MANAGE^rEXT OF COOPKRATIVK SOCI ICTIES. 24."> 



enable the manager to keep in solid phalanx his own employ- 

 ers. This problem is ever present to the mind of tlie manager 

 of a cooperative enterprise, and the necessity of its continual 

 solution by new processes is the one thing, next to the sus- 

 picion with which they are regarded, which most tends to 

 drive capable men out of cooperative service. Competitive 

 business has not to deal with this trouble; of one thing the 

 employee of a competitive business is sure, and that is the 

 earnest and unfaltering support of his employer. The em- 

 ployee of a cooperative society, however, is not only not sure 

 of this su{)port, but he may be perfectly certain that he will 

 not have it. With some experience as a leader of cooperative 

 effort, I can testify that nine-tenths of my vital force, while 

 engaged in it, has been employed in holding to their professed 

 intentions those at whose solicitation I engaged in the work. 

 I have never yet been able to employ more than one-tenth of 

 my power in forwarding the real objects of the association. 

 Of course I have rather been a pioneer, and engaged in the 

 beginnings of enterprises, but I have had good opportunities 

 for observing the operations of established societies, and believe 

 that upon the average one-half the force expended for, and 

 paid for, by cooperative societies is used up in keeping the 

 members together. It seems odd that we should have to hire 

 people to persuade us to continue in a path which we sa}' we 

 wish to walk in, but we seem to be built that way. It is a 

 feature in which cooperation, in our present state of develoj)- 

 ment, involves a distinct waste of power, as compared with 

 competitive business, and to that extent is cooperation uneco- 

 nomical. State socialists, recognizing this difficulty, would 

 substitute the power of the state for the persuasions of indi- 

 viduals. This — even if theoretically sound — we are certainly 

 not now prepared for, and cooperation, which is one phase of 

 voluntary socialism, must meanwhile depend on persuasion 

 and "management," and for the present the manager of an 

 extended cooperative societ}^ must be superendowed with tact. 

 Doubtless otiier qualifications could be enlarged upon, such 

 as courage, hopefulness, patience, earnestness, foresight, punc- 

 tualitv, and in fact all the cardinal and minor virtues, but 



