230 HISTORY OF THE WHEEL AND ALLIANCE. 



* 'The science of co-operation cannot be mastered in 

 weeks, months, or years. At present many regard it as a 

 scheme to make money only, and engage in it in that 

 spirit, but persons having no higher conception of co-oper- 

 ation are not likely to succeed such persons should 

 uncover their head and wash their feet before entering 

 even the vestibule of true co-operation. 



"Co-operators can't be held together by signs or pass- 

 words, or verbal obligations, or constitutions or by-laws on 

 paper; sound morality, a spirit of justice and lofty intelli- 

 gence are the cohesive principles which hold true 

 co-operators in bonds of unity. For this reason, in admit- 

 ting members, the greatest care should be exercised in 

 carrying out Articles two and three of this constitution. 



4 'Correct ideas always precede successful action, there- 

 fore a thorough knowledge of the causes of industrial and 

 social evils, and the power of co-operation to remedy them, 

 should be acquired by the members before attempting any 

 co-operative project. Knowledge and not capital is the 

 potent agency which will ultimately make co-operation a 

 success. 



"To secure this knowledge the people must look more 

 to themselves than to lecturers. The lecturer may awake 

 a few sleepers, but he is expensive, as half the money 

 necessary to give a lecture would flood the whole com- 

 munity with co-operative literature that would do infinitely 

 more good than the lecture. n 



The beauty of the plan here given is, that it excludes 

 no one on account of poverty and the dividends are made 

 to the purchaser according to the amount of goods pur- 

 chased. Every member thus becomes interested in the suc- 

 cess of the enterprise. The. goods are sold at a reasonable 

 price, much below the usual figure, but still at a per cent, 

 of profit that will pay interest on the money invested by 

 the stockholders, the running expenses of the enterprise, 



