people who do the work in the factory are hired and have no more to say about the management than they would have if the factory were owned by an ordinary joint-stock corporation. A coöperative shoe factory, of the class which we are now discussing, is merely an organization of consumers formed for the purpose of bargaining for its shoes more successfully than it could do otherwise. It finds that it can bargain directly with workingmen, tanneries, and others to better advantage than it can bargain with private owners of shoe factories.

It is particularly erroneous to speak of an army as though it were a coöperative body. It works under authority and compulsion rather than under a system of free contracting. Soldiers do whatever they are commanded to do and not whatever they see fit to bargain to do. Experience has shown that armies can succeed in no other way. It has shown also that industry can succeed on the basis of free contract, under which no one does anything until he sees fit to contract to do so. A little military experience will thoroughly convince our people that the distinction between compulsion and freedom is not the same as the distinction between coöperation and competition.

Coöperation in setting standards of consumption. There is always an acute need for a kind of coöperation that can stop competitive consumption. Unfortunately that need is not very widely understood. One reason why it costs us so much to live is that we are everlastingly trying to keep up with someone else. "It takes all my income," said a certain congressman, "to keep up with my fool neighbors." He was expressing in this picturesque manner one of the profound facts of our economic life. The things which cost us so much money are not the things which we prize for their own sakes, but the things which we feel that we must have because our neighbors have them. We are, each of us, trying to live up to a standard set by someone else. Rich and poor alike are afflicted by the same disease. The rich are doubtless more to blame than the poor, but the poor cannot escape all blame. If they would try to live

1 Compare also Mr. Irving Bacheller's book entitled "Keeping up with Lizzie.”

rationally and not try to keep pace with someone else a little richer than themselves, they would not find it so hard to make both ends meet. A little coöperation among themselves, in the way of setting their own standards of dress and fashion, would be a great help. If, likewise, the well-to-do would not try to imitate those still richer, they could be saved much worry and vexation of spirit. The individual finds himself almost helpless. "As well be out of the world as out of style" is a saying which pretty well sums up the situation so far as the individual is concerned. But a large group of people who would coöperate in the work of setting their own styles need not be either out of style or out of the world. Educated people who see the principle involved should take the lead. In so doing they would not only be doing themselves a favor but they would be conferring a priceless benefit upon the whole nation.

CHAPTER V

CONTROL OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES

Acquisitive activities. In the classification of acquisitive activities (p. 60) it was pointed out that there is a very important difference between economical and uneconomical methods of acquisition. It is highly important, therefore, from the standpoint of the nation's welfare that the uneconomical methods of acquisition shall be suppressed and the economical methods encouraged. Any individual who uses his time and strength in acquiring wealth uneconomically is not only going to waste himself, and therefore wasting the resources of the nation, but he is likely also to cause others to waste their time and energy in protecting themselves against him. This also is a loss to the nation. But if everyone can be induced to try to get what he wants by producing it or rendering a service to somebody else, then everyone will have a very strong motive for producing and serving. When everyone is doing his utmost to produce or to serve, the nation is very prosperous.

Methods of control. This consideration alone makes it necessary that there shall be some way of controlling the acquisitive activities of individuals. There are two somewhat widely different methods of controlling the individual. One is to control him by force, or at least the threat of force. Offering him full opportunity to enjoy the product of his own labor or the wages of his service means that others must be forcibly restrained from interfering with his enjoyment or depriving him of his possession. He, in turn, must be forcibly restrained from interfering with others who are trying to produce useful things, to render useful service, and to enjoy the fruits of their production or service. The agency which exercises this kind of control is called government.

The other method of controlling is to appeal to the good-will of the individual or to his desire for the good opinion of his neighbors. If he can be made to feel kindly disposed toward all his neighbors and fellow citizens, he is not likely to engage in any acquisitive activity which is harmful to them. Likewise, if he cares for their good opinion he will refrain from harming them in any way. If his own good-will is intelligently directed and if their good opinion and esteem are wisely exercised, he will have other encouragement to be useful to his neighbors and fellow citizens. This means that he will produce such things as they would like to have or render such services as they desire. However self-interested he may be he will prefer to prosper by these methods rather than by harmful methods. In short, he will prefer those acquisitive activities which we describe as economical in the diagram referred to and avoid those that are harmful.

In the diagram on page 60 there is a classification of methods of struggling for existence. The destructive and deceptive methods correspond to those acquisitive activities that are uneconomical and harmful. Productive methods of struggling for existence correspond to those acquisitive activities that are economical. The persuasive methods of struggling for existence are probably, on the whole, economical rather than uneconomical, though in many cases they probably overlap. So far as law and government, with their clumsy methods and reliance upon force, can control the methods of struggling for existence, they must draw the line in that diagram between deceptive methods on the one hand and persuasive methods on the other, forbidding all destructive and deceptive activities and permitting or encouraging the persuasive and productive. This is what is meant by suppressing violence and fraud and permitting discussion, persuasion, and argumentation as well as production. Morals and religion, however, may go a little further and discourage certain forms of persuasion which overlap somewhat on the field of uneconomical endeavor,—demagogy in politics, too clever and unscrupulous advertising and

salesmanship, and a good many other persuasive methods that shade off into deception. These are undoubtedly uneconomical and should be discouraged by any agency that can do so. It is difficult, however, for any agency using such a clumsy device as force to control individuals or to distinguish sharply between the uneconomical and the economical forms of persuasion and suppress the former without interfering with the latter. It is only when a method is clearly deceptive or fraudulent that the machinery of the law can deal with the case.

The need for law. Law and government have a most important part to perform in promoting the prosperity of the people. Bagehot1 has said that the first great need of primitive man is for law,—definite, concise law. He even argued that it is more important that the law be definite and concise than that it be just, though it is very important that it be both. It is probable that a system of laws which are well understood because they are clear and concise and which are regularly enforced without variation or favoritism, even though they are in some respects unjust, is better for a people than a system of laws which are in essence just, but which are not clearly understood and not regularly and impartially enforced; but of course it would be still better if they were both just, on the one hand, and clear, concise, and regularly enforced, on the other. When everyone knows definitely what the law is and knows definitely that it will be enforced not only against him but equally in his defense, he at least knows what he can count upon. Nothing so discourages industry and enterprise as uncertainty as to what other men are likely to do; and uncertainty as to the enforcement of law contributes to that uncertainty as to what other men are likely to do.

The problem as to what the government can do, through its laws and its administration, for the promotion of the economic prosperity of the people is of the very greatest importance. The specific aim should be to call out the very best and most productive efforts of every individual. Since the greatest re

1 Physics and Politics (fifth edition), p. 21. London, 1879.