120 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

to do business with. He will not be taking a lot of time
of the manager and directors arguing about trivial mat-
ters. His criticisms are much more likely to be of a con-
structive nature. He is also much more likely to meet
his obligations to the cooperative promptly because he
knows that it is an organization that belongs to him and
is hard at work for him a full 24 hours a day.

 "Farmers who are not members of the cooperative
 and the general public, if they understand what a co-
 operative stands for and what it is trying to do as well
 as the how and why of what it is doing, will be sympa-
 thetic towards its activities.

 "If the cooperative has temporary setbacks the well-
 informed public will be sympathetic. If it is subjected
 to unfair attacks from its enemies, it will have the public
 in its corner and the attacks will do it but little harm.

 "Membership, and public relations are things which
every cooperative has. Both membership and public re-
lations are either good or bad. We only have to look
through a national magazine and notice the number of
institutional or public relations advertisements to see
how many industrial concerns realize the importance of
their public relations.

 "When an emergency comes in the form of an attack
on your cooperative it may be too late to build good
public relations. By waiting until the emergency arises
the enemy has an opportunity to get in the first licks. Its
story is hkely to be taken at face value because the mem-
bers or the public don't know any better. At best you
can only hope to offset some of the damage. It is diffi-
cult for truth to catch up with falsehoods. However, if
you give truth the headstart ... if your cooperative has
built in advance good membership and public relations
with a strong, continuous information and education
program the dangers from attacks from the outside