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Show CO-OPERATION IS NOT NEW Champions of Movement Are Inclined to Go Too Far, Says Delegate to Kansas State Convention. At the last annual meeting of the Kansas state board of agriculture tbe question of agrlcu'tural cooperation was discussed at length. One delegate, dele-gate, .Mr. Edwin Snyder, called attention atten-tion to the tendency of those who champion co-operative increments tc go too far and thereby Injure their own cause. Among otliet things Mr Snyder ssys: "Co-operation Is no i,ew matter More than 75 years ago a dozen poor weavers met In a poor V. a in Koch dale, England, to devise fc'Jtne means to better their condition. After discussing dis-cussing several matters, strikes and the like, they concluded t at If they couldn't make arrangemet Is to gel better wages they ought u try to do something to make what they received go further, and they orr.aoli at once Into a society. Of cou se, a good many scoffed, but they went ahead They were to pay Into tfcu common fund 20 pence per week, and only a few wi able to do It iiat time, and It took a year to rcl-- a capital ; stock or $Ht) with whlcrt to beKlu business. They rented a room, bought orly such goods as were absolutely needed by their families, sold for cash ot.ly, and at first opened the store only at night. That society has been going for over "5 years. It has spread all over England. They buy their wheat by the cargo, to be ground in their own mills for their own members. mem-bers. They buy refrigerated meat mutton and beef from Australia and the I'nlted States In cargoes, to be sold at their butcher shop. It has been extremely prosperous. I have no doubt that each one of the members of this society Is far better off person ally because he learned to save some thing and to do business. That Is what we need In this country cooperation co-operation among the farmers. We" must have it, and It la not a difficult matter. Of course, during the Farmers' Farm-ers' Alliance agitatloi, 25 years ago, we started a great many co-operative stores. Moat of them failed through mismanagement and the credit sye-'. tem. Cash payment is the essence of j successful co operation, and we can- j not have It without. Of course, when j we started out In the alliance we were J going to reform tho whole universe, j We cannot do that 1 believe that If the farmers will study co-operation It : will be found immensely to their ad ) vantage." ' Those who expect the principle of! cooperation to work out in this country coun-try on the same scale that it is operated oper-ated in Europe will be disappointed, , says the Iowa Homestead. lu the first place we have in every agricultural agricul-tural community so many different i nationalities of people to deal with j that a new difficulty is encountered j and, while tbette people are all good Americans, they look on matters of j this kind from a radically different i viewpoint. Co-operation In the end 1 will succeed best if In the beginning j it Is applied to simple matters A good example of this Is found In cer- j tain neighborhoods w here a number of j men engage la breeding the same class of stock. In tbls case they have j tbe advantage of many economies both In the buying and selling of their stock, In tho use of males. In addition ' to the natural advantage that results from friendly rivalry. It is a desirable desir-able form of co-operation when men subscribe themselves to pay the expenses ex-penses of a county expert in order " that they may be sensibly advised and wisely guided by one in whose Judgment they have absolute confidence. confi-dence. These are the less complex types of co-operative movements and the success that they are meeting w ith indicates that our people can take advantage ad-vantage of this Important principle when it is sensibly applied to their own affairs. |