14 GERMANY - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION 



Experience counsels the adoption in future of the following principles 

 in regard to the supply of electric power to the rural districts by means of 

 co-operative organizations : 



Before starting an electric business in the country, careful examination 

 is to be recommended with regard to its economic advisability and the possi- 

 bility of returns. This examination should be entrusted to competent and 

 impartial advisory offices, such as possibly the electrical engineering offices 

 of a group of co-operative societies and other incorporated bodies. As to 

 the .^ mall electric workshops limiting their field of action to a single com- 

 mune or a few conterminous communes, as the cost of their installation and 

 working is comparatively high, they are to be recommended only by way of 

 exception, when there is cheap and abundant motor power and an adequate 

 local consumption. In general, the installation oi large electric workshops 

 for very large areas, " Uberlandzentralen ", or a connection with some of 

 these large workshops seems more suitable. When it is intended to start 

 new electric workshops, attempt must be made to induce the urban or 

 rural communes and the district or provincial administrations to adhere, 

 so as to prevent the possibility of a monopoly of private capital. 

 For the organization of these central societies the legal form of co-operative 

 societies does not seem advisable, but rather that of societies limited 

 by shares, or that of limited liability societies, always provided it is 

 not a case for the adoption of the form of organizations in public law. 

 For the secondary local organizations, when the commune does not in- 

 tervene directly as such, the formation of local co-operative societies for 

 supply is advisable. These, when the central society does not make pro- 

 vision it,self, must establish the local installation, erect the transforming 

 stations and establish the connection for the individual local consumers 

 and then settle their accounts with the central society. For the establish- 

 ment of the local system, the installation in houses and the purchase of 

 motors, it is highly desirable the advice and supervision of the electrical 

 engineering division of the federation should never be dispensed with. 



