CHAPTER VI. 



MANAGEMENT OF COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES. 



BY the "management" in this chapter I mean the salaried 

 staff, who will ordinarily be appointed by the directors, 

 and not be members of that body. In making these 

 appointments— especially the principal officer — there are four 

 things to be particularly considered: — 



1. The qualifications necessary. 



2. Methods of determining the possession or lack of those 

 qualities. 



3. The money value of the service to be rendered. 



4. Influences to be guarded against. 



It will be profitable to consider these points in their order. 



Necessary Qualifications. — The perfect manager of a 

 cooperative distributing society will possess many qualifica- 

 tions not usually found in one person, and the perfect manager 

 is not likely to be found; but it will be useful to set down the 

 qualities which the perfect manager would have, tliat in con- 

 sidering the appointment of a mere human being, directors 

 may check off in their minds just which of these qualities the 

 candidate has, and which, if any, he lacks. 



Integrity. — That this is essential needs no argument, nor 

 is there much danger that one not believed to be honest will 

 be appointed manager of any important cooperative enterprise: 

 but the grade of integrity required in the manager of an impor- 

 tant coo])erative concern is of no ordinary kind; and there is 

 always some danger that it may not be found associated with 

 some otlier essential qualities, in those available for service in 

 a salaried capacity. There are grades of honesty which can 

 resist ordinary temptations and yet succumb to those which 

 are extraordinary, and the manager of a large cooperative 

 enterprise will be continually exposed to the latter. 



I do not refer to the mere custody of funds; ordinary pru- 

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