CO-OPERATIVE CAPITAL 



It is highly necessary to set apart a certain proportion 

 of the investment fund say ten per cent. to be used by 

 the colony for common purposes. They should own and 

 improve the town-site and have the profits arising there- 

 from. AVe have seen the benefits of this plan in the his- 

 tory of Horace Greeley's famous Colorado colony. They 

 should own various small industries, the possession of 

 which represents the difference between large profits and 

 small ones for their labor and crops; the difference be- 

 tween selling finished product and selling raw material ; 

 the difference between commercial independence and de- 

 pendence. They should own or control range facilities, 

 that they may engage in the remunerative cattle and 

 sheep industries. In many cases they will find it profit- 

 able to cut and manufacture their own lumber. No single 

 thing can contribute so much to their independence and 

 prosperity, and, consequently, to their peace and happi- 

 ness, as a fund available for those things which are beyond 

 the reach of the individual, yet highly essential to the 

 individual as a part of the community. The manage- 

 ment of this common fund and the various properties to 

 be created with it is dwelt upon in the next chapter. 



Returning now to the financial proposition, we see that 

 the settler who borrows one thousand dollars to improve 

 a twent3r-acre farm incurs an obligation of fifty dollars 

 per acre. A part of this he has paid for land, and an- 

 other part contributed to the colony fund for the general 

 purposes. The balance is an improvement fund, availa- 

 ble to bring his farm to a productive state. If he is to 

 pay back his borrowed capital in ten years, and pay six 

 per cent, interest in the mean time, he must have three 

 dollars per acre each year for interest and five dollars per 



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