210 THE FARMER AlS A COorKRATOR. 



happens that a management which has been unwise cnougli 

 to accept duties for whose execution sufficient funds have not 

 been provided, will have thereafter the wisdom and courage to 

 promptly meet financial difficulty in a business-like way. The 

 beginnings of cooperation are very apt to be among the least- 

 prosperous classes, some part, at least, of whose misfortunes may 

 always be attributed to their own lack of foresight and vigor. 

 These qualities, carried into the management of cooperative 

 affairs, are quite apt to lead, in emergencies, to the creation of 

 debt, with the vague idea that payment can be made "some- 

 how," when the time comes. 



In this I am speaking rather from my own observation of 

 societies organized for the sale of products produced by their 

 members than of those formed for regular mercantile enter- 

 prises where goods are bought as well as sold. In the latter 

 case all would recognize the need of capital, and so long as 

 purchases and sales were made entirely for cash, there could 

 hardly be failure, although there might not be prosperity. 

 But the success of such concerns depends so entirely on the 

 personal equation of the manager and membership that I 

 regard them as unsafe. A few of them have been successful in 

 this country and many notable successes have been achieved 

 in Europe. In this country, how^ever, where success has been 

 attained, it appears to have been mostly owing to the personal 

 qualities of the managers. There is, perhaps, more stabil- 

 ity of character among the masses of England. I can not 

 otherwise account for the great success of cooperative mer- 

 cantile enterprises there. 



There is no sentiment in cooperation. So far as a cooper- 

 ative movement is based on sentiment, it is likely to fail; and 

 it ouglit to do so.* If the results of cooperation are to increase 

 the incomes of the cooperators the facts will appear in due 

 time, and cooperative enterprises will multiply; if the results 

 do not increase individual incomes, such societies will properly 

 disappear. It is a question of individual advantage rather than 



* For further discussion of tliis aspect of cooperation, see Chapter VIII of 

 this book and Appendix F. 



