CO-OPERATIVE CAPITAL 



States, one of the newest of nations. They are com- 

 mon to nearly all other countries. Nor is this the only 

 continent which offers an inviting field for expansion 

 and development. The same problems and the same op- 

 portunities, capable of solution and of use by the same 

 methods, exist everywhere. If it be possible to effect 

 colonization by means of co-operative capital in western 

 America, then it is equally possible to do the same in 

 Africa, Australia, and the Orient. If this method will 

 open a door of escape for the swarming populations of 

 Boston, New York, and Chicago, it will accomplish the 

 same result for the over -crowded people of London, 

 Paris, and Rome. 



Looking at the matter in the light of its world-wide 

 possibilities, we see at once that if capital is to be em- 

 ployed in the work of colonization apart from its own- 

 ers, as is done in railroads and other industrial enter- 

 prises, it must be employed upon the soundest business 

 principles. These principles must bo applicable to a 

 great variety of conditions to different kinds of people, 

 of soil, of climate, of markets, of surrounding resources. 

 First of all, there must be security. Second, there must 

 be earning capacity at least equal to the demands of cur- 

 rent interest on safe investments. Any plan that falls 

 short of this will not meet the exigency. 



Our settler has only his labor to start with. Ho must 

 buy land of one man and borrow capital of another. Then 

 he must pay for both with the proceeds arising from tho 

 wise use of the land he has bought and the money he 

 has borrowed, plus the capacity to labor, which was his 

 only original capital. The element of charity cannot 

 enter into the matter at all. Philanthropy in its true 



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