portant problems before us at this time. The problems before this Congress are certainly most important and have to do with the people of today and of the future. We are to have in this city within a few weeks another convention not pertaining to the conservation of the soil or water, or the forest, but to a conservation that has to do with men, and I am wondering whether or not this audience is going to place more stress upon the problems that are involved in this Congress, or the problems that are involved in the one to be held a few weeks hence. That problem has to do with men and religion, and in my judgment no problem on the face of the earth will have more to do with the conservation of all the problems of life, this man and religion forward. movement, and I trust that the men and women- (applause) I only have five minutes, don't disturb me-and I trust that the men and women involved in these problems will see to it that these teams which commence the first of October and continue throughout the winter until May of next year are supported with their means and with their presence. The gentleman who just took his seat stated that he would like to preach a sermon on what the preacher ought to do with reference to the child life. I would like to have each of you assembled here this morning ask yourself the question, and answer it if you please, what are you doing in your own home. What are you doing, what is the example that you are setting your children? Sunday morning I imagine the large majority of you, instead of going to the Sunday School and setting an example to your children in order that they may follow out the life this gentlemen speaks of that you ought to live, are remaining at home and reading your newspapers. Bear in mind, my dear friends, fathers and mothers, the school teacher or preacher cannot do that which you ought to do for yourselves. And I want to speak this word on behalf the preachers of our land: when they stand up in the pulpit, when they beseech us to do the things we ought to do, and then we fail to rally to their support, ought we to censure them? Ought we rather not engage with him arm in arm in this great conflict, that has to do with the elevation of mankind, rather than stand aloof and say we want to preach to the preachers? I want you to ask yourselves that question, whether or not you stand arm in arm with your preachers, and carry on that conflict that has to do with the uplift of mankind all over the world. How much time have I got? I cannot take the time to talk about the other problems which I had in mind, connected with the timber interests of this country. But I want to say this to you, that the forests of this country ought to be taken care of better than they are. The reason why the forests are not being conserved better than they are is because of the extremely low price of lumber compelling us who manufacture lumber to leave twenty per cent of the trees in the woods because we cannot get price enough out of it to pay for the labor to produce it, and the transportation, to say nothing about the logs. And so long as we have intense legislation, leading almost to persecution

against the interests, even getting together and talking over the problems pertaining to their industry, so long will the price of lumber be so low as to prevent us from bringing in at least twenty per cent of these trees, thereby prolonging our forests to an almost indefinite period.

President WALLACE-We will now have an address by the Hon. W. A. Beard of Sacramento, California. I have asked him to prepare an address on the subject of "Coöperation," one of the most important subjects that can secure our attention. He will speak a half hour and

no more.

Mr. BEARD-Coöperation, as your chairman has said, is a very hard term. It is so hard that I have found it difficult to determine the particular phase of the subject which should be presented for your consideration. I believe I was expected to talk on coöperation among farmers, but upon careful consideration I was impressed with the fact that coöperation among farmers is fundamentally the same thing as among persons engaged in any other pursuit.

It has seemed to me that what should come out of this Congress is not an exhortation, addressed either to farmers or to any other class. of citizens, but a careful and complete statement of the facts—a review of the progress made in coöperative development and a discussion of the principles underlying successful coöperation. I shall speak, therefore, of this movement.

I refer, of course, to coöperation in business. By this term, I mean the growth of coöperative societies in which individuals are associated for mutual benefits and mutual profit. The ideal society is one in which the benefits and profits are distributed equitably among the members in proportion to their respective interests.

Coöperation is little understood by the great majority of our citizens; the full measure of its possibilities is comprehended by comparatively few. Because there have been many and conspicuous failures, and because abuses have marked the administration of some so-called coöperative societies, the average citizen is disposed to regard coöperation as an impractical dream, and in consequence, the really excellent progress is being made in the face of distrust that should be removed.

A knowledge of the facts will dispel this impression. Coöperation is a demonstrated success. The movement is a world movement. Cooperative societies are doing business successfully in every civilized country on earth. In this country they are doing business in almost every state. Everywhere the coöperative society, properly conducted, contributes to the material welfare of its members; in most places it is an important factor in social and moral advancement.

The modern coöperative movement commenced less than a century ago and began to assume importance about 1840. The earliest beginnings of coöperative business enterprises as we know them were the establish

ment of a little store at Rochdale, England, in 1844, and the founding of a coöperative credit society in Germany in 1849. The pioneer in agricultural coöperation was the rural credit society of Germany, the first of which was organized in 1862.

I mention these dates because they were the starting points from which has grown, in the comparatively brief period of sixty-five years, a vast web of coöperative enterprises encircling the earth.

SMALL BEGINNINGS LEAD TO LARGE SUCCESSES.

Each of the movements began in the smallest way. The German credit societies, both rural and urban, were founded for the purpose of providing credit to men who had no security to offer beyond their collective honesty, industry and business ability. The purpose was to help the very poor, and the success attained is attested by the comparative prosperity of German artisans and farmers, and by the present vast extent of the cooperative banking system. The Rochdale society was organized by ten poor weavers with a cash capital of twenty-eight pounds sterling, and from it has grown the great system of coöperative distribution of Great Britain.

THE COOPERATIVE BANKs of Europe.

