THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 



associative effort. These exchanges are doing an annual 

 business of many millions and performing the various 

 functions of collecting, packing, shipping, and marketing 

 a vast product over a large area. They were the out- 

 growth of conditions which had become intolerable, and 

 furnish further interesting proof of the fact that when 

 an intelligent and self-reliant people have suffered suf- 

 ficiently they will find the way out. 



In the plan of co-operative settlement outlined in a 

 previous chapter, attention was chiefly directed to agri- 

 culture and small industries closely related to the soil. 

 The same business principles are applicable to larger in- 

 dustrial plants and to the utilization of natural wealth 

 other than the land. With co-operative capital and la- 

 bor, valuable forests, quarries, and mines of both base 

 and precious metals could be made to yield their profits 

 for the enrichment of the many rather than of the few. 

 But this movement is yet in its early stages, struggling 

 to vindicate the truth of its fundamental principle of 

 the combination of surplus land, labor, and natural re- 

 sources under conditions which furnish security and 

 profits to each. Its horizon will constantly expand until 

 it shall include the world-wide sky. 



The common objection to co-operation is that it does 

 not furnish the ultimate remedy for all social ills. It is 

 said that it will do little good to put a thousand com- 

 peting co-operative factories and farms in place of a 

 thousand competing private factories and farms. In the 

 first place, it is a gain to have the profits of industry and 

 trade distributed more evenly throughout the commu- 

 nity. In the second place, when competition and over- 

 production shall lead to the federation of co-operative in- 



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