New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-05-04

COMBINATIONS have not succeeded. a society
cannot disobey laws of trade with any greater
safety than a single capitalist, and Society
must be well organized as to its distribution
of powers and duties before it is really to be
considered cooperative. No Society can CO.
operate until it contains all the elements and
conditions of cooperation. For instance, a
parcel of wild Indians might combine to start
an art gallery; that would not make CO.
operative Society, because it would contain no
conditions of success. An ofllce-boy may ruin
banking corporation; so tho want OF good
financier, or q capable pattern maker, or an
efficient superintendent, or even thorough
timekeeper, may prevent what would other
wise be complete Cooperation. We assume
that where proposed Cooperative Societies
have failed they have lacked efficient organ
izatiOn or obedience to the laws Of trade.
Why is it claimed that workingmen have
not the natural ability to cooperate when 80
many societies have succeeded? Simply be-
cause, while working for hire at the lowest rate
OF wages that the employer can induce them
20 receive, they do not appear to work with that
devotion to the employers interests that the
employers think they ought to give. 1t is in
as one will work for himself. The incentive
to energy and earnestness Of work is the re-
turns which may be obtained. Where regu-
lar wages are given, with no other interest
than that of the time-boOk, men will not put
forth so great efforts to produce returns as
they would were the profits unlimited and un-
decided. This fact is seen in mills that en-
ploy men at piece work. LabOrers at "jObs"
will seek those shops that give the fairest
opportunities to do the greatest quantity OF
labor. That is a step toward cooperation.
The whole effect of this principle is seen in
the cases of farms let at short terms to
be worked on shares. Such farms give large
profits to the owner end to the share worker,
though the land more or less suffers, according
to the length of the term Capitalists present
fair argument when they say that Labor
ought not to complain of its condition until it
is willing to risk something. 1t is this very
theory of Risk that applies most forcibly to
the effort of Cooperation. A man will work
harder when his returns are not limited, fixed,
and certain. If man who is used to earning
three dollars day works up fifty per cent of
his energy and capability, he will naturally, II
you permit him to make more than three
dollars work up more than fifty per cent OF
his energy and capabity. Labor, then, needs
only an incentive to improvement, and that
incentive is the confessed secret Of the success
, of capitalists Risk. TO the argument
that labOrers are restless and roam about
from mill to MILL we make substantially the
same reply. They are certain of their wages,
they risk nothing by changing their To-
cality, and they gain the amusement of
the change. Men were. nomads until they
found the risk of losing by folding their tents,
like the Arabs, and silently stealing away.
Give laborer the opportunity to make three
dollars day in any mill, and he is nOmad;
but give him the opportunity to make as much
more than three dollars as he can in certain
mill. and he will naturally become fixed there,
because his risk and his interests are there
He becomes at once member of a higher
order of civilization. Men do naturally con-
gregate for their interests in classes; for with
tho distinct orders of interests there is
natural selection of species. What we claim
is, that class of producers should unite, and
not scatter their energy. The defense of
Trade unionism ~ the precursor OF the COM
promise of Cooperation; and combination of
persons precedes combination of classes.
Bnt tho present hope of Labor is not in the
Temporary makeshift of Trade-unionism; it is
in Copartnership, which means eventual Coop
Grafton. If Capital and Labor can form cOpart
nerships for present success, We say GOd-speed
although it may DO that such combinations
have seldom lasted long. The natural and
inevitable tendency of Labor is to CO0pera-
ton.
The last argument of capitalists, that labor
ers are unwilling to subordinate themselves to
one another that all want to be managers
may or may not contain some truth, and it is
the hardest point to answer. There have been
societies which were broken up by jealousies
and individual over ambition Some coopera-
tors have been lazy, and have been willing to
obtain the proportion of yearly profits coming
TO them. without much wages. The lazy CO.
operator is stock speculater. He must be
controlled by superintcndence- The true prin-
CHILE of Cooperative organization and manage
mcnt is republican. The fittsst men must be
chosen for the respective offices. 1t is so in
hanks, where Ill the stockholders cannot be
directors, nor all the directors be the president.
The police officer of the Cooperative Society
must be prudently chosen 40 must the finan--
cier, the salesman, even the, boy who trundes
Robbins. With all the clements complete, a
Co0perative Society will succeed where any
enterprise would. The effort. however, must
come from Labor itsGf. Who will take Tho
Risk
The National Intelligenoer, now issued we aly
in this City by Mr.. A.. Delmar, has a very