THE I'RINCIPLES OF COOl'KRATIOX. 205 



chase of supplies on any considerable scale are in the nature 

 of regular mercantile concerns; the tendency of these in 

 America is into the liands of a few persons, by the purchase 

 of the stock at less than cost, or otherwise into the hands of 

 the sheriff. In Great Britain they are remarkably successful. 

 The simplest cooperative enterprises are those for the sale 

 of products of their members, and it is with these that these 

 pages will be occupied, although of course the more general 

 principles are applicable to all forms of cooperation. A 

 "cooperative store" buys and sells, but the fundamental idea is 

 buying cheaply and saving by its members. The fundamental 

 idea of marketing societies is the highest attainable prices for 

 products. These ideas are contradictory, but both forms are 

 included in the term "distributive cooperation." 



All business is a science whose laws must be obeyed or 

 failure will result. It is not abstruse; on the contrary it is 

 the simplest of sciences. It is a science best learned in the 

 school of experience, and all who succeed in business have 

 mastered its principles so far as they apply to the business 

 which occupies them. They may never have, and most likely 

 have not, seen or heard of any book relating to the principles 

 of business, but if they pick up such a book in which the 

 underlying principles of business are set down in an orderly 

 way, they find little or nothing with which they are not 

 perfectly familiar and are surprised that it should have been 

 thought worth while to write and print such simple things. 

 And yet it is true that the majority of business enterprises 

 fail because these principles are not followed. Of course it is 

 also true that many fail in business who understand its prin- 

 ciples well enough, but have not the vigor and will power to 

 always follow them. 



The fundamental principles of business a{)ply to the con- 

 duct of a farm, of course, as well as to pure trading, but their 

 application to trade involves the knowledge of a good many 

 facts and the perception of many relations which do not 

 usually come within the experience of farmers or workingmen. 

 If, therefore, farmers, through cooperation, engage in trade, 

 they must, if they expect success, become familiar with these 



