in CO-OPERATION 121 



should be supplied from some central office, as 

 weather forecasts have recently been supplied to 

 farmers. 



Longshoremen cannot combine against the 

 buyers. They are not men of business training, 

 and if they did make themselves familiar with 

 business methods they would be too busy to put 

 them into practice just when they most needed 

 them, namely, when they were catching fish. 

 Besides which, they have not the capital to com- 

 bine against their economic enemies for the pur- 

 pose of keeping prices up. One bad season would 

 bring them off their high horse. Better bad prices 

 than starvation. 



And it is useless to spring upon them full- 

 fledged schemes of co-operation. The sturdiness 

 of character which, combined with their sturdi- 

 ness of physique, makes them such valuable 

 members of the community, at the same time 

 unfits them for the give-and-take of co-operative 

 methods. But something might be done to 

 improve the fisheries and prepare the longshore- 

 men for successful co-operation, if men of business 

 ability and sufficient capital would compete with 

 the buyers on their own ground, in their own 

 manner, and then would divide the surplus profits 



