Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1908-01-21
NEED CO. OPERATION
ESSENTIAL TO SUCCESS IN ak
BUSINESS UNDERTAKINGS.
ON SOME LATE IMPOSITIONs
Schemes Devised to Deceive the Pecs
pie and to Gain Support for Un-
sound Financial Propo-
sitions.

Harmonious cooperation is essen
tial in any successful business. By
co-operation is not meant such orga-
nization as the communistic and mon
astic societies found in parts OF the
European countries, and occasionally
existing in America. AS corporations
relates to manufacture and CONNER
cialism, 1t simply means a righteous
regard on part of employer and the
employed for the liberty and privib
eye Of both 1t means of the laborer,
just days work for a just days
compensation; and for the employer,
services rendered for the wages h0
must pay. Interests of both are paraI-
lei. One has his capital invested
money employed and the other has al
so his capital represented by his abiI-
ity to labor either in mental or
physical capacity
In England and in parts OF Ger
many, there are numerous societies,
the workers in each being common
stockholders and participating in all
profits according to their holdings.
In fact these societies are nothing
more than the great railroad com
panies and industrial concerns OF
America, only that in the latter the
stockholders seldom take an active
part in the work performed. One who
takes the care to study into condt-
tions in the countries where this
form of cooperation exists, will find
environments far different from what
obtains in the United States. In vart-
Gus places and at different times at
tempts to copy after the English CO.
operative societies have been made In
the United States. Failure has re-
warded the efforts made. Some few
communities fourished for a time,
then decayed.
Propped up by the success of the
few successful organizations in tho
old country, shrewd schemers have
started different commercial enter
prises in cities Of the United States,
supposed to be operated upon the CO.
operative plan. When carefully stud
led, and the plans of the promoters
dissected it will be found that CO.
operation in these cases seems simp-
ly the getting into business on other
peoples money, and weaving around
the enterprise such appearances as
leads the unsophisticated 10 believe
that from few dollars invested, great
savings can be made. In fact the
cooperative plan is more for the pur-
pose of advertising private business
proposition and gaining trade from
those who invest their dollars in the
plan.
It is a foolish thing for the resi-
dent of any town or farming commu-
nifty to invest money in such enter
prises, which means competition for
his home town, the killing off of its
business and the building up of con-
Germs in large cities. The earnest man
or woman can see in their own home
place splendid chances for co-opera-
ton. Established business systems
as found in the rural towns, are
splendid examples of what co-opera-
tion should be. The home merchant
supplies the residents of the place
with the commodities that they re-
quire; the merchant is the medium
of exchange of the products of the
farmer, In the transactions employ
ment is given to home labor, and the
little profits are kept at home for
the benefit of all in the community.
Cooperation can be simmered down
to a strictly home-trade principle, and
there can be no higher form, no sys-
tenn inaugurated that will bring bet
ter results to the masses. Before you
invest in cooperative mercantile
schemes devised by shrewd business
men in the large cities, study every
phase of the question well, and you
are likely to conclude that in your
own town there is plenty of room for
cn-nnnratiYa work