thus withholding the supply they are said by some to exercise a monopolistic power.  But this is a more than doubtful view.  So long as only the seasonal variations are equalized and the total supply of the year is not reduced it is, on the marginal principle, an economic service to the consumers, comparable to insurance in its utility.  Any reduction of the area planted or of the entrance of others into the industry would be a monopolistic act but this as yet has not occurred.

Sec. 13. #Cooeperation in buying.# Cooeperative buying (called also consumers’ cooeperation or distributive cooeperation) has had a large growth in the British Isles, since 1844, when the society called the Rochdale Pioneers was founded by a group of factory workingmen.  The cooeperative stores, both in Great Britain and on the Continent, have continued to develop mainly among the industrial classes in urban centers.  However, this has not been exclusively the case, and particularly in Denmark and Ireland cooeperative buying has increased in agriculture in connection with selling associations.  Since 1890 the growth of consumers’ cooeperation among European industrial wage-earners has been phenomenal, especially in Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland.  American wage-workers, however, have made few and feeble efforts in this direction.

In the period beginning 1867 many cooeperative stores were founded in America by farmers in the Grange movement, who operated also grain elevators, warehouses, and steamboat lines.  But the movement failed about 1877.  This result is easily explained by lack of commercial knowledge and lack of harmony among the members, selling on credit, and inefficient management.  A new era in consumers’ cooeperation for farmers began about 1900 and now in several widely separated parts of the country—­Minnesota, Kansas, California, Washington, and elsewhere—­the movement is spreading rapidly, supported in large part by the same persons who are members of the selling associations.

Sec. 14. #Need of agricultural credit.# Banking originated in cities and for the use of the merchant-class.  It still retains pretty faithfully its commercial character.  The change of farming toward a more commercial form[4] has been little aided by banking credit.  National banks and many others were forbidden in their charters to lend on the security of real-estate, the farmer’s one business asset.[5] A great number of farms are always in course of being purchased, the balance of purchase money being borrowed by the purchaser.  A group of private agencies such as life insurance and mortgage loan companies and local money lenders has supplied in somewhat costly ways the need of farm credits.  Tho rates of interest have become more equalized throughout the whole country, they still range between 7 and 10 per cent in the Southern and Western states, averaging 7 per cent in the whole country for interest and commission.  The need of better opportunities for credit in the agricultural districts has long been recognized.  The high rate of interest for borrowed money necessarily placed a limit on improvements in equipment and methods of farming.[6]