132 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



the time fixed for payment is well suited to his convenience and 

 to the needs of his occupation. Agricultural cooperation in dis- 

 tribution has enabled the farmer to work for his own support 

 instead of for the .support of a large number of superfluous dis- 

 tributors who constituted an enormous burden resting upon his 

 shoulders. Before the introduction of the cooperative system 

 the small farmer in all business operations had been discriminated 

 against. He had been forced to buy inferior goods at high prices 

 and to sell his products at prices unreasonably low. Probably 

 the farmer's business was the only one where products were sold 

 at wholesale while its requirements were purchased at retail 

 prices. But cooperation has changed all this. It has enabled 

 the small farmer to place himself on a level with the large farmer 

 in producing articles of good quality as well as in the matter of 

 prices received for them. It has enabled the smallest holders 

 to obtain at moderate prices goods of guaranteed quality. Thus 

 while it promotes efficiency on the farm, cooperation secures 

 freedom in the market and so contributes to the highest life in 

 the home. 



Agricultural cooperative societies engage in many benevolent 

 enterprises for their members. The Raiffeisen banks in Ger- 

 many, for example, support infant and continuation schools. 

 They furnish the ordinary schools with maps, musical instru- 

 ments and other equipment. They make grants to village 

 libraries, organize circles for reading and acting and establish 

 evening clubs and clubs for juvenile members. They conduct 

 village institutes, build meeting halls and establish children's 

 savings banks, telephone services and arbitration courts. They 

 appoint local cattle shows and hold regular meetings at which 

 instructive lectures on cooperation and agriculture and other 

 topics are delivered. They form gymnastic societies and bath- 

 ing establishments, cattle and poultry breeding societies, singing 

 societies, local nursing centers, infant aid associations and anti- 

 consumption leagues, -and engage in other good works of great 

 variety. 



Not only does the increased prosperity of cooperators secure 

 for them better education through the ordinary channels but 

 the special facilities provided by the society, the training in 

 doing cooperative business, together with mutual association 



