MANAGEMENT OF COOPER ATI VK SOCIETIES. 242 



cooperative service, and that is make tlie positions wortli 

 having. I shall speak of this more fully when discussino 

 methods of determining value of personal service, but I may 

 say here tliat cooperative societies almost universally err in 

 making compensation of leading officers too small,* the result 

 being that the mental caliber of those employed is apt to be 

 inadequate to their duties, and inferior to that engaged in 

 competitive distribution. The consequence is that really 

 capable men will not care for the positions, and when they 

 hold them are less likely^ to be kept honest for fear of losing 

 them. An honest man fully trusted, and paid what the same 

 ability and responsibility commands in competitive business." 

 is pretty sure to remain honest. 



Brains. — The manager of a cooperative business must 

 have acuteness and judgment in accordance with his duties. 

 Greater mental strength is of couiso required for complex oper- 

 ations covering a wide field than for simple duties restricted to 

 a more narrow sphere. The mental ability required increases 

 in a direct ratio with the number of things the manager is re- 

 quired to know, and to consider at once when acting. A great 

 war always affords conspicuous examples of excellent division 

 generals, and even corps commanders, who have not the 

 mental grasp to conceive and execute the combinations neces- 

 sary to properly direct an army. It is the same in business. 



Vigor.— There arc men who know but can not do. In the 

 time of action they fail. Usually this will be found attribut- 

 able to insufficient bodily strength, and is especially to be 

 guarded against in those whose age and experieirce have other- 

 wise qualified them to assume responsible positions. In com- 

 petitive business such men by natural selection liave worked 

 their way to the conduct of a business whose policy^ has long 

 been established, and whose active work is performed by 

 younger men. Those charged with direction have not the 



*I must again call attention to the fact that this view is utterly at variance 

 with that taken by all others who have written upon this subject, and contrary 

 to the practice of the most successful cooperative societies in the world. The 

 contrary view is that capable business men, from altruistic motives, will give 

 their services at less than their competitive value. 