The coöperative credit society, or bank, is the most common form of coöperation on the continent of Europe. Following the success of the system in Germany, it has been introduced, in varying forms and with varying degrees of success, in nearly all of the countries of continental Europe, rural banks usually preponderating in numbers and in importace. There are coöperative rural banks in Italy, France, Russia, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, Austria and the Balkan states, also in Ireland, India and Japan. They have been introduced into Canada, and one such bank has recently been established in the United States.

Mr. Henry W. Wolff, in "People's Banks," says, "The year 1849 saw opened two vastly different roads to wealth-the California gold fields and the principles of coöperative banking."

The advantages of the coöperative bank lie in the fact that it is operated in the interest of the borrowers and its sole purpose is to provide cheap credit. The members are the managers, the borrowers and the recipients of the profits.

It is estimated by competent authority that there are forty thousand of these banks in existence, with a total of more than three million members and assets worth more than a billion dollars.

In Germany more than one-half of the independent agriculturists are members of these banks.

Altogether there are 24,000 coöperative agricultural societies in Germany, of which about eighty per cent are federated in one great organization, and all of which are closely associated with the rural coöperative banks to which they owe their origin.

THE ROCHDALE SOCIETY OF ENGLAND.

The society formed at Rochdale, England, was wholly different from the credit organizations of Germany, which it preceded. Its purpose was not to provide credit, but to furnish the necessaries of life at low cost. Unlike the German societies, which were started by philanthropists for the benefit of the poor, the Rochdale society was started by the poor themselves. The mite of capital employed at the outset was secured by saving of two pence weekly from a starvation wage. Even this small saving meant sacrifice to the Rochdale pioneers, but it paid, for out of it has grown a great system that provides the British workman of today with all he requires at wholesale and manufacturer's prices.

LARGEST BUSINESS IN THE WORLD.

The Coöperative Wholesale Societies Limited, of London, England, is said to be the largest business concern in the world. In 1908 it did a business of 570 million dollars. It is the central federation of the coöperative retail associations, one of which is in almost every village and town in England. It is a producer, manufacturer and shipper, as well as merchant. It owns plantations in various parts of the world; it sails its own ships; its chain of purchasing depots encircles the globe; it manufactures almost every article of household use and supplies the wants of more than eight million people. It is purely coöperative, all of its profits being distributed among the consumers in proportion to their purchases.

We of America pride ourselves on the giant enterprises on this side. of the Atlantic. Even while we condemn the systems which have made them possible, we marvel at the genius of the captains of industry and finance who have built them. Yet here is a concern, said to do a business four times greater than the Steel Trust, which is without a captain of industry, a great financier or a merchant prince. It is a product of a system, one of the best features of which is that it does not concentrate great wealth in the hands of a few.

WHERE COOPERATION IS A NATIONAL TRAIT.

Agricultural coöperation finds its most complete development in Denmark. Almost every Danish farmer is a member of one or more coöperative societies. Coöperation is almost a national trait. So general is the use of coöperative methods in Denmark that some one has said when a Dane wishes to buy or sell anything his first impulse is to form a society to do it.

Yet coöperation is of comparatively recent growth in Denmark. There have been coöperative stores since 1866, but it was not until 1881 that the first coöperative dairy was established, while bacon curing and egg societies date from 1887 and 1895, respectively.

There are more than a thousand coöperative dairies in Denmark; there are five hundred egg societies, and numerous other coöperative producing and selling price associations. Eighty-three per cent of the cows milked in 1909 were in coöperative dairies; 66 per cent of the bacon was cured in cooperative factories.

The cooperative societies are thoroughly organized into federations, and the whole business of production and sale is systematized. The federations exercise the closest supervision over production. High standards of excellence are required and long lists of rules are rigidly enforced. A bad egg is occasion for a fine in a Danish egg societyand there are no bad eggs in Denmark.

In the twenty-five years from 1881 to 1906, Danish exports increased from $11,840,000 to $77,800,000. Behind these figures is a story of a nation's progress from poverty to prosperity, a progress in which cooperation has been the principal and dominating factor.

THE COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLE AMPLY DEMONSTRATED.

To tell, even in merest outline, of the successful coöperative movements of Europe would require more time than is at my disposal. I have cited these because they are the most conspicuous and far-reaching, and because they afford three wholly separate and distinct and entirely different demonstrations of the correctness of the coöperative principle. Coöperation in Europe has been in most cases the resort of dire necessity. It does not follow, however, that coöperation can be successful only under circumstances of poverty and want. If it will raise men from poverty to a competence, it will add to the prosperity of the already prosperous.

RISE OF COOPERATION IN AMERICA.

The cooperative movement in this country began to assume importance about 1850. Prior to this time there had been many associations for the advancement of various interests, but these were, as a rule, educational in purpose. Real progress in business coöperation began after the close of the Civil War, and may best be described as a series of great movements in which the farmers were usually the principal actors. These culminated in the Grange movement of the early seventies in which millions of farmers, united in a great national society, undertook to revolutionize the existing economic system by taking over to themselves the functions of middleman, merchant, baker and manufacturer, and to form a great agricultural trust that would dictate the price of farm products and combat growing railroad and other monopolies.

THE GREATEST REVOLT IN HISTORY.

This was probably the greatest revolt of farmers in the history of the world. It is simply astounding to read of the enterprises, colossal