rkovisioN oi- 1 BORROWING FACILITIES. 429 



find the State an important partner in the movement. A partner, 

 it must be admitted, whose activities are restricted, as a rule, to doing 

 what is necessary to help the people to help themselves. As far as 

 the State and the co-operative movement are concerned, the true art 

 of administration will be found, I suggest, in accurately placing the 

 line which is to separate self-help pure and simple from State aided 

 self-help. This line is by no means immutable, but must, from time 

 to time, be shifted backwards or forwards. At first, it may well be, 

 by far the greater part of co-operative ground will be occupied by 

 State aided self-help. But, if the State wisely administers its aid, 

 the ground will gradually pass over to self-help pure and simple until 

 the duties of the State towards the movement stand out clearly defined 

 in the light of experience. Popular self-help is a delicate plant to 

 grow. It requires expert care and attention and, if forced, it perishes. 

 The difficulty is to hit off the happy mean between a disastrous 

 coddling and an equally disastrous want of supervision and training. 



The principles which I would like to see generally accepted are as 

 follows : 



(') The progress of our co-operative banks (which include 

 amongst their members and their directors the best 

 educated men available) must not be confined to lending 

 money only, but must extend to the spread of general 

 enlightenment amongst the societies which are members 

 of, and are financed by, the banks. 



(it) In order to keep the active support of our educated workers 

 we must captivate their imagination and show them 

 clearly that co-operative banks are not intended only 

 for the benefit of certain classes but that they tit into a 

 scheme of general improvement. 

 (Hi) Government must give the necessary assistance in carrying 



out this scheme but must not itself undertake too much 







or too little. Both ways lies danger. Safety can only 

 be secured by correct adjustment. 



(iv) We must be careful not to emulate too hastily certain 

 advanced forms of co-operation in other countries. It 

 is far better to await the results of education in co-opera- 

 tion than to force the pace and make a mock of self-help 

 by running societies with an excessive measure of 

 Government assistance. If a project be such that there 



