Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 August 1894 — CO-OPERATION. [ARTICLE]

CO-OPERATION.

Hie science of co-operation is well inderstood by all managers of great nonopolies and corporations. It is oy a practical application of this knowledge that they succeed in their vast undertakings. By combining the productive capacity of a large lumber of men in any given line of industry and securing even a very small margin ot profit from the efforts of each individual astonishing results are arrived at. A gefiius for this is what«constitutes a suc?essful business man, and the Jack of it is what keeps the toiler bound to his daily task. Laboring men are prone to inveigh against the enormous gains of monopoly, and in many cases their complaints are just. Yet they generally overlook the plain fact that the same route is ppen to them by which theiremploy?rs have mounted to such heights of what they deem desirable suefiesk. In ai large majority of cases monopflists have only availed themselves pf existing conditions. All men :an not hope to become monopolists, jut the reasons for their failure to

attain the supreme heights lie within themselves—spring from their own failures to observe the laws of success—coupled, indeed, in many cases with ill luck, bad health and a few minor drawbacks that only prove the general rule. For instance, a case has been reported from a rural district where the entire neighborhood sent off $1 each to New York for a recipe to kill potato bugs without poison. The people all received their recipes promptly, and they all read: “Kill them with a club.” An indignation meeting was held and legal advice was taken, but the irate agriculturists were told that they had no redress, as "potato bugs could undoubtedly be killed with a club without the use of poison. The farmers were alone to blame for failure to co-operate. Had they chipped in five and ten cents apiece tion for $1 instead of S4O or SSO. Lack of co-operation led to aggravation and loss. So it will prove in a majority of cases. Farmers generally should heed the lesson. If a smooth tongued stranger appears in your neighborhood with a new scheme of any kind that appears to offer gilt-edged inducements and glowing prospects of phenomenal profit and advantage—investigate on the co-operative plan. Don’t all bite at once. If it is a good thing you will have plenty of opportunities to invest after you have proved its merit. If it is a swindle you will only lose a small amount —one small shard in the co-operative venture.