THE ECONOMIC GAIN OF COOPERATION. 277 



strong enough and sufficiently informed to interest and hold 

 the able men engaged Ln wholesale merchandising, will com- 

 mand say $200 per month. His expenses, traveling long 

 distances between principal cities, will not be less than $150 

 per montii, making $350 per month in all. He will, therefore, 

 have to sell a car-load of fruit of the average value of $1,000 

 every other day from tlie time lie leaves home until he returns, 

 in order to make his salary and expenses less than two and 

 one half per cent of the value of goods sold. Wiiile this 

 result would unquestionably be achieved in some months and 

 by some men, it can not be counted upon, and would usually 

 not happen. Especially it is true that cooperative societies 

 are not likely to employ men capable of doing such work. 

 There are more salesmen sent out by such societies who come 

 home with few or no sales than of those who can earn their 

 cost out of a reasonable commission. It is very difficult for 

 the very best men, in the face of constant competition from 

 brokers and others, to earn their cost by selling any one 

 article. It is therefore unquestionably safest for cooperative 

 societies to follow the usual custom of tlie trade in employing 

 brokers rather tlian traveling salesmen. Of course a good 

 brokerage system requires a certain amount of traveling 

 supervision, to keep in touch with the brokers and with tlie 

 market, but one trip a year among them is amjde for this, and 

 the allowance for brokerage which I have made, should fully 

 cover that expense in a large business. 



Whichever method is employed there is no possible gain 

 to cooperation as compared with competitive business in this 

 operation. Whether the product be collected by local opera- 

 tors, or by cooperative societies, the methods of reaching the 

 wholesale trade will necessarily be the same, and involve the 

 same expense. 



An economic gain, therefore, possible to producers by 

 cooperative methods, is confined to the initial stages of the 

 progress of the product to market. 



Having thus followed out in detail the application of 

 cooperative methods of distribution to one product produced 

 at a great distance from its principal markets, any one by apply- 



