The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1889-03-21
COOPERATION.

direct channel to the success OF any
enterprise in any community OF
people is that of cooperation upon
the part of the people. And by CO.
operation we do not mean mere
friendly working together in one
particular instance, but we mean the
exercise and cultivation of kindly,
sympathetic and mutual regard to-
wards one another.
The absence of this is the great
draw back Of the present. There is
manifest disposition, observable
almost everywhere, upon the part Of
each individual of II community to
get unto himself and for him and
his, all that is possible without re-
gard as to how the getting may eff
feet others. In other words, there
is discernahle in the action of indi-
viduals this language, 81 will, by
every advantage in any form pre-
sented, get all can, and my friends.
my neighbors and those who help
to sustain my business, may go to
the 'demnitiOn, bow vows. This
disposition is foreign to the spirit of
cooperation, and has beyond doubt,
worked great detriment to our peo-
pie generally. When one individual
is under burden and struggling to
maintain himself and those depend
ent upon him, there comes to him
no leniency in the spirit of co-opera-
ton, but on the contrary, his credi-
tors play kind of grab game at
whatever effects he may have, sub
! ject to the demands against him.
And in this way the goose that lays
the golden egg is often slain.
Ills true that all the individuals
in community, whether in town or
country, cannot be participants in
an individual or associative enter
prise, but by mutual cooperation of
effort and harmony OF sentiment, all
can be aiders and abettors of the
same, and can be helpful in pushing
an enterprise to success.
In short, the spirit of cooperation
tends to bring about cohesion among
the people and a qualification of
sentiment in common cause, and
greatly tends to drive out that self
ish, grasping spirit that leads, for
instance, one to pull down his neigh
Dor and hinder his success, that he
m1' perchance, advance his own
individual interest.
No community Of people dominat-
ed by that selfish spirit that is ever
seeking individual gain regardless
of the well being of others, can ever
become strong in harmonious senti-
ment, or progressive in spirit. On
the contrary that people, who are
cooperative in sentiment, in effort,
in sympathy, in good will, the one
for another, will engender among
themselves a spirit of progress and
will bring prosperity and success to
their labors.
If an individual, or an association
of individuals, possessed with pub
lie spirit, establishes any new enter
prise in a community, that contains
within itself the premise of good
results, it is not only policy, but is
wisdom itself, for each individual OF
that community to encourage and
foster that enterprise by kind words,
by evidences OF good will, and to
endeavor by all the means at their
command to push the same to sue
cess. This grows out of the fact that
each individual of community is
part of the whole, and whatever
, benefits part, benefits the whole.
Now We do not mean by cooper
alton special material, or pecuni-
airy aid, but we do mean, that as a
people, laboring in a common cause,
we should extend to each other,
manifestations Of sympathy, kind
words and moral support, and when
one is struggling under adverse cir
cumstances, extend to that one u
helping hand ms sead of the hand of
oppression.
This is the kind of cooperation
we would be glad to see practiced
all over this land; for when such a