TWENTY-NINTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



65 



CO-OPERATION. 



By C. D. HARVEY, of Loomis. 



Co-operation has been so thoroughly discussed in all its phases, not 

 only on this present occasion, but also at former meetings, that I hesitate 

 to accept an invitation to take part in its further consideration. When, 

 however, I observe the different opinions and diverse conclusions of 

 those most familiar Avith the subject, I am impressed with the fact 

 that we are still reaching for conclusions which experience has not fully 

 settled. The past history of co-operative efforts in this State has dis- 

 couraged rather than encouraged us, until the very term "co-operation" 

 repels the average grower. Defeats have outnumbered the successes in 

 the direction of co-operative efforts, and instances of ill-advised and 

 badly-executed plans bringing disaster into so many homes are still fresh 

 in the memory of all our growers. In the light of past experiences, co-op- 

 eration is a many-sided subject, and to different individuals and classes 

 has varied meanings. To the five poor English weavers in the old 

 country who laid the foundation for that colossal co-operative institu- 

 tion which has extended its operations over the commercial world, doing 

 a business of hundreds of millions of dollars annually, it is a tremen- 

 dous power. When, however, it is used as a false signal to entice the 

 unsuspecting into the power of designing or selfish men, its mission is 

 changed and its strength is measured only by the money it controls. 



Co-operation is a principle, not a policy, and any co-operative move- 

 ment which is not based upon principle will in the end prove a failure. 

 Its power can not be measured by the amount of money invested, but 

 by the spirit of the men comprising the membership and by the sound 

 principle upon which it is based, and this will, I believe, account for 

 much of the failure of the past and especially where success was* based 

 upon the numbers and volume of business it controlled, forgetting that 

 great organizations were as subject to natural laws which govern trade, 

 as the lesser ones. 



The mighty Mississippi is as subject to the law of gravitation as the 

 most insignificant creek, and when she bursts her levees and rushes 

 over a productive and fertile country, carrying desolation and destruc- 

 tion in her pathway, she is only following the natural laws of her being, 

 just as some of the gigantic co-operative organizations of the past, 

 getting beyond the control of the growers, have devastated homes and 

 destroyed confidence in this State. It carries within itself the seeds of 

 its success or its destruction. 



It is therefore by the failures as well as by the successes of the past 

 that we must take our bearings for the future, and our best thought 

 and keenest discrimination to-day should be given to this subject of 

 co-operation. 



5 — F-GC 



