The patron of husbandry. (Columbus, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1880-10-30
Cooperation.

delivered before a newly organized
Cooperative movement in England:
The shopkeeper has the same
claim on you as you have on the
employer of labor. Moreover. your
own past mistakes will teach YOU a
lesson of forbearance. If they have
their panic now, you have had yours
IN the past. The introduction of
machinery was the signal for the
most serious riots. Yet everv one.
L suppose, will acknowledge now
that an immense impulse was given
thereby to production, and that the
status of the working man has been
materially improved in consequence.
Looking at this aspect of co>ope-
ration, we are confronted with two
very serious questions. First-is it
desirable, in the interests of the
community at large, that the shops
keeper should disappear before the
storekeeper? And, secondly-is it
likely that this will be the result of
the movement?
| see that n the evidence Given
x -
before the Parliamentary committee
and elsewhere, the first question is
answered somewhat decidedly in
the affirmative by several advocates
OF cooperation. [ confess that |
do not see my way to this simple
answer. 1t is true that all labor
saved from distribution NAV be
gained for production. By reduc-
ing the number of actual shopkeep-
ers you increase the number of pos
sible artisans and farm laborers.
But, even when regarded from an
economic point of view, is it a GER
tain gain? Is it not possible that the
labor market might be over-stocked
by a large and sudden influx?
Would it not be found, also, that a
considerable proportion of the com
munity who make very good dis
trlbutors might make very indiffer-
ferent producers? Human life.
however, is not governed by pure
economics. Variety is a highly i'm
portant factor in the happiness of a
community; it enlarges the expert
ence, and whets the faculties, and
intensifes the interests of the mem
bers. The abolition of the shop
keepingc lass would tend more than
anything else to monotony. Might
it not prove a questionable gain, if
our large towns were made up
wholly of great factories and great
stores?
But, whether desirable or not. I
can not regard such result as i'm
minent, otherwise it would very
largely alloy the satisfaction with
which l contemplate the progress
of cooperation. | could not look
without great dismay on move
ment which would cruelty press on
class of men SO numerous and so
highly respectable as the small
shopkeepers. But as a matter of
history we have found that panics
of this kind have rarely, if ever,
been justified by the result. The
change has been more gradual than
was anticipated. Fresh industries
have been developed New and
unexpected opportunities have been
opened out to the very classes which
seemed likely to be the greatest
sufferers. In some way or other
there have been unforeseen compen-
sations, SO that what social change
has taken away with one hand it
has replaced with the other. If
nothing else, the advance in the
general prosperity of the country
has maintained the classes affected
at their former level, or even inn
proved their condition. 1t was so
again with the introduction of ma.
chinery | need not say that thee
two innovations, so mach dreaded
at the outset, have been the making
of these northern counties from an
economic point of view. And there
is every reason to expect a repeti-
ton Of past experience as regards
this new panic, if the cooperative
movement should grow and -four
ish. But in the meanwhile the very
alarm may teach some wholesome
lessons. Is it too much to hope
that the credit system will have re-
ceived a mortal wound thereby?
Shopkeepers will see-they have
begun to see already-that to com
pete with the cooperative stores
they must minimise bad debts by
demanding ready money. Nothing
can be more faulty than the credit
system. It is tax upon the thrifty
fo1 the advantage of the thriftless.
Thus it it infiicts double wrong on
the community. 1t mulcts the meri-
torious while it rewards the unde-
serving | do not doubt that, in
very many instances, credit is given
to the needy purchaser from motives
of the purest benevolence. But, as
system, it is demoralizing. How
ever much he may desire it. the
small tradesman at present finds IT
difficult to extricate himself from
this system. But the existence of a
cooperative store in the neighbor-
hood will help him out of his diff
Guilty. 1t will apply the pressure OF
necessity, and it will afford the
support of a precedent. Moreover,
the small shopkeeper himself will
in time avail himself of the coop
erative store, established among
shopkeepers, will enable them te