280 THE FARMER AS A COOPERATOR. 



merely giving up someLliing for which I had no desire, in the 

 prospect of getting sometliing which I might enjoy. I do not 

 care to imply that I have no altruism in my make-up, for I 

 suppose myself to be an average man in that respect, but 

 merely to avow that I can not say that I think altruism could 

 have prevailed against strong self-interest. Had I wished to 

 engage in dealing in the commodities which we were organizing 

 to market independently of dealers, I am quite sure I should 

 have not become a cooperator. My judgment of my own 

 motives corresponds precisely with my judgment of tlie 

 motives of others, and the number of those whom I have 

 observed in the act of joining cooperative societies has been 

 large enough to afford a very fair foundation to generalize 

 upon. In a few cases the force of altruism was probably para- 

 mount. In a very few it was probably entirely lacking. In 

 some instances it was merely tlie temporary yielding of a weak 

 will to a stronger one. With the majority I am convinced 

 that the controlling motive was self-interest, more or less aided 

 by altruism and other motives which do not concern this dis- 

 cussion. At any rate, tlie conclusion I have reached is that 

 the altruistic spirit affords no safe foundation upon which to 

 erect a business enterprise. It is a noble spirit, and it is 

 powerful in the affairs of men. But it is not business. And 

 upon the whole I am constrained to doubt whether it is desir- 

 able that acts intended to increase our aggregate of economic 

 satisfactions should spring from motives which in any great 

 degree ignore that object, and are even, possibly, more or less 

 contradictory to it. It does not seem to me that results will 

 be so good, or the aggregate of satisfactions attained for 

 equitable distribution so large. As stated in previous chapters 

 of this book, it has not been my observation that altru- 

 ism is a reliable thing to build up a business upon. While, 

 happily, no man is entirely M'ithout altruism, with the average 

 man these emotiona impulses are not persistent, and the 

 impulse which moves a business enterprise must never fail. 

 There is an unquestioned field for altruism in cooperation, 

 but it seems to me that its most effective use will be in the 

 promotion of the coo])erative work at the hands of those who 



