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old adage, " Great oaks from little acorns grow," I believe to be a 

 sute guide for the supporters of co-operation. Many small, well- 

 organized associations, where the membership is in close touch with 

 their organization and with each other, from which they can learn 

 true co-operation, hold a close sympathetic relation with the in- 

 dividual members which is impossible with a large institution whose 

 membership is widely scattered. But some one will say no small 

 organization can stand the expense of doing business along lines 

 which will bring greatest success. Very well. A large central 

 organization can be formed, and in many cases has been formed, 

 from the small organizations, each small organization becoming a 

 stockholder in the central organization and each sending a delegate 

 to the stockholdei-s' meetings. This gives a strong central body 

 made up of picked men from the many smaller bodies. Because of 

 the large volume of business, such organizations are enabled to get 

 the very best experts to handle it, and further, it is always sought 

 by the very best houses. Their strength commands the respect of 

 the transportation companies. It enables them to have representa- 

 tives in the field both at the receiving point and at the point of 

 delivery, thus assuring the proper handling of the business. 



From the foregoing it is easy to see the latent possibilities of 

 co-operation. Some of our weak-kneed brothers will say it is vision- 

 ary. But this is not so. I have not mentioned a single thing which 

 is not represented by a living, working, successful institution, ranging 

 from the small co-operative store to the mammoth Rochdale system 

 of England, — which grew from an organization of nine weavei*s 

 to its present huge proportions; and the eminently successful credit 

 associations of Europe, — which assist the farmers to finance the 

 farms and the institutions connected directly therewith; and in 

 America the great citrus and deciduous fruit associations of the west. 



We Americans are strong individualists and it is hard for us 

 to give up that individual independence which is so diametrically 

 opposed to co-operation; but necessity is the father of many great 

 advances, and it is gradually crowding us to the advance line. As 

 it forced European countries to co-operate in order to feed the 

 vast population from a small territory, as it forced the great fruit 

 interests of the west to seek relief through a community of actions, 

 so it will steadily but surely drive us all to an understanding of 

 the great benefits which are to be derived from co-operative efforts. 

 To be sure, as has been the case in the past when co-operation has 

 become an accomplished fact, the road will be strewn with the 

 wreckage of failure, but so is it also strewn with wreckage in all 

 commercial undertakings, and because of the failures it behooves 

 us and enables us to take advantage of the past, and so organize that 

 the pitfalls which have caused disasters before shall be avoided. 



