230 AGRICULTURAL CO-OPERATION IN IRELAND. 



to speak — and the less obvious causes of its success, it is necessary that the 

 reader should read the following able review of these causes which has 

 been extracted from an address on " The Trend of Co-operation in Great 

 Britain and Ireland," delivered by the Right Hon. Horace Plunkett, as 

 President of the National Co-operative Festival Society, 1901-2: — 



"To understand the Irish movement, you must realise that the problem to 

 be dealt with In Ireland was wholly different to that which confronted the 

 pioneers of the Eng-Jish movement. The need for co-operation in distribution 

 was not urgent in Ireland, and, even if it had been, the business of shop-keeping 

 would not have appealed to the Irish imagination in a way calculated to bring 

 out the qualities which, as will be seen, other forms of co-operation evoked. 

 Ireland is occupied by a scattered population, with a low standard of comfort, 

 themselves producing a good deal, though a diminishing quantity, of their own 

 essential dietary. The vast majority of the people live directly upon agricul- 

 ture, and almost all classes depend directly upon that industry. The country 

 being practically devoid of coal and iron, and having few important manufac- 

 tures, its wealth can almost be measured by the output from the land. Any 

 movement, dependent for its establishment on a permanent basis upon economic 

 advantage, would stand or fall by the influence it exercised upon the habits and 

 methods of the wealth-producers of Ireland — the farmers and farm labourers. 



" While any such movement must be kept wholly apart from politics, one 

 of its chief initial difficulties was incidental to the political attitude of the Irish 

 mind. The history of the country has taught the Irish people to attribute all 

 their industrial shortcomings and their commercial disadvantages to the action 

 of the Government. Their political leaders quite sincerely teach them that a 

 Parliament of their own would quickly repair the injuries inflicted by past mis- 

 government. When this attitude of mind had been successfully dealt with, 

 when the all-sufficiency of political remedies had been disposed of, we had to 

 reckon with the still more formidable opposition of those who openly declared 

 that any improvement in the condition of the farmer would only postpone the 

 day when all agricultural problems would be solved by the abolition of land- 

 lordism. Lastly, when the political and the agrarian objections had been met, 

 there was the large human problem, so well known to co-operative propagan- 

 dists, still to be solved. Did the Irish farmers possess the qualities out of 

 which co-operators were made ? They had no commercial experience or 

 business education : had they business capacity? Would they ever display 

 tJiat confidence in each other which is essential to sustained association for 

 business purposes, or, indeed, that confidence in themselves which must 

 precede business enterprise? Could they be induced to form themselves into 

 societies, adopt, and loyally abide by those rules and regulations by which 

 alone an equitable distribution of responsibility and profit among the partici- 

 pants in the joint undertaking can be assured, and harmonious and successful 

 working be rendered possible? We never doubted their capacity to fulfil all 

 these conditions, but few in Ireland, and none in England, shared our confi- 

 dence. Some sympathised with our enthusiasm, others laughed at our 

 ignorant optimism. The pioneers of co-operation in Ireland had, to all appear- 

 ances, an uphill fight before them. 



" But it was a fight well worth making. For, apart from the other good 

 results we looked for, the success of organised self-help was an essential 

 element in the solution of a phase of the Irish land question which is fraught 

 with great importance for the future of our country — I mean the gradual 

 creation in Ireland of a system of peasant proprietorship. Now, paradox 

 though it seem in expression, I have long been convinced — though I do 

 not remember to have said so before — that while under existing economic 



