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remarks I shall make to what you may possibly find of suggestive 

 value in the cooperative movement generally in these islands. 



As we all know, the cooperati\e movement began in England 

 m the "hungry forties," and has extended since all over the world 

 in its various forms. The first thing that I have to say about 

 the cooperative movement in England is that it hardly touched 

 agriculture at all until the beginning of the present century. In 

 Ireland, on the other hand, just a quarter of a century ago, the 

 agricultural cooperative movement was founded to deal with the 

 special circumstances of that country, and there are, I think, a 

 few points in that movement which are worthy of consideration 

 from those who come from tropical countries. Ireland, of 

 course, is a country where, meteorologically speaking, the tem- 

 perature is low, and I realize that I must remember the warning 

 given to us by the President of the Congress in his opening ad- 

 dress that no knowledge of general principles will avail without 

 a knowledge of the conditions of tropical countries. But in Ire- 

 land we had to supplement an agrarian revolution, which was 

 about to transfer, and has now about half transferred, the agri- 

 cultural land of the country from a small class of landlords, 

 largely regarded as aliens, to a numerous class of cultivators, 

 mostly peasant proprietors. The State, by the advance of some 

 £200,000,000 sterling, and large sums given as a free grant, are 

 carrying out this huge transaction, but they are doing nothing, 

 and could do nothing, or could not do much, to make the neces- 

 sary changes in the social economy of the agricultural classes 

 which would be required in order to enable the new owners of 

 land to prosper, and to fulfil their huge obligation to the State. 

 We laid down, after years of thought and experiment upon the 

 question of a satisfactory rural economy, two main propositions. 

 The first is that if you want to solve the modern problem of rural 

 life— that is. the problem of inducing and enabling people to 

 maintain a decent standard of comfort in a rural existence in 

 these days of world-wide competition — you have to approach the 

 problem from three points of view. You have to look upon agri- 

 culture as an industry, as a business, and, what is perhaps more 

 important than all, as a life. You have to bring into industry 

 the teachings of modern science, into business the methods of our 

 modern business, and into life a scheme of social attraction and 

 amenities ; certain intellectual advantages which will enable rural 

 life to resist the lure of the city. The first proposition is, then, 

 that you have to deal with the problem on its three sides ; and the 

 second, that you must deal with the business of farming, and the 

 chief reform you have to make there is to introduce methods of 

 combination, ^^''e live in days when everything has to be done in 

 a large way — to be done to pay — and when the small producer 

 is at the mercy of powerful middle interests, trusts, combines, and 

 so forth ; so that the first thing is to get a sound economic basis 

 bv teaching- the farmers to combine, and the onh' method of com- 



