2 Cooperation in Agriculture 



who control it. These changes have been accompanied 

 by equally striking modifications in the developing of the 

 industries themselves. In the earlier period, the indi- 

 vidual was self-sufficing. He lived and supported his 

 family on the products of his labor. Then, as communi- 

 cation was extended, social life and the industrial system 

 became more complex, competition more acute, and 

 individuals joined successively, until prevented in some 

 cases by the courts, in partnerships, joint-stock com- 

 panies, industrial pools, trusts, holding companies and 

 mergers, each combination forming a system under which 

 it was supposed at that time the evolution of industrial 

 pursuits could best proceed. At the present time, mod- 

 ern industry is completely dominated by large aggrega- 

 tions of capital. Competition is being gradually sup- 

 pressed and business thoroughly organized and equipped 

 through the concentration of capital under a growing 

 legal regulation for its development and protection. In 

 consequence, the problems arising out of the concentra- 

 tion of capital and the relation it should bear to com- 

 petitors, to the state, and to the individual have become 

 the leading questions of public policy. Under these 

 conditions, the individual holds a new relationship to 

 business and to society. Instead of living on the product 

 of his labor as he formerly did, he lives on its profits. 

 In place of transacting business man to man as his father 

 did before him, he has become a more or less important 

 part of the scheme of modern industrialism. He is no 

 longer isolated. He is a link in the modern industrial 

 and social chain with a corresponding influence and 

 responsibility. 



