30 ITAIvY - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION 



§ 2. — The working of the AGRICQI^TURAI, EMPI^OYERS' ASSOCIATIONS 

 AND THE DEFENSIVE MEASURES ADOPTED. 



The Agricultural Associations are usually composed of larger and smaller 

 proprietors and tenant farmers and for the most part, like the working 

 men's syndicates, they exert their action in plains rather than among 

 hills or mountains, where small holdings prevail. 



This is the case in the provinces of Piacenza, Parma and Bologna. 



The most active, that is, those in districts where the most frequent 

 and the bitterest contests take place, have united and formed provincial 

 organisations, in connection with the Interprovincial Federation or the 

 National Confederation above-mentioned ; but those which are least 

 powerful and not very efficient for deciding on the methods and means 

 of action to be adopted are isolated. 



The chief function of the Agricultural Associaiions is defence, in which 

 may be more or less directly included all the supplementary functions 

 which keep the associations aUve in periods of calm. Defence, therefore, 

 is clearly the fundamental raison d'etre of the agricultural associations, 

 which invariably state in their regulations that their objects are the 

 defence of individual property, freedom of labour, concord and co-operation 

 between the classes etc. 



The contributions of members are usually divided into two categories, 

 ordinary and special; the first correspond with the systems of farm- 

 ing, with the area of the land, the crops cultivated, or the taxable re- 

 venue, and are utiHsed only for the current working expenses; the second 

 serve the purposes of defence in the contests, often amounting to con- 

 siderable sums and are lieved in proportion to the requirements and the 

 special circumstances for which they are assessed. 



The numer of the votes of the members depends on the amount of 

 tne contributions paid by them, so that the large proprietors and tenant 

 farmeis dominate the meetings in which the line of action to be pursued is 

 decided and constitute the committees for management and administra- 

 tion. To these committees is entrusted the duty of treating with labour 

 associations. 



The means of defence possessed by the agricultural associations cannot 

 be calculated with precision, because the numbers of members, and the 

 figures of the ordinary balance sheets do not indicate their full strength, 

 which in times of need is increased by specially constituted organisations. 



It is also necessary to point out that the employers' associations are 

 not so much intended to resist demands for improvement of the labourers 

 situation, which, are as a rule, examined by commissions appointed for 

 the purpose, but rather to maintain discipHne, as is needful in order that 

 farms may be continuously and safely worked, and to oppose the interfer- 

 ence of labourers in the technical organisation of production, as when they 

 claim to limit the use of machinery, to fix the number of labourers, and to 

 arrange the division and the methods of working etc. 



