238 THE FARMER AS A COOPERATOR. 



which freight has to be always guaranteed; the freight between 

 California and the east was not less than $300 per car, and it 

 often happened that, when sold, it did not bring enough to pay 

 cliarges. These, however, were guaranteed by the Union, and 

 paid, but when it attempted to repay itself by collecting the 

 loss from the individual owners of the fruit, in many cases it 

 practically could not be done. The result was that the large 

 and responsible sliippers, who could be reached, were com- 

 pelled to pay the majority of all such losses of others, and they 

 got tired of it. All these things are useful as illustrating tlie 

 real character of human nature, with which cooperative enter- 

 prises must deal. 



I have stated, at the beginning of this chapter, that the 

 dangers I was about to discuss were not absolutely funda- 

 mental, whereas those which are based on the characteristics 

 of human nature of course really do lie at the foundation of 

 things. But, in the use of that term, I referred to the consti- 

 tution of the organization, and not to tlie character of its 

 members. With a proper organization, and sufficient time 

 and patience, we may expect, by education, to overcome the 

 infirmities of human nature. 



Incompetence in Management.— A merchant, thoroughly 

 understanding his business, knows exactly what qualities he 

 desires in his emj)loyees, and, being in continual contact with 

 them, knows whether they have them, and whether they do 

 their duty. As there are no personal profits in cooperative 

 work, it is very difficult to insure the same supervision of the 

 salaried staff that is found in a private business. The real 

 owners of the business have none of them an amount at stake 

 which justifies them in taking tlie time necessary to properly 

 overlook it. It is also nearly always the case that the mana- 

 ger and other paid persons know more about the business than 

 any of their employers. Under these circumstances, which are 

 almost inseparable from distributive cooperation on any large 

 scale, the principal guarantee of good management lies in the 

 value of the personal equation of the directory, which, in a 

 large organization, covering a wide area, is certain to be much 

 higher than that of the average equation of the stockholders. 



