258 THE FARMER AS A COOPERATOR. 



earnest enthusiasts will be found practically unworkable until 

 social evolution has wrought decided changes in human nature. 



And yet I am convinced that, after making all allowances, 

 there is a residuum of economic gain in cooperation quite 

 sufficient to justify its application in many cases, and it also 

 seems to me certain that as years go on tlie tendency to 

 cooperation will increase, as the art of practicing it becomes 

 better understood, and that it will become economically gain- 

 ful over a gradually-increasing area of usefulness, all of which 

 will be simply a manifestation of a social evolution which is 

 leading us we know not where. 



Promoters of cooperation commonly err not only in over- 

 estimating the present cooperative power of human nature, 

 but also in overestimating the profits of competitive business. 

 Having constantly before them the few great fortunes which 

 have been the reward of exceptional ability, they forget the 

 innumerable instances of failure which investigation would 

 disclose. The so-called Bonanza mines of Nevada yielded 

 great fortunes to a few men, but it is doubtless true that more 

 money has been expended in the district around Mount 

 Davidson than was ever taken out of it. It would not be diffi- 

 cult with sufficient study to make a fair estimate of the aver- 

 age profits of competitive business, and it has probably been 

 done, although I have not met with it, but it is unquestionably 

 true that cooperation offers no such possible field of economic 

 gain as the popular mind pictures to itself. I have known 

 enormous gains to cooperative societies in single seasons, as 

 compared with the returns which competitive methods would 

 have brought to the members, and I have known of small 

 losses in other seasons ; but it must be remembered that in the 

 long run cooperation will have to deal with average conditions, 

 and it will tend to solidity and permanence if tliose engaging 

 in cooperation do not do so with expectations that can not be 

 realized. It must never be forgotten that exceptional fortunes 

 gained in comi)etitive business are invariably the result of 

 exceptional ability joined to the accumulating instinct, and 

 that cooperation offers no inducement to those capable of such 

 accumulations to engage in its service, or if in it, to devote to 



