The Co-Operative Movement

Abstract

If I may be pardoned for beginning this paper on a personal note, I should like to say that anything I write must be regarded as coming from one who has, for thirty years and more, followed the co-operative movement in both England and Canada with a deep and sympathetic interest. I am a convinced and enthusiastic believer both in the theory and practice of co-operation; in it I see everything that is good and useful to the individual and to society, and nothing that is harmful. I have no serious criticism to offer of the movement, only unqualified commendation. Such is my confession of faith in co-operation.I am afraid I am likely to disappoint a good many who hope to learn something about co-operation and its future, because to tell the honest truth that is exactly my own case. I want to hear about its future myself; I want to hear what others, better qualified than myself, have to say. My paper will therefore be in the form of a series of questions to which I so far have found no definite answers; questions which I feel very strongly ought to be answered, if they are capable of it, of which I am a trifle dubious.