MISCELLANEOUS NEWS 



included 29 regional and provincial federations with 15,930 members. Almost 

 60 % of the whole number of German Agricultural Societies, 27.192 on June 

 ist., 1913, according to the Statistics of the Xational Federation, are there- 

 fore affiliated to the above federation. Except for the RaifEeisen Federations, 

 there is only a small number of national and provincial federations that do 

 not belong to this union. 



In spite of the extraordinary^ progress made by the Federation, its 

 organization has remained always almost the same during these thirty years. 

 Certainly, some changes and important innovations have been introduced 

 into it, such as the formation of a Board of Management and Special Com- 

 mittees, in 1900, but the most important provisions of the original rules, 

 concerning representation, management and working, have, so to say, re- 

 mained the same. All these matters were in the hands of the business man- 

 ager, who, since 1913, bears the name of General Director {Generalanvalt) 

 and it may be said that the whole National Federation was concentrated 

 in him. This system certainly presented great advantages, above all 

 as long as the principal task of the National Federation was the formation 

 of the German agricultural co-operative organization, and as long as it 

 had at its head a man of extraordinary organizing talent, such as the 

 late General Director Haas. 



But now that the National Federation includes some i6,ooci societies and 

 their federations are firmly constituted, we may say that the organization 

 period is passed. It is now necessary to consolidate the existing institutions, 

 effectively apply the co-operative principles universally recognised, and cause 

 the rural population to be penetrated by the real spirit of co-operation. 

 This is a task both important and necessary to accomplish, as is 

 shown, by the recent events that have occurred in the Grand Duchy 

 of Hesse, v\ here negligence in the application of fundamental principles 

 has led to a serious crisis in agricultural co-operation (i). To prevent the 

 repetition of such errors, as Dr. Havenstein, Manager of the Federation of 

 the Agricultural Co-operative Societies of Rhenish Prussia, said so well 

 at the General Congress, the most Uvely sentiment of responsibiUty and duty 

 must reign ever>'^\'here, as a check to any temptation to lose sight of the real 

 object of the co-operative society and involve it in dangerous speculation. 

 The sentiment of responsibility and duty is obscured and declines where 

 everything is concentrated in the hands of one person whom all follow 

 blindly. Very serious loss may result from this, for a single individual 

 is more easily a victim of error than a group. The changes that have now 

 been introduced into the rules are the result of tendencies that have existed 

 for years within the National Federation. 



The desire was in this way to change the personal system \ip to the pre- 

 sent existing into a real system of self government. Although it is but a 

 Httle while, since the death of the former general direc^ or, this is only the 



(i) Cfr. the preceding article, and that by Dr. Grabein in the Bulletin of Economic 

 and Socml Intelligence, December, 191 3. 



