Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-01-05
TIE FAILURE OF COOPERATION.
The failure Of Kate Fields Co operati1

same line. A few years ago the adyan-
tsges of the cooperative principle seemed
so well demonstrated that it was every
where accepted and advocated as tie one
possible remedy for the most pressing evils
of society. But notwithstanding the ap-
parent success of the Rochdale Cooper
alive Association and one or two cooper
alive manufacturing associations in France,
the attempt to extend the principle, and to
apply it generally, has resulted in num-
Der of disappointments. The cooperative
stores in London appeared for time to be
wonderfully successful, but we understand
that they have already passed the climax
OF their prosperity, and are Enthusiastically
on the decline. Moreover, efforts have
been made to organize associations of work.
ingmen en- the cooperative principle, but
ali of them have been abandoned, and to.
day the historian of cooperation, Mr.. George
Jacob Holyoako, must feel very doubtful
as to the speedy fulfllment Of his sanguine
predictions. OF course the principle Is not
yet given up by it's more ardent devotees.
It would be surprising if it were, for it
most certainly does seem to be an ideally
sound one, and if it cannot be made to
work it will be necessary to surrender not
only this theory, but several other optl.
mistic views of the possibilities of human
nature.
No doubt when it can no longer be con.
cealed or disputed that cooperation is in
capable of general application, there will be
plenty of philosophical explanations of the
matter furnished even by those who be.
lieved in it most readily at first. 1t is
always easier to show why thing has
happened than to predict the outcome of
any policy or principle. But perhaps a
simple solution may be found for this
question. If we examine history we find
that the most profound truths cannot get
accepted until the world is ready for them.
Thus it is that the heresies of one genera.
ton are the truisms Of the next. Thus
t is that the most advanced minds are
rarely comprehended by their contempt
raries. And it is also to be noted that as
rule only those changes are adopted
which grow out of the pre-existing habits
and needs of the race; and that artificial
systems OF life, however theoretically per-
feet they may be, do not strike root. Now
the fundamental reason of this is that all
human life and progress is of necessity the
result of continuous and imperceptible evo-
luton. There is no spontaneous genera
ton of social systems. Even the Con-
stitution of the United States, which has
often been spoken of as an entirely new
creation, is in all respects most unmis.
taxable consequence of English government
and law and thought.
Man in fact cannot sever his connection
with the past. Heis governed by the law
of mortmain even when he does not suspect
it. The ancestors whose ignorance he
despises stretch long arms from their
graves, and hold him fast in the grooves of
custom. And SO it is that for all consider
able changes much time is required, and
that all efforts to introduce radical altera.
tions in the mode Of life are failures. Bat
this is not the only reason. In life as in
all else the normal tendency is toward the
line of least resistance. Everything takes
the easiest way before it. And since the
easiest way is necessarily that in which the
largest results are accomplished with the
least waste of energy, it may be assumed
that the natural way is also the best way.
Whatever may be said of Europe, it is GER
tainly true that in this country human
nature has had fair play. 1t has been free
to develop in all directions without re.
straint, and notwithstanding this absence
of coercion or external pressure, its devel.
opment has been on the same general lines
as those followed in older countries. The
growth of commerce, of industry, of social
organization generally, has produced here
almost precisely the same results as those
which, century ago, were commonly
ascribed to the influence of Government
and caste. There is a significance in this
fact which must not be passed over. 1t
appears to indicate that despite all theory,
the lines upon which human society de-
velops naturally when unrestrained, are the
only the lines upon which it can develop.
And if this be true-and it receives
strong support from physical SCIENCE
follows that all the socialistic and COM
munistic and cooperative systems, how.
ever plausible they may be, however philo-
sophical, cannot become established prac.
tically For three thousand years at least
mankind has been wrestling with the
problem of poverty. The philosophers of
ancient Greece had before them the very
same questions which are being discussed
to- day. During all that time there has
been constant succession of experiments
Again and again societies have been wrecked
in order to reorganize them, but the result
has invariably been the same. As soon
as the disturbing agencies were removed,
and the social molecules were left free to
arrange themselves again, they began to fall
into the original forms, and to follow the
old processes. No other conclusion can
be drawn from these facts than that the
natural arrangementof all civilized and even
most half. civilized communities is the only
arrangement compatible with the securing
of the greatest amount of good with the
smallest amount of friction. Society, when
left to itself. puraues the lines of least resist
ance, that is to say, and no society has
ever yet been able to establish itself stably
upon any other lines than those which to-
day underlis all social organization. II
this is true, then the success of co.opera.
ton must be regarded as hopeless, at leas!
in the present stage of the worlds pro.
gress. If it is not true, it is a suggestion
which appears to deserve candid considera'
ton at the hands Of thinking men.
.....z.......
SOME WAYS ARE GOOD WAYS