528 CALIFORNIA FRUIT SOCIETIES. 



I had been asked to do, and I did take what I thought I needed, which was 

 about one quarter of what a self-respecting Monopoly would have expected to 

 pay for similar eflbrt. I never thought myself incompetent for what I had 

 undertaken, and supposed myself to be donating the greater part of the value 

 of what I did. But the humor of the situation appeared in the attitude of my 

 employers, the People, and of the outside world. Having always been respected 

 as the emissary of a Monopoly, I anticipated greater esteem as the representa- 

 tive of the People. Having been accustomed to hear nice things said when I 

 did good work for an evil cause, I expected still prettier compliments for harder 

 work done in a good cause. I got none of them. The mass of my employers 

 profoundly distrusted me, and the world at large thought me engaged in very 

 trifling business. There was a distinct lowering of social standing, which is 

 never agreeable. When my motives were attacked by those opposed to 

 cooperation, no employer, that I ever heard of, defended me, and many repeated 

 and enlarged upon the evil stories. I had left business because I had become too 

 lazy to woTk hard, and wild horses could not have dragged me back into the 

 details of affairs, but I became satisfied that the opinion was well-nigh univer- 

 sal that I was exploiting the poor farmers for a permanent job at a "fat salary, " 

 not otherwise attainable, and was accompanied by a grim determination that 

 I should never get it. I have sought in a number of cases to be actively help- 

 ful to some class, I being one of the class, but never, I think, without having 

 my motives impugned, lies told about me, and raising a crop of enemies T^thin 

 the class which I was seeking to benefit. At first, of course, this was very 

 annoying, but later the humor of the situation prevailed, and I amused myself 

 with trying to understand why people should like a man so long as he was 

 exploiting them, but hate him as soon as he began to try to help them exploit 

 other folks. But I never could. 



Of late years I am cooperating with everybody who wishes to cooperate, 

 but extending no invitations of the kind, and otherwise strictly attending to my 

 own business. As a result of this process my own little afi"airs are prospering 

 fairly, and I seem to myself to be gradually regaining the esteem of mankind; 

 so much so, in fact, that I am not without hope that I shall some time be 

 thought of as kindly as when I was serving a Monopoly. So far as a restless 

 soul impels me to meddle with other people's business, I find most enjoyment, 

 and the prospect of most usefulness, in promoting useful aims by whose accom- 

 plishment I can not possibly benefit, and in doing so at my own expense. I 

 don't like the Public as a master and will not work for it any more. I have 

 said elsewhere that I do not think altruism a proper basis for cooperative busi- 

 ness, but for myself I am too selfish to engage in it from any other motive. I 

 will not surrender my peace of mind. 



While I have made the foregoing statement hoping that it may aid in 

 securing for faithful servants of cooperating fiirmers more considerate treat- 

 ment than they sometimes receive, I should be very ungrateful, and do injustice 

 to many, did I not in the same breath recognize the cordial support and endur- 

 ing friendships which came to me, and have come to others, as the result of 

 labor in cooperative work among farmers. There was nnicli of this, and yet, 

 upon the whole, the general impression which I received is as above stated. 



