1228 New York State AciiucuLTURAL Society 



have already promoted, under the alhircnients of cooperation, 

 seltisli schemes which are to cooperation only what vice is to 

 charity. Snch authoi-s nnist either achnit ignorance of the prin- 

 ciples of cooperation or confess themselves knaves. To forswear 

 one indictment is to confess cnilt of the other. Dnring the last 

 three months no less than two do/.en elaborate sehemes have come 

 to me for approval. They all bear cooperation captions ; but 

 every one of them contained provisions by which tlu^ promoter 

 was to reap an advantage that his proposed associates in the 

 enterprise was not to share. Some of the most contemptible 

 swindles of the people, both country and nrlnni. have been pro- 

 moted under the promise of cooperative benefits ; and candor 

 compels me to confess, to the everlasting discredit of the press, 

 that many of these schemes have been, and are now, promoted by 

 publishers in the name of journalism. 



JMen talk and write about cooperation, and especially about co- 

 operative credits, as if there was some niyster}' or magic about 

 it ; as if it were something unknown to us and foreign to us. 

 They seem to make us feel that it is beyond the comprehension of 

 human minds and understandable only by the inspired or elect. 

 At least one of our instructors has gone so far as to say so in 

 cold type. They take it out of the realm of real things and 

 clothe it with mystic suggestion. They seem to strive to make 

 us feel that cooperation is an Aladdin's lamp which they have 

 only to ml) to summon the giant who will produce any wealth 

 they demand. If they would only give us time to think we would 

 wonder what they want of the advance fee always demanded as 

 a key to the occult benefits. 



What is this foreio-n, mvstic thing wc are to toucli onlv through 

 the consecrated and annointed 'i I have studied the subject 

 al)i'oa<l. and 1 found no jjrinciple there that is not already in 

 practical o])cration here. The only difference is that they have 

 applied the principles to the organization of a definite system 

 of farm credits and farm l)usiness. We have not. European 

 countries have two separate and distinct forms of cooperative 

 farm credits, — realty credits and personal credits. They are very 

 simple and easily nnderstood. The realty credits are operated 

 by what is there called the Laudschaften. It is a society of mort- 



