178 BIOLOGICAL PROBLEMS 



with human beings, my subject touches upon biology, 

 but, of course, only indirectly. It is for this reason 

 I say that it is only by a stretch of language it can 

 be properly included in this course. 



It is a commonplace with those who concern them- 

 selves with the history of what is called the co- 

 operative movement in this country, that, while 

 Co-operative Distribution has been a gigantic suc- 

 cess, Co-operative Production, speaking generally, 

 has been a comparative failure. By Co-operative 

 Distribution is generally meant, in this connection, 

 that gigantic system which has spread throughout 

 the towns and cities of England under the control of 

 the Co-operative Union. The size and importance 

 of the Co-operative Union, with its familiar "stores' 

 in every city, town, and large village, often acting as 

 social and educational centres, are well known to us 

 all. But with this side of co-operative trading we 

 are not concerned to-day. Co-operative production of 

 food-stuffs, on the other hand, has in England lagged 

 behind the great advances made in other countries, 

 and it is only within very recent years, as a result of 

 the activity of the Agricultural Organization Society, 

 that any substantial progress has been made. Even 

 now we are far behind other countries in this respect. 



It is often said that English farmers and English 

 small-holders are too conservative, too suspicious of 

 one another, to make it possible successfully to or- 

 ganize schemes of co-operation among them ; but 

 I do not see any evidence at all that they possess 

 these qualities in any more marked degree than the 

 farmers or small-holders of other countries. It is 

 indeed true that people who live on the land have 

 impressed upon them the same influences, whether 

 they be Serbs, Rumanians, Irish peasants, American 

 fruit growers, or English farmers, and the main result 



