Till': ECONOMIC (iAIX OF COOPERATION. 2o*J 



it tliat streiuious effort vvliicb alone can produce such results. 



To illustrate the economic gain of cooperation let us suppose 

 a problem which exhibits substantially an actual case. Sup- 

 pose a product of twenty thousand car-loads of fruit produced 

 by perhaps twenty-five thousand individuals in California 

 to be distributed to the tables of say one million consumers 

 living at an average distance of two thousand five hundred 

 miles from the place of production. Let us eliminate from the 

 problem the question of transportation, as not concerned with 

 the aspect of cooperation which we are considering, and 

 endeavor to ascertain what persons not connected with trans- 

 portation are neces.sarily concerned in tliis distribution, their 

 proper and actual compensation, and at what points and to 

 what extent any saving can be effected by cooperative 

 methods, whether to the consumer or producer. 



Of the above volume of fruit, part would go forward in a 

 fresh state, part dried, and part canned or otherwise specially 

 prepared. As these different forms of the product do not all 

 follow the same channels, we shall best avoid confusion by 

 selecting some one form, preferably dried fruits, whose distri- 

 bution is widest, and in which the methods employed are the 

 simplest. The study of this example will indicate the method 

 which any one familiar with the facts may apply to any 

 other industry. 



A consumer desiring dried fruit will apply to his family 

 grocer. Living, as I do, in a fruit-producing district, if I 

 needed some variety which I do not myself produce, I should 

 order of my grocer rather than to spend the time necessary to 

 effect the slight saving which could be made by hunting 

 among my neighbors till I found it. Much more would one 

 living where the article is not produced find the help of liis 

 grocer essential. It is self-evident that the consumer can not 

 buy direct from the distant producer, and that the retailer, at 

 least, is a necessary middleman, performing an economic 

 function of certain value, and who can not be dispensed with. 



It may, however, and often does happen that the retailer 

 exacts a price for his necessary service in the way of sucli an 

 excessive profit as tends to check consumption, and thereby 



