ement in profit-making.

The chief difficulties, however, with cooeperative production grow from the
want of confidence of the multitude of shareholders in their managers. Few
kinds of business can be carried on successfully under a body of absolute
rules, and fewer still will bear the delays and hesitation required for a
general consultation of many authorities. The comparatively few instances
of genuine success in cooeperative production are due, in the first place,
to the comparative simplicity of the undertaking; and, in the second
place, to the genius of some organizer, who has been willing to contribute
his superior abilities for the sake of the enterprise itself rather than
the compensation.

A few principles may be fairly drawn from the general experience. First,
all shareholders must be actual workers, in some way responsible for a
part of the production. Second, the influence of each shareholder must in
some way be held in direct ratio to his share in the production. Third,
the system of accounts must be such as all can fairly understand. Fourth,
the management must be entrusted to a chosen few, whose interests are
chiefly in the business itself, whose character secures the confidence of
all, and whose administrative ability is not too much hampered by rules.

The opportunity for cooeperative industry is nowhere greater than in a
community of farmers. Butter and cheese factories, cold storage plants and
milk stations invite the cooeperation of interested farmers upon the
simplest possible basis of agreement. The multiplication of such
enterprises is desirable, and the farmers of every community may
profitably study the conditions of success. The greatest obstacle
heretofore, has been the want of competent management, and the distrust
aroused and maintained by the inefficiency and fraud of managers. It is
possible, too, that farmers generally do not recognize the actual
importance of executive abilities, and are unwilling to pay the salary
actually earned by a thoroughly competent man.

_Legal restrictions as to labor._--It is natural for those who suffer in
the struggle for better wages to seek the support of law in restrictions
upon contracts as to wages, hours of employment and conditions of comfort.
The principle that governments must protect the weak against the strong in
any community is a thoroughly established one. Yet its applications are
subject to continual readjustment. Multitudes of experiments h