Palmer, Alaska
Dorothy M. Bell
■Editor
Published every week at Palmer, Alaska, for the Matanuska Valley Fafmers* Cooperating
Association for the purpose of giving news of the Associations Work, Problems and
Accomplishments as well as news of general interest to the Valley.
SUBSCRIPTION RATE $1.75 Single Copy lOjf
COOPERATIVE-or NON-COOPERATIVE ' '
M.D. Snodgrass
In recent events we have'had occasion to study this problem and its effect on our
community life in Palmer. The acid test comes ?hen we meet with reverses in our busi
ness. V.'e are called upon to face problems new to our wajrs of thinking. We either
think our way thru, 6r look to others to do our thinking, and blindly follow some one
who takes leadership, and declarossome bold course, which seems to satisfy or nearly
fits Our own personal selfish interests rather than take a broad view of the interests
of the whole community. A few take the attitude, "To hell with the rest of you, I
want mine now." This statement places those of tho same mind-in the 'non-cooperative
class. 'A few'of this class in any community makes for discord, and disruption /of
business,and results in losses to the whole community. A little disturbance can *
easily-set an avalaneho in a cooperative business. *
We nay expect opposition from private business. Ours is a business that grows on
good service extended to a greater number of people from year to yoar. It is a sys
tem of production and merchandising directly in aompetition to private business and
we must expect competition from that source. Wo are on a crusade to help each other
and ourselves to a higher standard of living than is possible under the old system
of private business. 'Alaskan business concerns grew up on private selling or distri
bution of commodities, catering only to the mining, fishing, and trapping population.
The thought of dovcloping an agricultural Alaska was foreign to their minds. Thoso
who were talcing the cream off the country’s natural rosoufeos, built up a monopoly.
Should we have formed only a producers’ Co-op Association, wo would have been welcome
so long as we paid their prices for their merchancliso. The-merchants had soiling
rights, and tho steamship companies ov.nod trail sport at ion facilities. By tho right
that comes to private business this grow into a monopoly through tho process of kill
ing competition.
For eighty years Alaska was so dominated—resulting in stagnation in development—
a fixed population for tho period of 1905 to 1930—and a falling off in mineral pro
duction-higher freight rates to make up for tho falling off in whito population—
and almost a complcte'monopoly in the Fishing Industry. Shall canneries wero gobbled
up by the larger onosi Cooperative canneries or other mercantile co-ops wore legis
lated out of business. Then began the system of milking tho government for tho
development of projects to bolster up commercial bus'noss. 'As gold and eopwer pro
duction fell off, tho idea of agricultural dovolopmcnt enmo. The influ*. of tho pros
pector, and tho advont of tho U.S. Experiment Stations fdllowod with Experiment
Stations at Sitka, Rampart, Copper Center, Kodiak, Kenai, Fairbanks, where all farm
and garden crops wero tested, The Homesteaders then began to arrive and to clear the
land in order to raiso garden crops, hay and grain.
In 1912 the Alaska Territorial Legislature and Government was bom. The Alaska Rail
road project was begun in 1914 to give Alaska oheapor transportation that farmers
might come to scttlo Alaska to make possible'n lowor cost of living-that vast areas
of low grade mineral lands might be mined—-,and that largo areas of inaccessable
rich lode mininfg country might be dove lope di World War I came and the three year
A.R.R. project became an eight year project. The Alaska Road Commission was bom and
a road building program was inaugurated—first to complete‘tho'Richardson Highway—'
and then to complotc the’several roads from minos to tho A.R.R, Gradually now roads
to connect Rivor and R.R. points and a few farming districts received attention. Roads
made it-possible to settle this valley and give us access to the market with farm
products.
The colony setup'gave us the first real opportunity for a farmers1 Cooperative. Tho
promise of the A.R.R.C. to turn it over to the farmers as soon as they -were organized
and producing, gave us our first tost of ability- to operato a Co-op. The failure of
the A.R.R.C. to setup a’workable co-op was proof that a successful ffo-op cannot be
built from the top doT.x.» Tho faulty planning in the building of tho warm and cold
Tjorngo and tho heating and sewage system, on top of the general. management and slow
'development of the. land clearing during tho first threo years, with'tho'final sale of
the plant to the I.I.V.F.C.A. in order to prolong the life of tho A.R.R.C. without
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