Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1914-06-03
WHY COOPERATION SOMETIMES FAILS "

4. WHY CO.. PERATIO
Copenhagen, Denmark. - Coopera.
ton Is not foolproof, consequently 1t
i does not always succeed. Inexperi-
8ence, Incompetence, and dishonesty
4 viii wreck any private business and
they will. OF course, wreck any CO.
Il operative business. It is necessary
I therefore, for enthusiasts to@femem-
Der that there Is no mystic virtue In
cooperation which enables it to .trt-
umph at all times. Those OF us who
are trying to record what we have
seen of cooperative business at home
and In Europe would not be treating
the public fairly IL we left the i'm
preston that there are no failures
4 among cooperative enterprises. ~,
Both at home and abroad there have
been many failures. Certainly those
+ interested are entitled to know as
much about its failures as about Its
+ successes. They are entitled to know
also what causes have led to co-opera-
Il tive failure. 3 i y:-sS&
Failures In America.
Many cooperative stores organized
with much promise have failed. Gen
orally speaking gross incompetence
/ has wrecked them. They are like
other mercantile establishments in
4 that they demand, az q condition
precedent to success skilled manage
ment, good business methods, good ac-
counting, cautious extension Of credit,
4 Rs well as some special knowledge OF
the goods dealt in. II these qualities,
are absent failure Is inevitable. AS
\ the average cooperative store in
America is organized Its members are
4 seldom bound by any agreement to
do all their trading at the cooperative
i concern. They patronize 1t when 1t is
6 to their interest SO to do. II the goods
offered are poor. or II bad manage
ment advances the price unduly, or II
frequent minor mistakes occur, the
members abandon the venture like q
! sinking ship. M $iSs$5. 55SsgE
st&2S As * have said. coz operative stores
In order to succeed must have skilled
management, good business methods.
good accounting systems, and must ex-s
tend credit cautiously, all In addition
to the special knowledge essential in
every such enterprise. So far as can
discover. however, the stores which
have failed have not only lacked one
or two OF these essentials Of success
!: but they seem often to have lacked all
OF them. More than once it has hap
pened that q cooperative store COM
@pany is formed because some store
keeper has lost al his money in an
/ unsuccessful mercantile venture and
can secure capital for q new venture
only In this way. Sometimes an 3am-
bilious farmer has organized q COM:
pany In order that, q son who has been
away to business college and feels
above farming may have a chance to-
earn ! living without working u)on
the farm. It is characteristic also Of
cooperative American storesand Of
other cooperative concerns in Ameri-
ca also that they have seldom been
willing to pay a salary sufficient to-
secure men OF experience and skill az
managers. 1s$ 5sEst
When cooperative store managed
by man who has a history. OF moth
B ing but business failures behind him.;
or by a youthful and inexperienced
4 business college graduate, or by any.
other man OF the low grade implied in
+ the low salaries paid, comes into com
petition with a competent, up-to date,
American storekeeper Of the aggres-
isive vigorous type often found In even
the smaller towns, the mere word "co-
operative upon the sign in front OF
the store is not going to avert failure.
1T isn't fair to expect too much Of CO
operation. 81 Oh 3s.s@3 II.
Cooperative Fruit Failures. ..s us
Seldom, too, have so-called fAmeri-
can cooperative companies been CO
operative in the true sense of the
word. have in mind one cooperative
fruit marketing society which failed
largely because it was organized on
the Joint stock basis and administered
as are other homeopathic corpora
lions. "a few Of the larger sharehold.
era controlled 1t. The interests OF the
IAAAAAOAASy WOA0 ASAOA COs AAOyAbSNoAA0
Jealous and suspicious and accused
those In control OF dishonesty. Finally
they demanded that the officers give
& full report OF all their financial
transactions and that an auditing com
mittee be appointed, The officers fool
sishly and arbitrarily refused to con-,
cede even an audit unless they them
selves selected the committee. Then
these smaller storekeepers demanded
that the one man vote principle be
applied SO that for the future they
might protect their own interests.
This also was denied them. The only
course possible seemed to be q separa-
ton and the smaller stockholders
withdrew, the larger stockholders
buying out those who did not care to
stay in the concern. While this socie-
II did not fall from a financial stand
point, its record is q course to be