The Organization of the Garden City 



the principle on the part of the membership, and a 

 willingness to make some sacrifices at the beginning. 

 The temptation to turn their backs on their own store 

 in order to make immediate savings is often too strong 

 to be resisted. In the long run it would pay better 

 to be good cooperators, but it happens that many 

 people have their eyes fixed on the short run, and if 

 they can take a ten-dollar bill and buy eleven-dollars' 

 worth of goods at a bargain sale, it is hard for them 

 to realize that, by crippling their own store, they may 

 be losing a dollar in the end instead of making one. The 

 problem is to preserve the solidarity of the community 

 in support of its cooperative institutions. This prob- 

 lem is likely to be particularly difficult in garden cities 

 lying close to a great town, where the people go back 

 and forth every day. Under these circumstances it is 

 incumbent upon the responsible founders of the com- 

 munity to consider very carefully whether the coopera- 

 tive store, sound as it is in principle, would be wise in 

 practice. 



Another difficulty is the dissension which frequently 

 arises over management both as to methods and per- 

 sonnel. I could relate instances from my own experi- 

 ence which would seem ludicrous, if they hadn't been 

 so tragic ; instances where successful business was 

 established, then incontinently wrecked by the struggle 

 of the factions over the manager's job, which paid but 

 a pitiful salary, and no thanks. 



Another prolific cause of trouble arises from the 

 question of credits. The private merchant can extend 

 or refuse credit without creating serious enmity, but it 

 is a different thing in the case of the cooperative mer- 



