COOPERATIVE ORGANIZATIONS 299 



nor uniform. It is also true that no universal for- 

 mulas for organization and operation can be drawn 

 from their experience because the organizations are 

 still proceeding confidently in their several ways, 

 each holding that its own way best meets the condi- 

 tions of its own membership, the nature of its ma- 

 terials or the requirements of the trade therein. Cali- 

 fornia organizations are, in fact, in spite of the im- 

 mense volume and value of the products they suc- 

 cessfully handle, still going through a period of ex- 

 perimentation with organic principles and methods 

 and no one can confidently prophesy whether the final 

 outcome will prescribe uniformity or diversity as the 

 better policy. 



Without undertaking to determine how far exist- 

 ing organizations claiming to be cooperative embody 

 the principles of true cooperative organization of 

 producers to do business for themselves, it may in- 

 terest the general reader to know that two leading 

 types of organization have been for several years in 

 operation on a large scale. One is the non-profit 

 incorporation legalized by a California statute of 

 1909, and given the same legal powers in carrying 

 out its purposes as a capital stock incorporation, by 

 a statute of 1921. The other is a capital stock in- 

 corporation, which, in its latest and best form, lim- 

 its the holding of the stock to actual producing mem- 

 bers and limits the reward of the stock-holder to 

 reasonable interest on his investment and distributes 

 all excess earnings among members as producers and 

 not as holders of capital stock. Capital stock organ- 



