SOME ECONOMIC INTERESTS 127 



In the second place, it is said that the farmer has not sufficient 

 business ability to conduct a cooperative organization. While 

 this is true in a number of instances, it should not be true of the 

 farmers of New England who are said to be as shrewd bargainers 

 as any farmers in the world. The farmers of New England are 

 intelligent and should be as enterprising and as capable of han- 

 dling the cooperative associations as the farmers of Ireland, the 

 farmers of Denmark or the farmers of Texas. 



Another legitimate reason for the failure of cooperative or- 

 ganizations among farmers has been the fact that most organiza- 

 tions of farmers have had so many purposes that the real object 

 of the association has become obscured. This has been one diffi- 

 culty in the formation of business cooperative associations by 

 the Grange. Again, too, a good many of these cooperative so- 

 cieties have failed because the members of them have had no 

 common interest ; a cooperative organization is a very simple 

 thing but each should be composed of men who are bound to- 

 gether by some common interest. A large number of purposes 

 or objects is likely to defeat the whole end and aim of a business 

 enterprise. 



One of the first essentials to successful cooperation is suffi- 

 cient material in a given community with which to do a coopera- 

 tive business. 



On the other hand, for purposes of cooperation, it is alto- 

 gether best that the cooperating area be rather small. It is 

 much easier for a number of farmers in a small community to 

 organize for purposes of purchase or sale than it is for the far- 

 mers scattered over a county or two counties to organize. Con- 

 sequently intending cooperators might well consider the growing 

 of one or two special crops by all the members of the cooperative 

 association. 



The third great essential to cooperation is loyalty. There 

 is no use considering a cooperative society unless the members 

 are loyal to the association even to the point of suffering some 

 loss for the sake of keeping the association alive and prosperous. 

 This loyalty is one of the most noticeable features of cooperative 

 societies abroad and of successful cooperative societies in the 

 United States. The members uphold their societies against all 

 charges, furnish the required raw material even when the coop- 



