199 



FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF CO-OPERATION IN 

 AGRICULTURE. 



Bv G. Harold Powell. 

 (Circular of College of Agriculture, University of California.) 



(Concluded.) 



MEM BERSII IP AGREEM EXT. 



A cooperative organization to be successful must be beld to- 

 gether by a membership agreement or contract holding the mem- 

 bers together for business purposes. In no other way can an as- 

 sociation attain that degree of stabiHty that is necessary in a busi- 

 ness undertaking. The association must know definitely what it 

 is expected to do, the volume of business to be handled, the ex- 

 penses to be incurred and the preparation necessary to be made 

 to transact its affairs in- an orderly, economical manner. 



A'okmtary membership is usually suicidal in a cooperative asso- 

 ciation. In the last analysis the association can only succeed 

 when the average member believes that the cooperative principle 

 is sound ; and that conviction must be strong enough to hold the 

 members together when their opponents attack them insidiously 

 and persistently. This faith must be founded on the sound busi- 

 ness results of the organization, as well as on its larger influence 

 on the development of the industry as a whole. Unless the 

 benefits of the organization are large enough to keep the organiza- 

 tion intact, the members cannot be held together indefinitely by 

 any form of contract ; but the human nature of the average 

 farmer has not evolved to that ideal point when a temporary ad- 

 vantage offered him by an opponent may not blind him to the 

 permanent advantages of the association to which he belongs. A 

 membership agreement" is a steadying influence on a grower who 

 might be led astray by misrepresentation or by temporary dis- 

 satisfaction. Then, too, there are large numbers of farmers who 

 are opportunists. They have no interest in the industry as a 

 whole. They are interested only in their own immediate success. 

 In handling their crops they are rampant speculators. They fol- 

 low a sharp-shooting marketing policy, trying to hit the high 

 spots presented by an association, a buyer, or a commission mer- 

 chant and giving but lukewarm allegiance to any indivdual or 

 association. The opponents of the cooperative system understand 

 this psychological trait perfectly, and unless the producer has 

 formallv bound himself to his association by a definite contract 

 to handle all his produce through it for a given period of time 

 they draw heavily from the membership bv promising a larger 

 return, or by playing upon his prejudices in other ways. It is 



