COOPERATIVES: EARLY PHASES 



61 



adequate to insure the success of a typical American cooperative. The 

 American pattern generally combined good business practices with the 

 Rochdale principles. 



Nevertheless, every effort was made to find out what the English and 

 European cooperatives were doing, and to adapt their methods to the 

 needs of the movement in the United States. Commissions and individuals 

 were sent abroad; data were collected; reports were submitted; and rec- 

 ommendations were made. But there is little tangible evidence that much 

 of lasting importance resulted from these investigations. Inevitably they 

 led to the holding of conferences, the passing of resolutions, and the 

 depositing of materials in archives. But it was one thing to collect data 

 and confer and resolve and quite another to influence the course of the 

 cooperative movement. 10 



Probably more potent than the study of foreign procedures were the 

 recommendations of President Theodore Roosevelt's Commission on 

 Rural Life. The commission, besides emphasizing the need for coopera- 

 tives, called attention to the obstacles which impeded their growth, and 

 designated the regions of undiversified one-crop farming as the place of 

 their greatest need. The commission also urged upon the states the neces- 

 sity of passing enabling legislation and upon Congress the desirability of 

 promoting cooperatives in every way it could, particularly with respect 

 to cooperative rural credits. 



Naturally, the advocates of farmer cooperatives made good use of the 



At the bottom of page 146 the authors cite "practices commonly used by American 

 cooperatives [which] are not distinguishable from those of private business cor- 

 porations." Melvin T. Copeland, interestingly enough, treats the topic of cooperative 

 marketing under the broad general heading of "Marketing" in Recent Economic 

 Changes in the United States, Report of the Committee on Recent Economic Changes 

 of the President's Conference on Unemployment (2 vols., New York, 1929), I, 374- 

 89. 



10. Agricultural Cooperation and Rural Credit in Europe (63 Congress, i session, 

 Senate Document 214, serial 6519, Washington, 1913); Senate Document 171, 68 

 Congress, 2 session; Agricultural Cooperation and Rural Credit in Europe, Report 

 of the American Commission (63 Congress, 2 session, Senate Document 261, serial 

 6570, 2 vols., Washington, 1914); Adaptation of the European Cooperative Credit 

 System to Meet the Needs of the American Farmer Report of the International 

 Institute of Agriculture on the Conference Held at Nashville, Tenn., April 79/2 

 (62 Congress, 2 session, Senate Document 855, serial 6178, Washington, 1912). 



