The recreational and educational buildings are paid for and managed by the people. Consequently the people get what they want and make use of what they get. The coöperative buildings become the most complete social-centre houses in existence. Each building is a kind of club for men, women and children where they spend their leisure hours and become acquainted and neighborly.

Nor is this the whole benefit. It has been observed that coöperation has had a marked effect in the promotion of thrift and morals and temperance. The coöperator as a rule gets out of debt and begins to save. This increases his independence and self-respect. The closer association with his neighbors puts him more upon his good behavior. Many a hard drinking laborer has, under such influences, quit his evil habits and rescued his family from wretchedness. All this naturally leads to an increase of honesty and business integrity. Where there is a small rural coöperative credit society a person cannot borrow from it unless he has acquired a reputation for reliability. As a consequence a loan comes as a certificate of character, while the refusal of a loan may well lead the would-be borrower to serious reflection. As a result people come to care more for their reputation in their dealings with one another. Honesty comes to be an essential quality in business efficiency.

Another all-powerful influence of coöperation is found in the promotion of democracy. The coöperative movement is essentially democratic in origin. Success can be attained only by equality of opportunity, mutual consideration and fair treatment. This naturally promotes political efficiency also, because the education and the closer association found in coöperation lead each individual to realize his responsibility and to endeavor to use his voting power intelligently and wisely.

The effect in the promotion of Peace, Brotherhood, and Religion, is thus indicated in the report: “It was observed by members of the American Commission that in nearly all the European countries the great body of the coöperators, especially among the leaders, think of agricultural coöperation as a sort of social reform and in some cases almost as a religion. The admirable moral and social results are recognized everywhere. Not only has it taught illiterate men to read, made dissipated men sober, careless men thrifty, and dishonest men square, but it has made friends of neighbors who had been enemies, while estrangement among men on account of religious antipathies and the inheritance of ancient feuds have yielded to its influence and disappeared. It could scarcely be expected that a movement with such beneficial results could have been inaugurated and successfully furthered apart from close association with the Christian churches. In many of the coöperative enterprises the clergymen have played an important part. The sympathetic participation in and promotion of the coöperative movement on the part of the church is a logical and almost necessary result of the existence of a movement of such a character, since many of the ends for which the church is striving are effectually accomplished by coöperative institutions while these institutions, in their purposes and endeavors, necessarily command the sympathy and allegiance of every sincere and disinterested churchman.”

It would be well if an exhaustive report of this kind could be made upon the social effects of rural coöperation in the United States. We know that the coöperative movement has made some progress in this country, but in comparatively few localities has it assumed the comprehensiveness and thoroughness which has characterized it in Denmark and Germany. Coöperative movements are not unknown to the cities, but in a business way there is far more need for them in the rural districts, for the population of those districts is more scattered and the farmer, when working alone, is more helpless in the face of combinations that may be formed against him. A great many instances have come to public knowledge where the farmer has received very inadequate prices for his products while the consumer in the cities has at the same time been compelled to pay prices which appear extortionate. Who has not heard of the farmers’ apples rotting on the ground because he could not afford to market them at the price offered, while the consumer has at the same time complained that his apples were costing him too much? This is at times true of a great many products. Farmers usually sell in competition with each other, at the wholesale price, and buy what they need at the retail price. Before the days of coöperation the Denmark farmer was as a rule wretchedly poor; but when he joined with his neighbors and they appointed a selling agent in London, who guaranteed quality of product, he began to obtain the best London prices, to secure cheaper transportation rates and also saved the commissions formerly paid to a number of middle men. His agents in London and other cities also bought goods for distribution among the coöperative farmers at wholesale prices.

In our middle western states the coöperative movement started first with coöperative creameries, many of which proved very successful. In some rural districts the farmers are organized and have provided warehouse facilities for storing their surplus products until a satisfactory market can be obtained, and have learned to sell and buy through their own agents. In such communities the farmers are thrifty and prosperous, and their social life and activities makes the country as desirable a place of residence, so far as that is concerned, as the neighboring cities—and in some respects much more so. There is no reason why the American farmers and rural dwellers cannot profit as largely by coöperation as the people of any part of Europe. The chief economic problem of any country is proper distribution of products and labor. With a proper distribution of labor there would not be the congestion that often makes the unemployment problem so serious in some districts, and there would not be the inequality of reward for industry that makes some too rich and the large masses too poor. The rural communities are the backbone of the nation’s prosperity. All the wealth comes primarily from the land.

THE MOBILIZATION OF PUBLIC OPINION

BY

JOHN EDWARD OSTER

At present the question that is most prominent before the world is that of peace. Almost everybody whom we meet has some opinion regarding this question which he is ready to express. How has this opinion been formed? It is certainly true that very, very few have thought carefully over this question, or have studied it in a fair unbiased manner. There are wide differences of opinion, and without the slightest doubt there are very good and legitimate reasons for these wide differences. They arise chiefly, perhaps, because of different local circumstances affecting educational conditions, or the conditions of influential classes of society, and a thousand and one other reasons, which may carry more or less weight.