strong enough and sufficiently informed to interest and hold the able men engaged in wholesale merchandising, will command say $200 per month. His expenses, traveling long distances between principal cities, will not be less than $150 per month, making $350 per month in all. He will, therefore, have to sell a car-load of fruit of the average value of $1,000 every other day from the time he leaves home until he returns, in order to make his salary and expenses less than two and one half per cent of the value of goods sold. While this result would unquestionably be achieved in some months and by some men, it can not be counted upon, and would usually not happen. Especially it is true that cooperative societics are not likely to employ men capable of doing such work. There are more salesmen sent out by such societies who come home with few or no sales than of those who can earn their cost out of a reasonable commission. It is very difficult for the very best men, in the face of constant competition from brokers and others, to earn their cost by selling any one article. It is therefore unquestionably safest for cooperative societies to follow the usual custom of the trade in employing brokers rather than traveling salesmen. Of course a good brokerage system requires a certain amount of traveling supervision, to keep in touch with the brokers and with the market, but one trip a year among them is ample for this, and the allowance for brokerage which I have made, should fully cover that expense in a large business.

Whichever method is employed there is no possible gain to cooperation as compared with competitive business in this operation. Whether the product be collected by local operators, or by cooperative societies, the methods of reaching the wholesale trade will necessarily be the same, and involve the same expense.

An economic gain, therefore, possible to producers by cooperative methods, is confined to the initial stages of the progress of the product to market.

Having thus followed out in detail the application of cooperative methods of distribution to one product produced at a great distance from its principal markets, any one by apply

ing the same analytic method to the known facts and conditions of any other industry in which he may be interested, and taking into consideration the special infirmities of human nature which have been pointed out, can very well judge whether, and to what extent, cooperative effort in distribution. is likely to lead to economic gain. My own conclusion is that under some circumstances, and in some industries, economic gain may be expected from cooperative methods applied to the entire progress of the product from the hands of the producer to the wholesale merchant; in other cases, the entire possible gain will be achieved by confining those methods to the initial stages of the work, that is, the concentration, leaving the actual distribution to be effected by competitive methods; in still other cases perhaps competition unhampered can best do the work. It depends upon the facts in each case. Human nature will be found very much the same everywhere.*

One thing is certain: cooperation based entirely on sentiment offers no hope of economic gain. It will be mismanaged and will probably fail. It must be a business organization, based and conducted on business principles, expecting no unpaid or half-paid service of any value, but always ready to compete in the market for such talent and labor as it needs, and not expecting to secure able management for any less compensation than the same ability can obtain in competitive service. All hope of economic gain depends on this; for it is on industrious and intelligent attention to detail that the success of either cooperative or competitive business depends, and this attention can only be continuously obtained by the expectation and enjoyment of adequate reward.

* The possibilities of societies of cooperative purchasers, that is, cooperative "stores," reaching out to obtain their supplies from cooperative societies of producers, which are often alluded to, I purposely pass over, because they are merely possibilities. It would, of course, form the next step in the social evolution which is the dream of many. I think, however, that an associated society of small purchasers would be hard customers to sell to, and that they would find societies of producers the worst possible lot to buy from. They would doubtless agree in the desire to crowd out the "middleman," but each side would expect all the profit of the transaction. Of course a cooperative store would take the place of any other retailer in distribution.

A

CHAPTER VIII.

ALTRUISM IN COOPERATION.

LTRUISM means regard for others. It is the key-note of the exhortations of many advocates of practical cooper

