides for its shortcomings. There was a plan to send all but a few fam
ilies back to the states and give their places and improvements to the
special few selected to remain. Then the war come on and when .iobs at
good pay became available in Anchorage, nearly every able bodied man
went to work over there. Host of th^m hover expected to come back to the
Valley, They thought that th^y would go some where else and many of them
did not return. But-most of them were farmers at heart and when they dis
covered what hardships they would have to endure in the Army or in ear
work, they decided to return to their farms. Aft^r two years, the Army
discovered that the Matanuska Valley could bo useful to them by produc
ing food that would have to be shipped in by boat at a time when ships
Vicro scarce or unavailable. By that time the farmer had enough money to
buy farm machinery to enable him to produce, and tho Co-op had the mar
ket to sell his produce, -hilo it is true that the prices of things that,
the farmer had to buywerG high and lots of things that were sorely needed
wer^ hard to got, yet generally speaking, most of them found themselves
in the most favorable position that they had ever experienced. True, *
wives and children worked hard to help, but all in ell, the money came
in as never before.
But--did it mako people any happier? Bell, yes and no. Most pcopl<? were
satisfied, but a few spurred on by th<^ir small success wore more discon
tented than ever, "here they would have been happy with a half a loaf
c. few years before, they now wonted the bakery, 'ihile they worked,they
also schemed, and in time got to thinking that they were great economists
end should be appointed to take the country over. Some of them v;cre
elected to positions of responsibility where th^y were expected to super
vise end direct the destinies of the farmers with whom they were joined
in an organization which in tQrn had been formed to promote the best in
terests of the people who belonged to it. Most of us know what happened.
Our Co-op v/as almost wrecked and our markets endangered by ignorant high
handed officials. Members were insulted by their employees. Inefficient
managers were appointed to manage the different departments. One badly
ru n: god department went into the hole over thirty thousand dollars for
two years in succession. By this time everybody was unhappy, and in
seemed as if the Co-op was doomed to die. But-like the proverbila cat,
it-took—on—anotfrw--lif-e-and- has. gotten baok on—its foot again. Con.prS—