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xii PKEFACE . ^/ 



by Danish co-operators on at least two occasions. When the 

 trade supplying certain goods necessary to farmers, threatened 

 to combine to exact conditions for the sale which were con- 

 sidered unfair or unreasonable, the farmers were quickly 

 roused, in large numbers, to form a special society for the purpose 

 of supplying those very goods on co-operative lines, thereby 

 delivering the most effective counter-stroke possible to the 

 attempt to enforce unjust conditions, both by withdrawing 

 most of the custom from the threatening trust and by estab- 

 lishing a standard of fair prices and conditions as a guidance 

 for others. This remedy against trusts seems as unobjection- 

 able as it is effective, but it requires a population with a 

 wide experience of co-operation and trusted and versatile 

 leaders. 



According to the Danish conception of a co-operative 

 society, it is essential that the members themselves should 

 manage the affairs of the society ; that they should be jointly 

 and severally Hable for the loan raised to start the society ; 

 that they should have one vote each and only one, independently 

 of their share in the transactions of the society ; that goods 

 should be distributed to, or produce delivered by, members 

 at current market prices, and that the net surplus, after a 

 substantial contribution to the sinking fund, should be divided 

 among members according to the amount or value of their 

 transactions with the society. Danish co-operative societies 

 are neutral, that is to say, they take no part as such in political, 

 temperance, or rehgious movements. They are open to all. 

 Many of them bind their members, absolutely or to a definite 

 extent, to take their supply from, or to deHver their produce 

 to or through the society. Payment in cash is generally 

 stipulated. As already said, the local societies form the 

 backbone of the movement, and confine themselves to the 

 solution of only one special problem each, be it the improve- 

 ment of a particular kind of hve- stock, or the joint purchase 

 of farm seed. If a new object is in view, a new society is 

 formed. Thus there are special local societies for cattle breed- 

 ing, others for testing the milk of individual cows and herds, 

 others for making butter from the milk, others for selling the 

 produce of the dairies, and even a special society for the 



