Fundamentals in Cooperation 29 



limitation has been incorporated in the laws of some of 

 the states which provide for the formation of cooperative 

 associations, notably in Nebraska, Minnesota, and Wis- 

 consin. But experience in some of the most successful 

 American non-profit cooperative business associations, 

 like the organizations of citrus fruit-growers in California 

 in which the property interests of the growers are widely 

 variable, has shown that the grower who markets $100,000 

 worth of fruit through a cooperative association will not 

 consent, nor should he be expected to stand on the same 

 basis of responsibility in the management of the organiza- 

 tion or in liability as a fellow grower who contributes 

 not more than $5000 worth of fruit. Experience has 

 shown also that the voting power of the members may be 

 equal with a reservation that it may at any time be pro- 

 portional to the product or acreage contributed, with a 

 limit placed on the voting power of large producers, with- 

 out weakening the fundamental principles that distinguish 

 a cooperative non-profit corporation from an ordinary 

 stock corporation formed for pecuniary profit. 



THE MEMBERSHIP AGREEMENT 



It is fundamental that the members of a farmers' co- 

 operative organization be held together by a contract or 

 agreement, or by a binding provision in the by-laws to 

 be signed by every member. Voluntary membership is 

 suicidal to a cooperative business organization. The suc- 

 cess of the cooperative movement depends, in the final 

 analysis, on the steadfastness and cooperation of the mem- 

 bers. Their support must be in the nature of a strong 

 conviction that the cooperative principle as a business 



