The Llano colonist. [volume] (Llano, Calif.) 191?-1937, 1922-12-02
THE ESSENTIAL THING

business organization.
II cannot be too often or too strong
" emphasized that the whole future Of
the consumers cooperative movement
depends upon the excellence of its &C.
onomic organization Fine words but
ter no parsnips; and cooperative
ideals have no saving power when di-
vorced from economic efficiency. III
timately, as all wise economists per-
ceive, the cooperative movement. de-
mocracy itself. must fail as method
of social organization and government,
Iif it cannot deliver goods to the con-
Stunning public more cheapIy than they
can be supplied by competitive traders
land capitalists. Unless the co-opera-
tive method Of organizing demand and
supply, production, distribution, and
exchange is in fact more economical
than other ways Of organizing business
consumers cooperation has no surviv-
al value and must eventually be SUI
pe-seded by more perfert system.
/ This plain truth is often forgotten
by many cooperative propagandists.
They. like other good co-operators, are
/ apt to assume that the cooperative
movement must spread and succeed in
capturing the market simply because its
basic principles agree with the Great
Principles and satisfy the Eternal Laws
that govern human progress. This as
sumption is an utterly unreasonable
one. There is no justification what
ever for the prevalent belief that the
cooperative movement must succeed
because it is cooperative movement
becauseit is cooperative movement.
An inefficient cooperative movement
will perish and pass away like any 9TH
er inefficient human institution. The
one essential condition of democratic
progress is that democracy shall in
practice prove itself superior to the sys-
tef of trade and industry which it is
seeking to replace.
What Mr.. Benjamin Kidd, the chief
sociologist who has shaped and mould
ed progressive thought in recent years,
asserts, is perfectly true. Addressing
himself to this subject of efficiency, he
says:
1T is not the opinions of men, how
ever earnest, which can give any type
Of society permanent place in the
world. We may hold any convictions
about our Utopias, and we may con-
vince others as to the expediency of
our views; but there is one condition
alone upon which any institutions can
ultimately prevail. They have to win
out in the stern stress of the world
soleIv in respect of one quality-their
efficiency. They must have the COM
peling merit of being efficient when
compared with Others" That clear
statement of economic truth is the final
answer of the cooperative economist
to the cooperative sentimentalist.-
The Cooperative Official.
Co-operators in England, too, make
the following significant admission that
it will be we'll for the pure and simple
Rochdalians in America to heed: ''In
so far as cooperative societies act as
the distributors of capitalist goods,
they are helping and upholding big
business and putting themselves in its
power. Only through its own produc-
ton can cooperation supersede the
competitive system"
Facts beat mere theories all hollow.
Cooperation does not exist unless
there are people willing to cooperate
The spread of its dominance depend:
entirely upon the intensity with which
its disciples do cooperate. Even friend
ship must be demonstrative if it is to
win friendship in return. The good
things Of life do not come because we
desire them: we have to work fol
them.-The Cooperative Official.
1T is because co-operators generally
do not yet recognize that efficiency in
business is the essential thing. When
all understand that no economic sys.
TEN can endure except by virtue of it;
inherent economic superiority. there
will be great changes in the structure
and administration of cooperative so.
cieties. Greater use will then be made
of statistical information; greater at
tention will be given to the details Of
shop and office organization; greater
efforts will be made to eliminate waste
of all kinds. For it is always the con.
sumner who has to pay for every BIZ
Of waste. whether it is waste in the
boardroom, the office. the factory, the