110 RURAL RECONSTRUCTION 



operative distribution, rightly described by the originator of German 

 co-operation, that is Schulze-Delitzsch, as the " foundation " of 

 the co-operative structure to be reared up, is in very truth the 

 foundation of all forms of practicable co-operation, which cannot 

 do without it. If there be only the mind to raise them, other 

 co-operative services grow out of it, as branches do out of a tree. 

 Therefore to all rural folk wishful to organise and co-operate, my 

 advice under ordinary circumstances is: begin with supply and 

 distribution— substantial farmers with the collective purchase of 

 business requirements, smaller folk with the collective purchase of 

 both such and also of all domestic necessaries. 



And to do so is so easy ! The machinery for it is in our country 

 all ready to hand. The whole apparatus is prepared, and needs 

 but the penny in the slot and the handle to be turned to set it going. 

 There is the great and powerful Co-operative Wholesale Society at 

 the head, which can do almost anything, and has shown that it can 

 do it cheaply and better than even the Government itself, with all 

 its resources and authority, owing to its admirable organisation, 

 more specifically of distribution and of transport. And local 

 stores branch out from it over the entire breadth of the country. 

 There is no place in which rural folk could not easily " hitch on ' : 

 to an existing commercial centre — which practice will now, in the 

 generality of cases, prove preferable to starting independently for 

 itself — on the smallest of scales as it would be — in an entirely self- 

 contained village society. The well-devised arrangement made by 

 the Industrial Co-operative Society of Lincoln will serve as an excellent 

 model. That society serves a wide country district, sending out its 

 carts at regular times to deliver goods — and also to bring home 

 agricultural produce — fowls, eggs, vegetables, butter, etc. — which 

 it disposes of to the best advantage in its trade, so halving the usual 

 middleman's profits between producer and consumer. One would 

 like to see a similar arrangement adopted all over our island. It 

 would make our rural population a more prosperous mass of 

 humanity, fully prepared for other forms of co-operation. For 

 the co-operative principle is most easily learnt in distribution. 



However, to agriculture as a calling, no matter how large or how 

 small its units may be, reaching down to the very humblest cottage 

 holdings, co-operative supply and distribution represent, after all, 

 only a subordinate part of the business to be done. Agriculture is 

 distinctly a productive calling. Even its supply is ancillary only 

 to production. By production it lives ; and for production it was 

 created. Its value to the country as a whole lies in its production 



