i68 THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



more or less forgotten as they are nowadays by the sons and 

 grandsons of their former pupils and beneficiaries — in starting 

 that Co-operative Union, which has now grown so mighty 

 and such an incalculable benefit to the w^orking population 

 as an active force. It was not so much supply that was 

 thought of as production, emancipation of the labourer, the 

 recognition of Labour as a calling equal in status to any 

 other, the placing of the direction of Labour in the workmen's 

 own hands and securing to them the full profit due. Robert 

 Owen, who is commonly reckoned as the " father " of Co- 

 operation in this country, likewise started with the aim of 

 emancipating the workman. That is, however, a slow process, 

 which requires time, patience, and dauntless resolution, in the 

 face of serious difficulties. Meanwhile the abuses of over- 

 charging and adulteration were felt terribly oppressive by 

 the poor, and indeed as formidable obstacles to the emanci- 

 pation aimed at. Accordingly, and very rightly, combi- 

 nation was resorted to, at first in the smallest of ways — 

 because the task of removing so great a mountain by trifling 

 efforts and merely nascent faith presented itself as nearly 

 hopeless — with a view to the cheapening of the cost of 

 necessaries of life and ensuring that they were genuine 

 — as a first necessary step to emancipation. The attempt 

 to do so — ridiculed as it was in its first stages, and puny 

 as were the forces which at the outset could be enrolled for 

 the pioneer service (for the twenty-eight Toad Lane weavers, 

 with their small wants, began with only ;^28, the ten foun- 

 ders of the great Plymouth Stores with only £3) has in the 

 result proved magnificently successful. The explanation 

 is simple enough. You begin by creating a market that 

 you can absolutely rely upon. There is no need of can- 

 vassing for a clientele. Practically, accordingly, risk is 

 excluded — excluded alike in actual marketing, and excluded 

 also in the matter of payment, since credit is (theoretically, 

 at any rate) strictly forbidden. There must be payment 

 in cash. Apart from excluding risk, that at the same time 

 cheapens management, for there is no need of advertising ; 

 and, so long as the society is small, necessary outlay on the 

 shop is of the smallest. In this way the middleman comes 



