COOPERATION 



the birthplace of one of the greatest of all 

 movements inaugurated in our era. 



Had the condition of the western farmers 

 been worse than it was, more nearly approach- 

 ing the condition of the weavers of Rochdale, 

 the American progress in cooperation would 

 have been more rapid; for when relief must 

 come through effort, the deeper the misery, 

 sometimes, the greater effort demanded, and 

 greater the relief when it comes. Mention has 

 been made in another chapter of the success 

 of the Iowa farmers who went into business 

 for themselves in order to get fair treatment 

 from unfair capital. While their effort, so 

 signally successful, was not in a sense coopera- 

 tive, the principle that underlies cooperation 

 which finds its expression in what we call 

 self-preservation, was at the basis of their 

 effort. Cooperation had been tried in a num- 

 ber of places throughout the United States as 

 the news of the success of the Rochdale 

 movement came over seas. About the begin- 

 ing of the period of the New Earth, a number 

 of farmers gathered in the town of Hatfield, 

 Massachusetts, and established a cooperative 

 dairy which soon became successful and proved 



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