CHAPTER V. 



ELEMET^TS OF DANGER IN COOPERATION. 



FAILURE ill the main to be governed by the rules sug- 

 gested in the last chapter, or carelessness in the matters 

 of organization, are of course elements of danger, but 

 in this chapter I shall have reference to matters which, 

 although seriously important, are yet not absolutely funda- 

 mental; matters in which such errors as may occur may be 

 corrected without reconstruction of the entire business. 



Neglect of Stockholders. — This has been already al- 

 luded to, but it can hardly be made too prominent. The 

 stockholders are the owners of the business, and if they do 

 not carefully watch it, who will? I have never myself seen 

 serious trouble from this cause in neighborhood associations 

 which have been started on a sound financial basis, and 

 whose members are necessarily well acquainted with each 

 other, but in more extensive marketing associations, whose 

 operation extends over considerable areas, and perhaps an 

 entire state, the inattention of stockholders is a serious diffi- 

 culty. The tendency of farmers in such cases is to regard " the 

 company" as a mysterious entity, existing somehow and 

 somewhere, to which they have perhaps "contributed" grudg- 

 ingly something, and whose operations are calculated to help 

 them in some way without thought or effort on their part. 

 The notion of the corporation as a business enterprise of which 

 they are part owners, which expects the support of their busi- 

 ness, and for whose financial success they are in part respon- 

 sible, can hardly be said to exist among farmers. Perhaps 

 this point may be treated more profitably by considering the 

 infirmities which are the cause of it. 



Ignorance. — This is the foundation of most trouble, and 

 certainly of the non-support of cooperative societies by their 

 own stockholders. The ignorance of most farmers in regard 



(234) 