ation. We should cooperate because public welfare demands it. An earnest worker in practical cooperation once wrote me that he had no faith in the success of any cooperative movement not inspired and sustained by the altruistic spirit. For myself. I must confess that when observing the inception and conduct of cooperative business enterprises, I have never yet been able to think clearly enough to settle to my own satisfaction the degree in which altruism contributed to results. The philosopher says truly that we can not contemplate any joint action of one's self with another for a common purpose without having regard for the welfare of that other, which is altruism. However true this is, it is not satisfying. The question is, What is the motive which impels. one to act? I have personally observed some hundreds of men sign subscriptions to the stock of cooperative societies, and participated in the conversations which preceded that act. In all these conversations, I presume, the public benefit to accrue was made prominent, and in a great many it was the motive avowed as the leading one which induced signature. I seldom believed it to be the real motive, although in some cases there could be little doubt of it. I have never been able to analyze even my own motives in joining such societies, and in promoting them. Certainly I never joined one without seeing in the act a distinct personal advantage to myself, and yet reason told me that if I wished to exert myself in the proposed lines of trade, it would be more profitable to employ my business experience and vigor in exploiting the more ignorant than in aiding them to resist exploitation. It happened that I had no such wish, so that in joining them I was

merely giving up something for which I had no desire, in the prospect of getting something which I might enjoy. I do not care to imply that I have no altruism in my make-up, for I suppose myself to be an average man in that respect, but merely to avow that I can not say that I think altruism could have prevailed against strong self-interest. Had I wished to engage in dealing in the commodities which we were organizing to market independently of dealers, I am quite sure I should have not become a cooperator. My judgment of my own motives corresponds precisely with my judgment of the motives of others, and the number of those whom I have observed in the act of joining cooperative societies has been large enough to afford a very fair foundation to generalize upon. In a few cases the force of altruism was probably paramount. In a very few it was probably entirely lacking. In some instances it was merely the temporary yielding of a weak will to a stronger one. With the majority I am convinced that the controlling motive was self-interest, more or less aided by altruism and other motives which do not concern this discussion. At any rate, the conclusion I have reached is that the altruistic spirit affords no safe foundation upon which to erect a business enterprise. It is a noble spirit, and it is powerful in the affairs of men. But it is not business. And upon the whole I am constrained to doubt whether it is desirable that acts intended to increase our aggregate of economic satisfactions should spring from motives which in any great degree ignore that object, and are even, possibly, more or less contradictory to it. It does not seem to me that results will be so good, or the aggregate of satisfactions attained for equitable distribution so large. As stated in previous chapters of this book, it has not been my observation that altruism is a reliable thing to build up a business upon. While, happily, no man is entirely without altruism, with the average man these emotiona impulses are not persistent, and the impulse which moves a business enterprise must never fail.

There is an unquestioned field for altruism in cooperation, but it seems to me that its most effective use will be in the promotion of the cooperative work at the hands of those who

are for the time being independent of it. A notable instance of this is the promotion of cooperation among the Irish peasantry by a society of wealthy men and women. This society raised funds, printed and distributed documents, employed traveling lecturers, counseled with newly-formed associations, and in all ways sought-and is still seeking-to promote cooperation, especially in dairying, among the Irish peasantry. The society has been successful and is accomplishing great good. The motives of its members are purely altruistic. They seek the good of the people. But the object which they hold out to induce cooperation is not the good of Ireland, but the welfare of the individual cooperators. That is an entirely legitimate motive, and it seems to me the proper one in this case. No one can appreciate the altruistic spirit more profoundly than I, or have higher regard for the many who are unquestionably dominated by it; but I have never seen it mix well with business. On the contrary, it is apt to mix very badly. There is an innate suspicion of those who avow an altruistic motive for what they expect to profit by. To promote our own welfare is not sordid or ignoble. It is what we are here for. It seems to me best to claim no higher motive for cooperation than the material advantage of the cooperator. Doubtless there are many populations, like those of Ireland, and, doubtless, some parts of America, where there is a great field for an altruistic propaganda of cooperation on the part of those who are perhaps not engaged in the industry which it is proposed to organize; but among the intelligent farmers of the United States it seems to me best that they should say to each other, " Let us do this because it will pay us."

I say this while perfectly aware that some of the most successful cooperative enterprises in the world are avowedly based on the fraternal spirit. The great British cooperative stores do an immense amount of work for the moral as well as the material welfare of their members, and the literature. which they distribute is highly altruistic in tone. It doubtless helps to hold their membership more strongly. But, after all, it is the benefit to the individual that is made most prominent. The great life-insurance secret societies are unquestionably