Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-04-19
THE COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLE.

] pIOD~b4AlbJ NC COANS0 ~ ASSSAS W a.
ton. Now it is plain that corporations are
neither more nor less than cooperative
associations. As to the name they bear,
it is an unfortunate legacy from the past,
resulting from the stupid conservatism Of
lawyers, and it has done more than any
thing else to obscure the truth and to mis-
lead the public judgment in regard to
them. A corporation, stripped OF all tech
nicalities, is an association OF men for the
purpose of carrying on some business or
enterprise which is too costly or extensive
to be undertaken by individuals. 1t is in
fact a natural and obvious means of doing
a great many things which could not be
done in any other way. Above all it is
asineans of utilizing small aggregations of
capital in the promotion of great works.
If there were no corporations it is clear
that we should have to wait for every ex-
tensive enterprise until some individual
had acquired wealth enough to undertake
it single-handed. The millionaires of the
country would then be the real rulers of it,
for they would inevitably come to control
all the avenues of commerce and industry.
We should then learn what real monopoly
is, for every extensive project would be
| closed against men of small means. But
through the application of the cooperative
principle to all kinds of enterprises it is
now possible for even poor men to OBJ
tain many opportunities of improving their
fortunes. They may become associates in
| thousand remunerative projects. Their
small earnings can be invested in the
shares of a multitude of great schemes,
and to the extent that they invest they
share the profits of the investment.
1t would be impossible by any other
method to secure so general and equal
distribution of opportunities. All that is
imperatively demanded of the humblest is
that he shall live within his income. That
point attained, the whole field of CONNER
cial enterprise is thrown open to him for
the employment of his surplus capital, no
matter how small that surplus may be.
And as matter of fact the kind of invest
ment to which we refer is general. Those
who have come to regard few well-known
names as representing immense corporate
interests would doubtless be surprised could
they examine the records of such concerns,
AboE nf lie Of YOanr1lp
in the most humble circumstances are really
copartners with the Goulds the Wander
bits, the SCOTS and the other familiar
capitalists Of the time. The stock Of all
our great railroads, of all our great manu-
| featuring concerns, of all our extensive
commercial, enterprises, is scattered far and
wide over the land, There are millions Of
people directly or indirectly dependent
upon such investments, aud these millions
are the real owners of the vast properties
which have been built up through the CO.
operation of capital
This cooperation is in truth the most
important principle in modern progress. 1t
supplies the secretof the enormous advances
in prosperity which the United States has
made during the last fifty years. 1t
is the main cause of the rapid elevation
of great numbers of shrewd and farseeing
poor men to fortune and prominence.
! Scarcely one in a hundred of those who are
now wealthy in this generation commenced
! life with any other capital than brains and
energy. They have with very few excep-
tons owed their progress to cooper
alton, and that principle still offers to
the whole nation and to the whole race
the same magnificent opportunities. Moth
| ing, therefore, can be binder or more mis-
chievous than the current talk about the
danger of corporate influence. Corpo-
rations constitute the one certain and all
sufficient safeguard against the real dan
gers of great individual fortunes. They
enable any number of poor men at any
/ time and for any purpose to WELD an In
! fluence which makes them more than the
/ financial equal of the richest individual on
the continent. They make it possible for
the people always to defend themselves
against individual greed and selfshness by
/ opposing to it an equal sagacity and q
superior money power. There is moth.
ing which cannot be accomplished through
the cooperation OF capital, and there are
no obstacles to that cooperation.
The fact is that cooperation is, if posi-
bic, more advantageous to capital than to
labor, though it is the key to al! positions
for both The idea that it can be OF ought
to be interfered with is irrational 1t is
the natural result of social and commercial
development in free countries. 1t is
machinery devised by freemen for the ex-
press purpose Of putting their liberty to
the largest and most profitable USE 1t is
the Instructive resort of those who have
come 70 recognize their dangers intuitively,
against individual accumulation. 1t is es-
sentally and emphstically a democratic
principle. The modern corporation has
nothing in common with the institution at
ter which it is so foolishly named 1t is, as
we have said, neither more nor less than
co operative association. 1t is necessary to
the development of the national resources,
and it must become still more indispensa-
able in the future. 1t is therefore time
/ that thinking men reviewed their ideas on
the subject, and recognized the truth of
/ the situation.
THE GRECIAN NOTE.
The Greoian Government is between two