GO BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



3. The persons concerned had never planned and made 

 property for themselves. They were in the condition of paid 

 laborers, who mnst depend npon others to plan and carry on 

 business. And no set of paid laborers that I ever saw will 

 go on a farm and earn their wages for a year, unless they are 

 under the leadership of some master-mind who directs. 



4. Mr. LaAvson had other hobbies that took up time and 

 attention. 



As a result, he found a loss in ten years, on farm and 

 buildings, of over thirty thousand dollars, in farm accounts of 

 over thirty-five thousand dollars, — about sixty-seven thousand 

 dollars in all. 



His experiment was founded on a kindly view of human 

 nature. lie found the difiiculties which meet every reformer, 

 — laziness, viciousness, and incnpacity. He found, as every 

 man must find, that business can be carried on successfully only 

 when all emplo3'ed work to advantage. If you would have 

 cooperation, all must have the ability and will to do their part, 

 or else the willingness to put themselves under the control of 

 competent leaders, as workmen are controlled in the service or 

 wages system. The necessity for such control and direction 

 for the mass of men, is one of the reasons why the wages 

 system prevails so extensively as it does. 



The second example of cooperation I shall cite is that of 

 the Mormons in Utah. This is peculiar, as connected with a 

 religious organization. I do not propose to consider at all 

 the peculiarities of the case, but to point out the benefits that 

 have come to that people through cooperation. 



Twenty-eight years ago, they came into Salt Lake Valley 

 so poor, that they kept themselves from starvation with roots 

 and berries ; but they were so numerous, that they had 

 among them the elements of all industries. They moved 

 under the direction of their leaders, who divided the ground 

 and directed the labor in general. They had a country that 

 must be irrigated, and that system of irrigation binds together 

 every community in that whole territory in a system of 

 cooperation and mutual dependence. "Water must be dis- 

 tributed, and the rights of all to it be secured. They are 

 compelled to pay one-tenth of their income to the church. 

 And yet that people have become rich ; their accumulatious 



