The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1898-09-25
COOPERATION

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tried in Great Britain more extensively.
perhaps, than In the United States. The
growth of the system over there, since
1866, Is encouraging. In late issue OF
the Nineteenth Century Lord Brassey
gives statistics showing that from 1865
to 1894 the number Of cooperative So
cieties in England had doubled, and the
membership had Increased from 100000
to 1000, OOO From s5,00O,0OO the capital
stock had gone up to $75,oOO,0o0; the an
nual trade from $15,OO0,O 900 to $3.50, 000,0 900,
and the profits from $3.50, 900 to s25,o00,-
900 year.
The manufacturing industries, espe-
cially that of cotton fabrics, gave the
most satisfactory results. The Burnley
Self-Help Cotton Manufacturing soci-
ETY. is cited in illustration of the work
ing of the system. The management
of this concern is vested in a commit
tee elected by the work people, who
number three hundred and twenty. all
contributing to the capital and sharing,
pro rata in the profits of their labor.
The trade Of this single institution, in
1895, aggregated sSO5OOO and the profits
$4,000, the share capital being nearly
SIC, 900.
1t seems that the cooperative system
does not work to advantage In matters
agricultural in the United Kingdom.
The reason given for this is interesting,
if not instructive, and upsets the old
fashioned idea In respect to the quality
and amount of brain work necessary to
run a farm. Lord Brassey takes the
common sense view Of the matter, that
agriculture can only flourish under
skilled management. The farmer. we
are told, to be successful. should be a
Judge of stock, a chemist, a mechanic,
a veterinary surgeon and an accountant.
This combination OF. talent is not easily
found in England, hence the experiment
of cooperative farming in that country,
upon the whole, has been failure. The
most sanguine friends of the enterprise
admit that a wider spread Of education
and a larger capacity for taking In new
ideas must come to the rural population
before cooperative farming can be made
to pay in the tight little island.
Singularly enough, 1t Is said that an
exception must be made in favor Of Ire
land, where branch of the farming in
dustry-co-operative dairies-is paying
handsome dividends. The sales of the
products of this Irish enterprise have
already reached the considerable total
of 1,40O, O00
Lord Brassey entertains high hopes
that the labor question will largely find
its true solution in cooperation. 1t
has already been shown, he says, that
cooperative societies would be of spe-
cial advantage in fixing a gauge or
standard of wages for the whole body
of workmen: and he pertinently adds:
Organization has given the workers
more confidence in their own strength.
Educa tion has created stronger de-
sire to know reasons and to judge in
dependently of the fitness of things.
Every consideration points to the de-
STABILITY of frequent and friendly
conferences between employers and
employed. They are in harmony with
the liberal sentiments and tendency of
the present age. They have never
been known to fail. and we may con-
fidently rely on their efficacy in the
future as a safeguard and protection
from the miseries of industrial war