PREFACE, 



WHEN, after a business experience extending over a 

 quarter of a century, I became interested in coopera- 

 tive work among farmers, and sought, as an officer of 

 cooperative societies, to induce farmers to unite for business 

 purposes, I discovered that there were no grounds, common to 

 myself and those whom I addressed, upon which to base the 

 proposed action. My audiences and constituents believed so 

 much which I knew to be untrue as to greatly impair the 

 effectiveness of my leadership. This condition was so vexing 

 that I gradually, durhig three or four years of that work, pre- 

 pared, largely upon railroad trains, the most of the chapters 

 which comprise this volume. Later, some chapters were ampli- 

 fied, and others added. If I had happened to be one who 

 had had unusual experience in raising cabbages, I was sure 

 that my brother farmers would have much respect for what I 

 might say about methods of growing them. I hoped that I 

 might have the same influence as one who had happened to 

 have a wider business experience than falls to the lot of most 

 farmers. As to that, however, I have some doubt. 



I pretend to no great knowledge of economic science, but 

 understand it to be plain common sense applied to such busi- 

 ness transactions as marketing produce, borrowing money, and 

 voting upon a tariff. Common sense, of course, is the logical 

 inference from all the facts. Inference from only part of the 

 facts, or from "facts that ain't so," is not common sense, 

 although, unfortunately, common practice. No one appre- 

 ciates more highly than myself the value of the study of the 

 fundamental economic concepts, but, after all, the world's 

 business must be done mostly by those without fixed convic- 

 tions as to the real meaning of " value," or the ''fund" from 

 which wages are paid. I have, therefore, written for that class, 

 drawing my conclusions inductively from experiences common 

 to myself and my readers, rather than deductively from the 



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