44 REPORT OF THE SCOTTISH COMMISSION 



demand Home Rule, which they believed was indispensable. 

 There was something in the argument, just as there is something 

 iu the argument of those who oppose the management of the liquor 

 trade on the ground that if the public-house were improved people 

 would cease to work for its abolition. Whether there was enough 

 in it to justify the Irish members in washing their hands clean of 

 the whole affair is another matter. Be that as it may, they threw 

 in their lot with the traders against the co-operators, and have 

 done much to hinder and hamper the movement. 



Apart from these considerations, co-operation, as applied to 

 agriculture, had failed in England, where the co-operative move- 

 ment generally had reached a unique position in the world. It 

 was not widely known then — Sir Horace and his friends did not 

 know — how successful agricultural co-operation had been in con- 

 tinental countries. Their critics might well have asked if, in the 

 home of co-operation, agricultural co-operation had failed, what 

 hope was there in Ireland ? 



Hopeful Signs 



On the other hand, Sir Horace and his friends had three 

 advantages that told in their favour. There was, in the first 

 place, the poverty of the people. It is one tiling to get poor men, 

 who have nothing to lose and possibly something to gain, to 

 CO operate. It is another, and a much more difficult thing, to 

 get comparatively rich men to co-operate. Co-operation may 

 mean to the poor men the difference between poverty and plenty ; 

 to the well-to-do it may mean only an increase of an already 

 adequate income. The former may be forced to put everything 

 aside and join the co-operative movement ; the latter may prefer 

 isolation. There was, in the second place, a lingering affection for 

 the old clan system, observable in the Irishman's ])roneness to 

 follow his leaders whether in Church or State. Had the Irish 

 members thrown in their lot with the co-operators, the Irish 

 people would have followed them like sheep through a slap in 

 a dyke, and the movement by this time would have covered the 

 land as the waters cover the sea. But there were other leaders in 

 Ireland than the parliamentary leaders, and many of them threw 

 in their lot with the co-operators, and that was an advantage. 

 There was, in the third place, the Irishman's experience of com 

 bination for political purposes. He had combined for political 

 purposes with wonderful results, why not for commercial purposes, 

 particularly if it could be shown that the combination was to be 

 to his advantage. 



Sir Horace and his Associates at Work 



Everything considered, however, it was no easy task which 

 these co-operative pioneers had set themselves. But the future 

 prosperity of Ireland, we now see, depended upon them. They 

 met with the bitterest opposition. Sir Horace was a " Monster in 



