10 GERMANY - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION 



may benefit by it. When it is considered that at present the large rural 

 central societies have still no really practical experience they can make use 

 of, we see that a collection of the experience obtained in this field must 

 certainh- be of considerable advantage. 



§ 2. liXPERIENCES AND FINANCIAL RESUI^TS OF THE CO-OPERATIVE 

 ELECTRIC LIGHT AND POWER SOCIETIES. 



What we have said in the preceding section makes it already clear 

 that up to the present we can speak of definite and well established 

 experience in regard to the supply of electric power. The movement is 

 still too recent for it to be easy to pass a judgment on it in any sense, above 

 all in regard to the large central societies constituted under the legal form 

 of co-operative societies. 



The electrical engineering ofiice of the Federation of the Co-operative 

 Societies of the Province of Saxony has, indeed, given special importance 

 to the collection of all the experience obtained and has therefore also 

 considered it its duty to prepare detailed economic statistical returns. 

 But it has not been wrong in abstaining from publishing the results 

 obtained up to the present, considering very justly that there is need 

 of much longer and exhaustive experience. 



The facts that can be published, are vei}* few and based essentially 

 on the communications presented to the International Congress of Baden- 

 Baden, already several times referred to in this article. 



It is of special importance in this connection to ascertain within what 

 limits the legal form of co-operative societies has been assumed for the 

 work of large central societies. In spite of the arguments brought against 

 it, as we have already said, in the Province of Saxony several large soci- 

 eties have been constituted of this form ; and hence the opinion of 

 Dr. Rabe the managing director of the organization of co-operative 

 societies in that province, in regard to the experience there obtained, 

 deserves quite special attention. 



Pie declared that, in cases of large new electrical undertakings, he 

 would never advise the co-operative form. In future, electrical businesses 

 must only take the form of large central societies for large districts : 

 " But the larger the area for which provision is to be made, the greater 

 will be the number and variety of the businesses and the less appropriate 

 for the work the legal form of a co-operative society. The internal manage- 

 ment, the keeping of the registers and the relations with members already 

 involve much useless work, causing much time to be lost. But there is 

 quite a special danger for the society in the fact that in its general meet- 

 ings, the decisions of which are final, any individual member has the 

 same rights as a large organization or another member whose interest in 

 the undertaking, in consideration of money invested and of consumption, 

 is thousands of tim.es greater. Now in case of organizations like those of 



